1850. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
47 
ring. The work was, however, begun early, and con¬ 
tinued twice or three times a day. Yet the whole la¬ 
bor for 20 trees was not more than equal to the cost of 
paving one tree. Probably a combination- of this 
mode, with the employment of swine, would answer 
in nearly all instances. 
Freezing out the Curculio. —It is not unfro- 
quently recommended to invert the soil by spading, 
just before winter, to freeze out the dormant curcu- 
lios. The writer has pursued this course for several 
years past, with a number of plum and apricot trees 
{not, however, with any reference to the curculio,) 
without the slightest apparent effect on the opera¬ 
tions of these depredators. 
Wire Fence, 
Much has been said in the papers in favor of the 
cheapness and durability of wire fences. We fear 
that a few years’ trial will disappoint many who 
have erected them. If the wire is so light as to be 
afforded at less than two dollars per rod, heavy cat¬ 
tle will frequently snap it by accidentally plunging 
against it, if it is tightly stretched. If slack, its 
frequent swaying motion serves in the course of time 
to crack it off at the post, which tendency is great¬ 
ly increased by the vrater which lodges in the holes 
and gradually diminishes its strength by rusting. 
Hardiness of the Buckthorn. 
A hedge of three year old plants was set out last 
year, four hundred feet long. It was done quite 
late in the season, most of the trees having already 
made shoots four or five inches long. They were 
cut down to within two or 3 inches of the ground, 
and although the roots were not mudded, scarcely 
one in a hundred failed to grow. The dense mats 
of small fibres which constitute the roots of the 
buckthorn, are removed from the soil with very lit¬ 
tle loss, and contribute to success. 
The Curculio. 
Eds. Cultivator —In this section of the coun¬ 
try, for some time past, the plum crop has with but 
few exceptions, fallen a prey to the curculio or plum 
weevil; so much so at least that the fruit-growers 
in this neighborhood have become quite discouraged 
in attempting the cultivation of this valuable fruit, 
from the fact that their labor is lost, their expecta¬ 
tions blasted; and they have the mortification of 
seeing nearly all, or indeed, often, the whole crop 
fall from the trees w'hen half or tw'o-thirds growm. 
I have tried several remedies to preserve my plums 
from the ravages of this uncompromising foe of all 
smooth-stoned fruits, such as the use of salt, and 
gathering up the punctured fruit, &e., with but lit¬ 
tle success until this season. Having read in your 
valuable journal, The Cultivator , of June, 1848, on 
page 182, a plan for destroying the curculio, and 
preserving the fruit, which w r as the jarring dow T n of 
the insects on muslin, and so destroying them, I 
adopted the plan ; and having furnished myself with 
an umbrella eight feet in diameter, covered with 
white muslin, with an opening between the arms to 
areceive the trunk of the tree, and a mallet cushioned 
at the end to prevent its injuring the bark of the 
tree; as soon as the blossoms had fallen and left the 
newly formed fruit exposed, I commenced a vigor¬ 
ous attack upon the w r ily foe, which had already 
■commenced the w T ork of destruction, by jarring 
them dowm on the umbrella spread under the trees 
to receive them. This I repeated every day for 
tt-early two w'eeks, or as long as a curculio could be 
found, during which time I captured thousands of 
the foe; and the result w r as that I had the satisfac¬ 
tion of seeing my plum trees loaded w'ith an abun¬ 
dant crop of fine ripe fruit, wdiile those of my neigh¬ 
bors were nearly or quite destroyed, especially those 
of the choicer varieties, w r hich seem to be more sub¬ 
ject to the attacks of the curculio than those of 
less merit; and I believe any one w r ho wfill take the 
pains to try the above plan, w T ill find his labors 
crowmed w'ith success. R. H. Drake. Blooming - 
burgh, Sullivan Co., N. F., November 14, 1849. 
The Everbearing Raspberry. 
Eds. Cultivator —Your correspondent in The 
Cultivator for November, has not, I believe, culti¬ 
vated the Ohio Everbearing Raspberry sufficiently 
to judge of its bearing qualities, and the best soil 
for it. I have cultivated in my garden for 17years, 
this plant, in a rich, deep, porous soil, and the first 
crop is a very large one. But my soil is too dry for 
it during the summer and fall, and my vines bear 
sparsely the residue of the season. In the gardens 
of Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Ernst and others, in the vi¬ 
cinity of the city,where the soil is a natural one — 
rich, but not deep,—stiff, with a subsoil of clay,— 
they have an abundant supply till frost, and the 
fruit of the succeeding crops is much larger than 
the first. 
In New'ark, New Jersey, in the garden of my sis¬ 
ter, where the soil is poor, but stiff, the shoots do 
not grow T half the length that they do in my garden, 
yet the fruit is larger, and the crops four fold, com¬ 
pared wuth mine. A majority of persons at my ta¬ 
ble prefer it to the Antw r erp, when both are on the 
table. I prefer the Antwerp. It certainly belongs 
to the Black Cap family. Could it not be crossed 
with the Fastolff or Antwerp, and its everbearing 
character retained? 
I concur with your correspondent in opinion about 
the Alpine straw'berry. In some climates and soils 
it may succeed better than w'ith us. I believe this 
to be a distinct kind, and that from a cross with our 
scarlets, bearing seedlings cannot be produced. By 
the way, have your Eastern cultivators come to any 
settled opinion, about the absolute necessity of cul¬ 
tivating pistillate plants, where an abundant crop, 
or even half a crop is an object. Mr. Ernst informs 
me, that the present President of the Boston horti¬ 
cultural Society, is of opinion that in an average of 
years, he can raise as full crops from the hermaph¬ 
rodites alone, as where 11- 12th are pistillate. I 
know that the opinion of the late President was di¬ 
rectly the reverse of this. With us, not one of your 
hermaphrodites, will average one-fifth of a crop. 
I shall this fall, move all my Ohio Everbearing 
raspberries, to the gullies in the Garden of Eden, 
where the soil is thin and stiff; w r here the blackber¬ 
ry grows and bears much finer than in my garden, 
and an abundant crop through the season will be 
certain. N. Longworth. Cincinnati, 0., Nov. 
Large Apple Tree. —The Boston Traveller 
says a large apple tree at Duxbury, sixteen feet in 
circumference a foot or two above the ground, (5 ft. 
in diameter) and over a hundred years old, bore in 
one year fruit which made ten barrels of cider, in 
addition to thirty barrels of apples put into the cel¬ 
lar. 
Hedges for flooded Lands. —M. B. Bateham, 
of the Ohio Cultivator, states that a two-year-old 
osage orange hedge vras submerged a week without 
injury, w'here peach trees w r ere killed by the flood¬ 
ing. 
