1850. 
fHE CULTIVATOR. 
207 
on less mature than a twig that has flowered, should 
he chosen. D. T._ 
Leaf-blight in the Plum. 
Accident often teaches valuable lessons to the ob¬ 
serving. The following interesting fact is mention¬ 
ed by F. K. Phoenix, in the Prairie Farmer :—“I 
called on Mr. Truesdell of Elgin. The leaf-blight 
had troubled the plum trees last year for the first 
time. On one spot he showed me, they seemed won¬ 
derfully vigorous and healthy, while all about them 
were more or less stinted with the blight. On in¬ 
quiry I learned that in that place there was former¬ 
ly a cellar which had been filled up, and in the 
great depth of the soil, the roots had sustained 
themselves against the blight.” 
Expeditious Budding. 
The same writer says, “ The Messrs. Overmans 
(of Canton, Ill.) are the greatest “ live ” budders 
I ever saw, or I may say, ever heard of,—the two 
brothers having set, as I learned, 3250 buds in one 
day! The buds and stocks, however, were previ¬ 
ously prepared.” This was very good work, but 
there is a “ live budder” now in Western New- 
York, who set about half that number, or equal to 
one of those individuals, in a day, and prepared his 
own buds; and yet, budding must be a great deal 
easier in Central Illinois where trees grow so rapid¬ 
ly, than here, for our friend Phoenix says in the 
same article, “With apple trees it did not seem as 
if a bud could fail,—no matter whether the stocks 
were large or small, or the work nicely or coarsely 
done. In fact, after investigating the matter pret¬ 
ty closely, I became almost satisfied that it was 
enough barely to strip off a bud and fling it at a 
stock, to have it take!!” 
As a proof of the wonderful rapidity of the 
growth of apple trees in that region, it is stated 
that a very irregularly planted orchard was observed 
on one nurseryman’s grounds, and on inquiring the 
cause why they were planted in such disorder, it ap¬ 
peared that these trees were what they called culls, 
which were to be cleared off a year or two before, 
but had been neglected by the owner. Thus left, 
they had actually run away from him, having be¬ 
come orchard trees! Buds too, will make a good 
growth the same season they are set. No wonder 
that nurserymen there can afford to sell all kinds of 
trees at six cents a-piece, as we have seen adver¬ 
tised. 
The Peach Worm. 
Our readers will bear in mind, we hope, that all 
peach trees suffering from attacks of the peach 
worm, should be thoroughly examined and cleared 
of these intruders, before the end of the present, 
month. The exudation of gum at the surface of 
the ground, mixed with the pulverised bark, is a sure 
indication of their presence. The mode of dislodg¬ 
ing them is well described by a certain distinguished 
horticulturist in Downing’s Magazine, under the in¬ 
cog. of “Old Digger”— 
“ You can do this good turn for a peach tree in 
five minutes, by lifting the soil around it two or 
three inches deep, laying bare the stem just between 
wind and water, as the old sailors say. If all looks 
clean and smooth there, very well; replace the soil 
again. If, on the other hand, you see gum, then look 
out for the enemy. Scratch a moment with your 
knife where the gum oozes out, and you will get on 
his trail; cut into the bark till you find him— 
in the shape of a white grub, three-quarters of an 
inch long—and when found, ‘make no note of it,’ 
but settle his accounts as rapidly as you can. 
“ This grub comes from an egg laid in the bark, 
in summer, by the winged insect. Unless the crea¬ 
ture is wonderfully abundant, it contents itself with 
looking about for the tender bark at the surface of 
the ground. On this account, it is a good plan to 
outwit the rascal by heaping up a little cone or pile 
of wood ashes, tan or sand, say six inches high, 
around the trunk The sole object of this is to 
guard the soft place in the bark at the neck of the 
tree. On this account you must clear away the 
pile every fall, so as. to let the bark harden again. 
If you do not, but keep it there winter and summer, 
you will find that it does no more good than blow¬ 
ing against the wind—for the very plain reason that 
the bark becomes tender at the top of the pile, in¬ 
stead, of the surface of the ground, as before.” 
The same eminent writer gives us the results of 
an experiment in treating these little fellows with 
hot water; which however, for general use, will not 
be found quite so convenient for the worm, as the 
knife:— 
“ I have satisfied myself by experiment, (though 
I am sorry I have not yet had time to get up the 
theory,) that a good dose of hot water is a means 
of bringing-to many a peach tree just about giving 
up the ghost. It seems to rouse the vital powers; 
and if there is life enough left, a good scalding at 
the neck seems to produce a reaction that is at times 
quite wonderful. 
“Three years ago I had two trees, a peach and a 
favorite apricot, that had been failing for a couple 
of seasons—often thought before that very servicea¬ 
ble trees. They had been rather badly treated by 
the worm, to be sure, but that had been attended 
to in time, and the roots appeared to be in very fair 
condition. Still, the trees dwindled, looked sickly, 
and bore little or no fruit. As a desperate remedy, 
I resolved on a trial of hot water. I removed the 
soil directly round the neck of the tree, making a 
basin three inches defep and twenty inches across. 
Into this I poured twelve gallons of boiling water. 
“ To my great satisfaction the trees, instead of 
dying, immediately pushed out vigorous shoots, took 
a healthy appearance, and made a fine growth of 
wood, and have since borne two crops qf delicious 
fruit. I experimented last year, again, with equal 
success, and now am ready, like old Dr. Sangrado, 
to prescribe hot water in all desperate cases.” 
Profits of high Culture.— At one of the Bos¬ 
ton Agricultural Meetings, George Pierce, of West 
Cambridge “advocated the high culture of fruit 
trees, and raising no crops among them after they 
were large. From four apple trees which he set in 
1839, he gathered last year, (10 years) twenty-nine 
barrels of choice fruit, twenty barrels of which sold 
for $100. He sold $997 worth of fruit, the past 
season, from eight acres of land.” 
Gardens in France.—A writer in the Revue 
Horticole says there are 600,000 hectares (over 1,- 
000,000 acres) of gardens and orchards in France, 
giving employment to about 2,500,000 persons. A 
very large proportion of these are undoubtedly mar¬ 
ket gardens. 
0“ What maintains one vice will bring up two 
children. 
The master’s eyes will do more work than both 
his hands. 
