1850. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
367 
or ten inches high. One man will do hundreds in a 
day, and we have never known a single instance 
out of thousands of cases, where it has failed. 
Protecting tender Plants and Shrubs.— 
There is one principle which should not be forgotten, 
whatever be the nature of the covering applied to 
tender plants, more especially to the woody por¬ 
tions or parts above ground. This is, that the ex¬ 
clusion of moisture is an important object without 
excluding air. Ligatures are sometimes left on 
inserted buds for protection, and more usually de¬ 
stroy the buds by retaining water like a sponge. 
Closely wrapped straw operates in the same way, as 
well as by excluding air, which is often important. 
Roots and stems like those of the grape, which will 
bear a greater degree of moisture, are partial excep¬ 
tions. Roots, even, are often destroyed when in a 
too moist soil,- and their is no doubt that many 
tender herbaceous perennials would survive the ri¬ 
gors of our winters, if in earth with a dry bot¬ 
tom, and sheltered from rain. 
Transplanting Trees* 
Eds. Cultivator —At the end of June last, I 
was forced to remove a quince bush, which stood 
just on the spot where I was to make an addition 
to my house. The tree was full of fruit. 
I had read, I believe, in your valuable Cultivator, 
that a gentleman, removing rose bushes in the sum¬ 
mer, had covered them with a blanket, and every 
evening put water on the leaves. I tried the same 
with my quince bush. The tree being nine feet 
high, was removed the 25th of June. I was forced 
to employ two horses to pull it out of the ground, 
and to bring it on the spot, where it was to be set 
in the soil. There I had dug a hole of seven feet 
diameter, and put in it a dozen pails of water. 
Though I tried to preserve on the roots as much 
earth as possible, the greatest part of it was lost 
in the transit. 
The tree was set in the ground, the fruit all taken 
off, the ends of the limbs and twigs cut and shorten¬ 
ed, and the whole carefully covered with three 
blankets. In the first week I sprinkled the leaves 
with water morning and evening; afterwards I did 
it only occasionally. Having removed the blankets 
in the beginning of September, I had the pleasure 
to see on all the limbs new twigs and new leaves, 
and the tree looking healthy and flourishing. D. B. 
K. Washington Valley , N. /., Sept. 1 6th, 1850. 
Peach Trees. 
William Stone, of Natick, Mass., gives the 
officers of the Middlesex Agricultural Society, a 
statement in regard to his culture of an orchard of 
one thousand peach trees. The trees have been set 
three years and are represented as “in a bearing 
state.” The orchard is on a hill, one hundred feet 
above the general level of the surrounding plain ; the 
soil a yellow loam, abounding in loose boulders of 
granite. Stones enough were dug from the ground 
to make a wall round three acres, on which the or¬ 
chard stands. After several plowings, from 1843 
to 1845, it was marked out in squares of twelve feet, 
and the peach trees set at the crossings. He prunes 
the trees of all the dry limbs, and all such as inter¬ 
fere with each other, or hinder the growth of the 
kee. He does not cultivate the ground among the 
trees, but covers the whole surface with straw or 
some kind of litter. He says, “ Well covered in 
this way, the straw will last two years, and the 
trees will have less worms and flourish better than 
to cover the land with manure of any kind. I place 
about a peck of hard coal or wood ashes, at the 
root of every tree once a year, and it has not failed 
to keep away the borer. The reasons I give in favor 
of straw and hay as preferable to compost manure 
are, it saves labor, is cheaper, it prevents the drouth 
from penetrating as it would without it, and in case 
the trees stand on a side-hill it keeps the rains from 
washing the soil, and when the fruit drops it keeps 
it clean. I have tried this course for twelve years 
and am fully satisfied it is the best method.” 
Yellows. —Another competitor for the premium 
offered on peach trees by the above society, states 
that he has used urine with good effect, as a remedy 
for the yellows. He put about a gallon round each 
tree during the autumn and winter. He says he 
tried one sickly tree earlier in the season with mani¬ 
fest advantage. 
Several competitors speak of having fruit from 
those peach trees only, which stood on quite high 
ground, the present season. 
Cracking of the Doyenne Pear. 
It is well known that in many of the eastern por¬ 
tions of the United States, the white Doyenne pear 
is rendered worthless by the cracking of the fruit. 
This has been ascribed by A. J. Downing and others 
to diseased action, consequent on the exhaustion of 
the soil by the continued growth of the tree on the 
same spot of ground. The following interesting 
fact may serve to add to the materials for determin¬ 
ing this question : 
A young and thifty tree of this vareity, standing 
on a gravelly loam, bore its second crop of fruit the 
present year. When the pears were two-thirds 
grown, the leaves were observed to be affected with 
the black spots which characterise the leaf blight, 
and always precede the premature falling of the 
leaf. At the same period, similar black spots began 
to cover the surface of the young pears, gradually 
extending on many of them till they cracked, 
shrivelled, and fell from the tree. Others, side by 
side with them, escaped this disaster, and continued 
fine and fair specimens until ripe. 
The region of country where this young tree 
stands, has been long celebrated for the perfection 
of this variety of the pear, nothing of the kind ever 
having been known before within two hundred miles. 
Within a mile from this locality, and on a piece of 
ground strikingly similar to all external appearance, 
is another white Doyenne tree, twenty or thirty 
years old, the crop of which has always been per¬ 
fectly smooth and fair, and has for some years past 
sold for twenty to thirty dollars per annum. It 
stands in a grassy yard, and receives no manure, 
solid nor liquid, nor any cultivation. 
New Currants. —S. P. Fowler, of Danvers, 
Mass., remarks in the N. E. Farmer, that Knight’s 
Sweet Red “ may perhaps by some persons be con¬ 
sidered a little less acid than the White Dutch, 
while others would not admit it. I should not cul¬ 
tivate it for its supposed comparative sweetness.” 
The Champagne, he says, is not a great bearer, 
and the fruit, though beautiful, is very acid, most 
persons leaving it to be eaten by birds. Knight’s 
Early Red he has not found to be much earlier than 
the other varieties, not being worth cultivating for 
this characteristic, and possessing no other. The 
Red and White Dutch are good, and are by some 
persons thought to be the best.” We believe these 
conclusions have been arrived at by most other cul¬ 
tivators of experience. 
