84 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
March 
the past season by the writer, was attended with quite 
as great success. Fig. 23 represents a neglected and 
unpruned peach tree, the leaves and fruit being at the 
ends of the branches. Fig. 24 is a tree properly 
pruned, so as to admit light to all parts. The pruning 
should be done early*in the month. 
Raspberries. —These should be pruned as soon as 
the surface of the ground becomes thawed in spring. 
All; the ©Id stems, and all the smaller young shoots, 
should be cleared away to the ground, and about half 
a dozen of the largest stems of last year’s growth left 
forbearing. Their upper extremities for a foot or two 
should be cut off, being weak and useless, and detri¬ 
mental from their weight and shade. The remaining 
stems, if not of a stiff and upright variety, should be 
loosely tied to stakes. 
Hardy Grapes need pruning early, before the sap 
flows and bleeding commences. A moderate bleeding 
need not be feared, but if profuse, it is detrimental. 
The sooner the work is done in the month the better. 
The Isabella, Bland, Catawba, and other American 
varieties, are of such rampant growth, that when only 
a few years old, they bear most abundantly, and hence 
the inexperienced cultivator concludes that pruning is 
not necessary, and that they do better without it. A 
most erroneous conclusion—for the vines by such neg¬ 
lect soon become a mass of thickly matted stems and 
branches, their vigor is exhausted, and diminutive 
crops of poor fruit is the result. But by good prun¬ 
ing they may be kept in perennial vigor and undimin¬ 
ished productiveness. 
The great leading rule to follow, is to keep the old 
wood down as near the ground as possible, and to let 
new and vigorous shoots, spring up, from the bearing 
branches, which must be thinly and evenly distributed 
over the trellis. If these requisites are strictly at¬ 
tended to, heavy crops of fine fruit will many times.ro- 
pay the attention given, whatever be the particular 
mode adopted; although the method of training hori¬ 
zontal arms, to sustain upright and parallel bearing 
shoots, is the most systematic and convenient, as re¬ 
presented in the annexed figure. Two different ways 
of management for i * 
this method have ( J 
been practiced. The / \ 
first 'is to allow the V f 
old horizontal arms / 2 
to remain, but to cut 
down io one good 
bud, every year, eve¬ 
ry alternate upright branch, that a new one may spring 
up in its place, thus renewing these uprights every 
year. The second is to let the uprights remain seve¬ 
ral years, only pruning-in yearly their laterals, to a 
single bud each. An acquaintance, who is wonderfully 
successful with the Isabella grape, successively buries 
in the earth the old portion of the vine, so that young 
and vigorous stems are at all times only visible; and by 
careful and clean pruning, he raises enormous crops— 
some of the bunches of Isabella grapes being eight in¬ 
ches long, and in one instance a single branch of one 
year’s growth, bore the following season eighty pounds 
of fruit. 
Grafting. —Grafts should be cut early in the month. 
No pains should be spared to procure them from the 
best sources—the difference between a good and bad 
scion for a single tree, may make a vast difference in 
the value of the crop in future years. Grafting is a 
simple operation; and every careful farmer, or his son, 
may do the work for himself, and more satisfactorily 
than to employ others. The grafting wax may be pre¬ 
pared in different ways. The cheapest composition is 
made of one part, by weight, of beeswax, two of tal¬ 
low, and four of rosin. More beeswax and less rosin 
adds to its cost, but renders it less adhesive to the 
hands. Three parts of rosin, three of beeswax, and 
two of tallow, constitute an excellent grafting wax. 
It js applied by spreading it, while just melted, with 
a brush over a thin newspaper, which is cut up 
with a knife when quite cold, in plasters of convenient 
size; or it is spread on cheap calico or muslin; or it 
is worked with wet hands till it may be drawn out m 
strings or ribbons, when it is alone wound round the 
grafted part; or it is applied alone, while just melted, 
to the part, by a small brush. Either mode of using 
is good, provided that the wax when used is warm 
enough to bear pressure, and cause adhesion closely on 
every part, and leave no vacant cavities. In cold 
weather a lantern or chafing-dish will be needed for 
this purpose. 
The operator may suit himself as to the peculiar 
mode of grafting. But it is very essential to have 
sharp tools; to have the parts in close contact by pres¬ 
sure ; that the outer edges of the wood (and not the 
outside of the bark) in the stock and graft, may ex¬ 
actly coincide at one point at lea-st; and that all cut 
parts be excluded from wet and air by wax well ap¬ 
plied. Cherry and plum trees should be grafted very 
early ; apples and pears, later. 
To prevent confusion in names, only one variety 
should, if possible, be set in each tree, and the name 
and number in the row be immediately registered in a 
book for future reference. No one should think of 
trusting to memory for the name of a single sort. 
Budded Trees. —Trees in which buds were inserted 
last summer, should now be headed down to the bud, 
that it may grow freely by receiving all^the sap. Tu 
cause the new shoot to grow straight, leave two or 
three inches of the stock above the bud; to this the 
new shoot is to be closely tied as soon as it is a few 
inches long, and so remain till mid-summer, when the 
stump is to be pared down closely to the bud. 
Fruit Trees which lack vigor of growth, should 
be stimulated with a good coating of old manure, spa¬ 
ded in as soon as the frost leaves the ground. All 
fruit trees, except of the largest size, which do not 
stand in ground kept constantly cultivated by the hoe, 
should have a circle, several feet in diameter, spaded 
around them. Soap-suds, especially for peach trees*, 
is fine. All trees are benefitted by it. 
Orchard Caterpillars. —Take 
them early, and their destruction is V. 
easy; let them flourish for awhile, 
and it is exceedingly difficult. 
Their eggs are now found in nests 
or rings of several hundred each, 
near the extremities of the young 
shoots, and at a few feet distance 
appear like small knobs on the 
branches. They are now quickly 
clipped off and burned; every one 
thus removed preventing a large 
nest of voTacious caterpillars. 
As soon as the buds begin to open, 
they hatch, and remaining for a 
few days in their small nests, give 
them a conspicuous downy appear¬ 
ance ; when the remainder, if any 
should chance to have been left,, 
should be speedily removed and 
destroyed, as they will soon in¬ 
crease rapidly in size and mis¬ 
chief. 
Preparing for Transplanting. —Those intending 
to transplant fruit trees, should have the ground well 
prepared in season, by digging ample holes, and pre¬ 
paring the soil in the best manner. Let the holes bo 
six or seven feet across, and all the outer portions^ oir 
Caterpillars* Eggs. 
Fig. 26. 
