28 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Jan. 
fruit trees, to prevent the depredations of mice and 
rabbits. Instead thereof, I have used wide, spiral- 
formed shavings, as they come from the carpenter’s 
plane, secured at top and bottom with a small 3 or 4 
oz. tack. If one shaving does not extend sufficiently 
high, a second or third may be used in continuation. 
The shavings thus placed thereon will last two years. 
James L. Bowman, Brownsville , Pa., Dec. 11, 1853. 
Roses from Eyes. 
Calling, a few weeks back, at the River-road Nurse¬ 
ry, of Mr. II. H. Williams (late Jackson—known as 
one of the best commercial gardens for choice and 
good things round Cincinnati,) I was much struck with 
the expeditious and successful method practiced by 
that cultivator, in propagating roses. All the different 
classes are grown, but the greatest favorites are the 
Hardy Remontants and Bourbon varieties, which are 
known to be the hardest to strike from cuttings. As 
Mr. W. has but recently entered on the business for 
himself, his stock to propagate from was limited, and 
he desired to make the most of it and increase it as 
much as possible during the season. 
His plan was, as soon as wood on his stock plants 
was sufficiently matured in the spring growth, to take 
( it off, and instead of making cuttings, he used only 
a single eye, leaving about one or one and a half inch 
of wood below, and cutting off smoothly immediately 
above the eye, and slicing off part of the piece longi¬ 
tudinally opposite the eye or bud. These he plunges 
in sand to the top, leaving only the bud and leaf at¬ 
tached visible (in a brisk bottom heat) ; they soon cal¬ 
lous and form roots ; and Mr. W. at once plants them 
out into the open ground, without potting or anything, 
and gets in another batch. In this way he kept taking 
off successively from the parent stock as fast as they 
made wood. He showed us four different batches that 
had been taken off this season, planted thickly in rows, 
and fine growing young plants they were, varying in 
size and height, according to the respective time they 
had been planted. He stated that out of about 4,000, 
the far greater part of which were from eyes, he did 
not have over a hundred miss (which is a good take,) 
and he believed they made better and handsomer plants 
when struck in that way than by cuttings. One im¬ 
portant point is observed to be necessary, that is, to 
keep the bottom heat the most active at first, so as to 
induce the formation of roots before the bud bursts ; if 
the latter takes place before the roots are emitted, the 
plant is sure to go off, and vice versa. 
Artificial heat, by means of hot water to raise bot¬ 
tom heat, is employed here during summer even, for 
propagating roses, as well as stove and green-house 
plants ; and his plan for economy and efficiency is well 
worth being known and extensively practiced, and dif¬ 
fers considerably in detail from any thing we had seen 
before. Altogether, we came away convinced that Mr. 
Williams is ahead of some of his compeers, in this 
branch of his business at least.—C. S , Cincinnati , 
JVO0..28, 1853. 
The Zauschneria is a native of California, and a 
herbaceous .perennial, quite hardy, if planted in a situ¬ 
ation where it is not much exposed to damp about the 
roots in the winter. Its habit is branching and bushy, 
growing about three feet high, and as its blossoms are 
large and numerous, it forms quite an attractive plant. 
North Western Pomological Convention. 
From a brief report of this Convention in the adver¬ 
tising sheet of the Western Horticultural Review, we 
perceive there were some 30 or 40 contributors of fruits, 
most of whose collections of apples varied from 40 to 
150 varieties, and there were a number of collections 
of pears from 100 downwards. From a fine selection 
from these collections received through the kindness of 
Dr. Kennicott, we perceive, in accordance with the 
statement of this report, that those from Iowa and the 
more western districts, were much finer in appearance, 
generally, than specimens from the east 
Among the results of the discussions on pears, we ob¬ 
serve the following:—Bartlett, White Doyenne, East¬ 
er Beurre, Flemish Beauty, Seckel, “best,” for gene¬ 
ral cultivation; Louise Bonne Jersey, and Passe Col¬ 
mar, very good; Winter Nelis, good, not successful in 
all localities; Bloodgood and Dearborn’s Seedling, re¬ 
commended for further trial; Madeliene, too subject 
to blight; Washington, not sufficiently tested. The 
Isabella, the best grape for general cultivation; and 
Catawba “superior” where ripening. Among the 
peaches recommended were Crawford’s Early, Early 
Barnard, Early York, Large White Cling, Crawford’s 
Late, and George the Fourth—the two first for general 
cultivation. 
