THE CULTIVATOR 
317 
Mountain Ash, &c. from Seed. 
Messrs, Editors —Will you please inform me 
through the “ Cultivator , n when Mountain Ash berries 
should be gathered, and how treated to raise trees— 
the same of Balsam Eir cooes. Also where in New- 
York City, “ Downing’s Fruit and. Fruit Trees of Ame¬ 
rica ” can be procured. J. L. 
Mountain ash berries should be gathered late in au¬ 
tumn when fully ripe—the seed separated by mashing 
and washing’—and then immediately mixed with fine 
clean sand. • They should be kept moist, subjected to 
the freezing and thawing of winter, and planted in a 
bed of fine mould,, not more than half an inch deep. 
Shading from the hot sun may be necessary for the 
young plants. 
Fir cones are gathered late in autumn, or just be¬ 
fore opening to drop the seeds, and placed in a dry 
warm room till the seeds become capable of easy se¬ 
paration. They are to be planted in spring, in a bed 
like that for mountain-ash, and the young plants shad¬ 
ed from the sun as an indispensible requisite. It is 
much better and cheaper to procure the young trees 
from the forests or from nurserymen, than by the nice, 
troublesome, and slow operation of raising from seed 
under our hot suns. 
Downing’s work on Fruits, we believe is out of print. 
If to be had in New-York, C. M. Saxton, 152 Fulton 
Street, will furnish it. 
Inverted Scions—Planting Chestnuts. 
Messrs. Eds. —Can scions be made to live, set 
wrong end up ? I have tried some, and never had one 
live. 
I wish to find the best plan for sowing chestnuts for 
timber—the quantity per acre, and the time. Levi 
D. Markham. 
It .is not probable that inverted scions could be easily 
made to live, neither do we see any object for so strange 
a conceit. In former times, the lovers of oddities 
amused themselves by inverting growing trees, first 
bending down and burying the top, and afterwards 
loosening and elevating the roots, thus presenting a 
tree growing, roots upwards ! 
Chestnuts are so hard to transplant that it is better 
to plant at once the seed where the trees are to remain. 
The seed should be secured while perfectly fresh from 
the tree, and if not immediately planted, they should 
be packed in moist sand or leaf mould till wanted. 
If even the outside shall become dried, they will not 
grow. They may be planted in hills like corn, but 
rather more remote, and after a year or two all the 
plants thinned out but one in each hill. This will give 
an even uniform plantation, which will present a most 
beautiful appearance when the trees begin to assume 
the character of a forest. Cultivation should be given 
for a few of the first years. 
Disease in the Bark of Fruit Trees. 
Messrs. Eeitors —Can any of your correspondents 
give any information as to the cause of young fruit 
in apparent thrifty condition, having dead spots 
near the giound, of various sizes, some reach- 
nearly half way around the trunk ? The bark 
soon becomes dry and hard, and then comes off and 
leaves the wood dry and hard. Some of my trees have 
been set 4 or 5 years in grass lands, and manured by 
digging away the top of the ground,, then putting a 
bushel basket of good manure, and then replacing the 
earth again. This is done in the spring. Any infor¬ 
mation in regard to the cause or remedy will oblige me 
and perhaps others. T. S. Hoyt. Walton , Del. Co. 
Our correspondent does not mention what kind of 
fruit trees are thus affected. This disease is not new, 
but cultivators differ as to its cause. A bushel of un- 
m ixed manure applied to a tree, would be hurtful in 
most instances and cause a succulent unhealthy growth, 
which would be liable to injury from changes of the 
weather —and this may be the cause in the present 
case. Manure should be applied in autumn , and in 
spring be well mixed with the soil by spading. Com¬ 
post is best. —— 
Market Pears.— If you wished to plant a pear 
orchard of standard trees in rich sandy soil, with- a 
gravelly subsoil, on an elevated site in this country, 
exclusively for marketing purposes, and had daily 
railroad access to the Pittsburgh market,, and was re¬ 
stricted to three varieties, one of which should be an 
early, one a fall, and one a winter Pear, what kinds 
would you select I L. Allegheny Co., Pa. 
The Bartlett, Virgalieu , (or Doyenne) and Master 
Beurre, the latter on quince. Some would perhaps 
prefer the Louise Bonne Jersey on quince, or the 
Flemish Beauty on pear stock, for autumn vajieties, 
or the Winkjield on either pear or quince^ for a late 
sort. The latter would perhaps prove more profitable 
than any other, from its great productiveness. 
To DesU'oy Tanzy and 3Live-forever. 
Answer to H. Stone’s Inquiries. —Spade the 
turf about six or eight inches deep, and throw the 
whole mass, tops, roots and all, into the hog-pen. Should 
any more appear the next year, or any time after, let 
the same process be continued ; and two or three trials, 
if not the first, will annihilate the whole or any other 
foul stuff. 
The raising of tanzy can be made profitable. I once 
had a neighbor that made himself independent by 
raising tanzy and mint for the distillery. But some¬ 
how, I never liked the idea of raising tanzy and mint, 
or even hops for a living ; for while it might bring 
wealth to the grower, it would add nothing to the per¬ 
manent, productive wealth of the nation. There are 
men whose minds never reach beyond a bed of mint, 
and whose aspirations never ascend higher than a hop- 
pole. Let such men devote their minds and their lands 
to such purposes. But let men of broader minds con¬ 
secrate their lands to better purposes, and devote their 
lives to such labors as will not only enrich themselves 
but add to the permanent wealth of the nation. 
There is another consideration. There is no vegeta¬ 
ble, more wasting to the fertility of the soil, than tan¬ 
zy, while it adds the least of any to its fertility by be¬ 
ing turned to manure after having been used. J. L. 
Edgerton. Georgia, Vt, Aug. 26, 1854. 
The telegraph informs us that the Ohio State 
Fair has been postponed to the 17th—20th of October. 
