1852- 
THE CULTIVATOR, 
133 
Horticultural Items. 
Is the Fruit Market Overstocked? —Prof. Mates 
says on this subject, in speaking of the better kinds of 
pears, “ many bushels have been sold in the New-York 
market for $6 per bushel j and in Boston, where the 
ripening of pears in fruit rooms is better understood, 
many have been sold at $3 per dozen 5 nor does the sup¬ 
ply as yet tend to reduce the prices.” He adds “ there 
are thousands of dollars worth of grapes sold annually 
by the Broadway fruit stores, at from one to four dol¬ 
lars per pound, and the finer kinds of pears at five to 
25 cents a piece. Nor can they procure half a supply 
for the wealthy purchasers of such luxuries.” Good 
fruit merely, may not sell high 5 but those at the sum¬ 
mit of perfection, always. It is to be obtained not mere¬ 
ly by procuring the best varieties, but more especially 
by high culture. 
White Fruit and Birds. —The Gardener’s Chronicle 
says that white fruit is not attractive tojbirds; that the 
White Tartarian is not subject to their depredations, 
while the May duke and other sorts are freely attacked. 
The birds in this country appear to be shrewder fellows, 
as good cherries, white or black, all become victims. 
Grafting Grape Yines.— Keep the grafts in a cool, 
shady place, till the stocks you wish to graft begin to 
grow, and their leaves are as large as a shilling—then 
graft and you will be successful. 
Peach Worm. —Boiling water, says the Horticulturist, 
is a most excellent application in the spring of the year, 
for diseased and feeble peach trees, and is a certain re¬ 
medy for the peach worm. A correspondent very ef¬ 
fectually excluded the peach worm, by digging a basin 
around the foot of the trunk, forming a cavity a foot in 
width and four inches deep, and then pouring into this 
basin very thick white-wash, made of fresh lime, and 
suffered to stand one day before applying. 
Pears.—A. Johnson, jr., of Wiscasset, has a young 
orchard of dwarf standard pears, that is pears on quince, 
with short bare trunks about a foot and a half high, 
which is better than if clothed with limbs to the ground, 
on account of the weight of snow upon them in winter. 
A tree of the Winkfield, four years set out and nine 
feet high, bore a bushel, worth at least five dollars. 
Apple-tree Borer.— At the Illinois Pomological 
Convention, last autumn, Dr. Kennicott recommended 
cutting the borer out the first year, and afterwards plug- 
ing them in with camphor, i: which kills them to a cer¬ 
tainty.” C. Bryant thought the red-headed wood¬ 
pecker a valuable aid in their extirpation, but this the 
Doctor thought was paying too high wages. The chair¬ 
man, (J. II. Bryant,) thought there were two distinct 
varieties, one working in the root and the other thelimbs. 
The Bark-Louse. —-At the same convention, the sub¬ 
ject of the bark.louse on apple trees being under discus¬ 
sion, J. H. Bryant remarked that he had a tree badly 
affected, but by giving it rapid growth by cultivation, 
the bark-louse left. One orchadist had removed them 
completely by syringing the tree with strong ley, before 
vegetation started in spring. 
Sweet Potatoes for the North. —D. F. Kinney, of 
Rock Island, in northern Illinois, states in the Prairie 
Farmer, that he failed in raisins' sweet potatoes until he 
procured a variety from Indiana called the Nansemond, 
an early variety, which he has cultivated for four years 
with great success. They are yellow, short, and mealy 
and sweet, and greatly superior in this respect to all the 
reds. Last year he sprouted sixty bushels of them, but 
was not able to supply the demand. 
To kill Aphides in a Green-House. —The Garde¬ 
ner’s Chronicle gives the following:—Take a sheet of 
touch paper, roll an once of tobacco in it, light it at both 
ends, put it in the house, leave it there, remain out-side 
with your hands in your pockets, and the job is don§. 
In the morning ail the green flies will be dead.” 
Stealing from Gardens.— The author of “ Rural 
Hours,” after speaking of some well dressed girls, “ ele¬ 
gantly flounced,” &c., reaching their hands through the 
garden fence, and helping themselves to some of the fin¬ 
est and rarest flowers, just as if they had a right to them, 
asks the very pertinent question, “ What would they 
have thought if some one had stepped up with a pair of 
scissors, and cut half a yard from the ribbon on their 
hats, merely because it was pretty , and one had a fancy 
to it?” Yet the flowers cost more time, labor, and money, 
and could not be so easily replaced. 
Length of Fibrous Roots. —A correspondent of the 
Gardener’s Chronicle examined a plant of mignonette, 
the roots of which had penetrated through several courses 
of bricks and descended into a cellar. Over the cellar 
was a brick pavement, between the joints of which the 
seed had been sown from year to year. 
Beautiful Objects. —At the exhibition of the Cin¬ 
cinnati Horticultural Society, according to Dr. Warder’s 
Review, some beautiful floral objects were presented. 
One was a Yerbena (Defiance) trained up to a single stem 
18 inches high, and then branched and drooping off* grace¬ 
fully so as to produce a very pretty effect. Another was 
a miniature arbor, perfectly covered with living plants, 
climbers, which being in full bloom, presented a fine ap¬ 
pearance—“ the rich blue, tender red, and pure white 
of the varieties of Maurandya, with other species, and 
the delicate foliage of the cypress vine intermingled, pro¬ 
duced a very pretty effect.” How incomparably superior 
are such objects as these, to those artificial monstrosities 
so commonly seen at exhibitions under the names of 
“ floral designs” and “ floral ornaments.” 
Horticultural Premiums. —The amount of premiums 
offered by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, in 
the various departments, is as follows:— 
Prospective prizes (for new variety of fruits, flowers, See .).... $750 
For gardens, green-houses, & c. 200 
For fruits during the season,.. 620 
For plants, flowers, and designs,. 700 
For vegetables,... 250 
Such an amount, held up to the grasp of skilful cul- 
turists, cannot fail to bring out a rich display of in¬ 
teresting objects, and spectators as well as competitors 
who live within convenient access to such a society’s ex¬ 
hibitions, possess privileges which must be very highly 
prized. 
Guano. —It is said that the amount of guano annually 
used in Great Britain for the last five years, has cost two 
million pounds sterling, or about ten millions of dollars— 
more than equal yearly, to the cost of the Erie canal till 
its first completion. In addition, great quantities of 
lime, bones, shells, and immense piles of yard manure 
have been anplied to the land 
