246 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Horticultural Items. 
Stealing Fruit. —Nothing, scarcely, tends more to 
improve the substantial prosperity and comfort of the 
country, than fruit raising; and nothing, perhaps, en¬ 
counters more obstacles. The disasters by severity of 
climate, and by neglected cultivation, having been labor¬ 
iously avoided; the dangers from disease, as the blight, 
and the yellows,—and from insects, as the caterpillar, 
the borer, the grub, the leaf-slug, plant-lice, and curcu- 
lio, having all been passed, and years of labor are about 
to be repaid by a delicious crop, to lose the whole by a 
troop of lawless thieves is a very common incident. A 
hungry palate for the enterprising cultivator, is poor pay 
for all this labor and skill, when the prize was just with¬ 
in his reach. A benevolent neighbor, resolved to give 
the idlers and all, a fair chance, planted as he supposed 
enough to feed all; to repay him, the thieves carefully 
selected the best for themselves, and left the unripe cul- 
lings for the owner, as might have been expected. The 
Prairie Farmer thinks, perhaps, this propensity comes 
11 by naturf and that even “ fines and imprisonment 
may not drive it out of the scamps.” As proof he adds, 
t; We are called on yearly to mourn the loss of some 
villainously hard green winter apples, poached in August.” 
As we have plenty of patriotism in this country, could 
sot some of it be directed into channels for the purpose 
of washing away this evil? 
Productiveness of Strawberries. —Several of the 
best varieties of the Strawbery,—among which perhaps 
the Cincinnati Hudson and Rival Hudson rather take the 
lead, but which are closely followed by such sorts as 
Large Early Scarlet, Burr’s New Pine, Boston Pine and 
Dundee, in suitable localities and with proper culture,— 
may be made to yield at the rate of from one to two 
hundred bushels per acre,—in rare instances, a little more. 
But the editor of the Granite Farmer says, “ ¥e have 
seen a small bed of the Large Early Scarlet, but a trifle 
if any over a rod wide, yield a bushel of fruit daily in 
the height of bearing.” Will Dr. Crosby please make 
his statement a little more precise, and inform us about 
how long this productiveness continued? Also, how long 
the bed was—whether one rod, or twenty? 
Hovey’s Seedling and Early Scarlet.— It is al¬ 
ways interesting to observe results in different localities. 
J. C. Brayton, an intelligent cultivator of Jefferson co., 
Wisconsin, says in the Prairie Farmer, 11 Of strawber¬ 
ries, the Large Early Scarlet is the best sort yet tried. 
Hovey’s Seedling, fair, but less productive, does not ex¬ 
ceed half the size represented by eastern cultivators, while 
the Early Scarlet exceeds their figures.” 
Summer Pruning. —We have been long convinced that 
freely pruning young nursery trees during their most 
rapid growth is detrimental to their vigor. The peach, 
possessing great power of reproducing lopped shoots, 
comes the nearest to an exception—the remark applies 
with greater force to the apple, cherry, &c., which should 
be pruned in winter or spring. A correspondent of the 
Prairie Farmer states that he pruned young apple trees, 
(4 to 6 feet high,) early in spring, and then kept the 
snoots rubbed off* the lower parts of the stems, leaving 
only suitable heads,—on one half of the trees. The 
others were left with their shoots untouched from top to 
July, 
bottom. The result was, that those which received no 
summer pruning were 25 to 40 per cent larger than the 
others, even after they were pruned up to heads the fol¬ 
lowing spring. This was on fertile soil, in Missouri, where 
the apple trees grew from the roots into which they were 
grafted from 4 to 6 feet, the first year. On poorer soil, 
the difference would probably be greater. This subject 
is well worthy the attention of nurserymen. 
Hollyhocks coming on the stage. —The Dahlia is a 
superb flower, and is rendered more desirable by its au¬ 
tumnal season. But its tender roots are a great draw¬ 
back. Were it a hardy perennial, it would far exceed in 
floral value even the Pseonia. Much attention has lately 
been directed to improvements in the Hollyhock , which 
is likely to rival the Dahlia, with the addition of hardi¬ 
ness. Semi-spherical flowers, exceedingly double, with 
closely imbricated petals, with all the various shades of 
deep and light rose, salmon, claret, deep crimson, bril¬ 
liant red, pure white, &c. &.C., have been produced so 
closely packed about the stem, that a green leaf can 
scarcely peep between them, and some fine varieties have 
grown nine feet high. A single English cultivator has an 
acre of his nursery devoted to them, 6,000 being in splen¬ 
did bloom at one time. 
Wintering Tea-Roses.' —The following mode, (sub¬ 
stantially the same except the thatching, that we copied 
some years since from the Prairie Farmer,) is reported 
by the editor of the Horticulturist as having been entire¬ 
ly successful the past severe winter*.—One foot of tan- 
bark. applied to the oval bed late in autumn, nearly 
covered aH the stems, the tallest being bent down. This 
tan-hark was kept perfectly dry by means of three bun¬ 
dles of rye straw, formed into circular radiating thatch, 
gathered to a point at the centre—forming what a farmer 
would call a cap. Keeping the tan dry is the great re¬ 
quisite. 
Plants Injured by Winter. 
A correspondent writes, 11 1 have never seen box edg¬ 
ing so blighted, but this damage is all on the sunshiny 
side. A warm sunshine while it was frozen, explains the 
matter to me. The tree box is not injured in the slight¬ 
est degree—neither is Ribes sanguineum in the south 
border, [shaded on the south by a high tight fence.]— 
nor Magnolia obovata, placed where the sun could not 
reach them in winter; yet both these shrubs are tender 
in the open ground. It has been said that some rose 
bushes which are tender when exposed to the sun-shine 
in winter, are hardy on the north side of a building. If 
so, it must be such as can bear the freezing. My expe¬ 
rience long ago dictated, that less depended on the in¬ 
tensity of the frost, than on the manner in which the 
temperature is raised.” 
We have observed similar results. Box edging expos¬ 
ed to the sun was quite brown; while that which was 
protected by a board at the south, possessed all the 
greenness of the freshest verdure. In some localities 
the sun was shaded by clouds after the severest cold, 
and as a consequence, some plants were less injured than 
by less severity, followed by a clear sky. In such cases, 
Ribes sanguineum, and several other half tender plants, 
escaped injury; and peach buds were not killed by 12° 
below zero. 
