1853 * 
THE CULTIVATOR 
251 
High Culture* 
During a recent visit to the garden of Dr. E. W. Syl¬ 
vester of Lyons, N. Y., he showed us a strawberry bed 
measuring precisely 20 feet square, which bore two bush¬ 
els and three pints of strawberries the present season, or 
at the rate of 223 bushels per acre. This product would 
not be extraordinary for some varieties of the strawber¬ 
ry ; but for Hovey’s Seedling, the sort here cultivated, 
which is usually only moderately productive, we regard 
it as a proof of skilful cultivation. We learned on in- 
uiry that the soil, a light, coarse sandy loam, had 
een trenched two and a half feet deep, during which 
a very large portion of stable manure was worked in, 
probably at the rate of some two hundred loads or more 
per acre. Some of our best cultivators of the strawber¬ 
ry have regarded Hovey’s Seedling as one of the sorts 
that would not bear a very rich soil, but this experi¬ 
ment seems to throw a doubt over such a conclusion. 
Dr. S. had found a great advantage to garden vege¬ 
tables generally, as well as to strawberries, in the ap¬ 
plication of liquid manure made from mgld or swamp 
muck. He mixes a barrel of muck in a. tub with four 
or five barrels of water, and about two pounds of caus¬ 
tic potash, or two bushels fresh ashes, if the potash can¬ 
not be had—daily stirring the liquid mixture for some 
days, when most of the muck will be dissolved or held 
by the water, and the whole will be ready for use. Its 
application to garden crops generally has produced very 
conspicuous effects, where alternate rows were selected 
for this purpose. Perhaps an equal quantity of pure wa¬ 
ter applied to the untreated rows would have afforded a 
fairer experiment, as this would have presented similar 
results from the watering only. Dr. S. thinks that 
this liquid application is about equal to guano water. 
But as it is more limited in its composition, it cannot 
be of so general application to all soils, and in some 
instances, and more especially when the soil is already 
largely furnished with vegetable mold, might prove of 
little benefit. 
Dr. S. showed us a field of Mediterranoan wheat, 
portions of which were treated with stable manure, 
swamp muck, and swamp muck mixed with ashes. A 
part was left without any application. The manured 
part had much the largest growth of straw, a part be¬ 
ing badly “lodged”—the portion with muck and ash¬ 
es, exhibited a fine, uniform, upright, thick growth; 
the muck alone was decidedly inferior, and the un¬ 
dressed part worst of all. No measurement having 
been made, the relative effects could not be known ac¬ 
curately, but we should estimate the product of the 
parts treated with yard manure and the muck and 
ashes, which wore about equal and were applied at the 
rate of about 30 loads per acre, at nearly double that 
of the untreated land. A part of these different pieces 
was limed, without any visible effort— doubtless on ac¬ 
count of a previous existence of a full supply of lime 
in the soil. 
Curl in the Peach. 
The curl in the leaf of the peach, which is generally 
supposed to have had a very unfavorable influence on 
the young crop, has given rise to much speculation as to 
its immediate cause, and cold weather, aphides, fungus 
or mildew, and diseased sap, have been variously as¬ 
signed as reasons. The cold-weather theory will not 
always apply, as the disease sometimes appears after a 
continued succession of warm days, and the first open¬ 
ing of the young leaves shows the symptoms when they 
have never been exposed even to a cool night. Again, 
the disease has often made its appearance when no 
aphides could at any time be detected with the most 
powerful achromatic glass; and newly opening leaves, 
exposed only a few hours to the fresh air, and on which 
no insect had ever set foot, have shown incipient but un¬ 
mistakable indications. The explanation by “ diseased 
sap” is too general and indefinite—the fungus theory 
has more appearance of plausibility, but needs investi¬ 
gation and proof—and if correct, the fungus must be of 
internal growth, as the smooth and shining epidermis 
of the leaf is quite unbroken when the curl first appears 
in the cellular tissue. 
But whatever may be the cause, the best remedy, so 
far as discovered, is vigorous growth. 'We-have ob¬ 
served trees standing in the corner of a hog yard, where 
they were copiously supplied with manure, and as a 
consequence making a rapid growth, covered with deep 
green foliage, with scarcely a vestage of the curl; and a 
row of peach trees which had been very freely shortened 
in the past winter, by cutting of branches in some cases an 
inch in diameter, have sent out strong new shoots, al¬ 
most wholly free from the disease, and the trees are 
well loaded with young fruit. 
Manuring Orchards. 
Wishing to manure an old orchard, and having as 
much under the plow as I can tend, what is the most 
advisable course for me to pursue ? T. S. M. West¬ 
moreland, N. Y. 
Apply the manure late in the autumn, or in the win¬ 
ter, if it cannot be done sooner, and plow it unde? in 
spring and keep the soil mellow and clean by an occa¬ 
sional dressing with the harrow or two-horse cultivator. 
There is little use in trying to raise crops in orchards of 
large trees, which shade the young plants too much for 
profit to annual crops. Ashes or lime at the rate of 100 
to 300 bushels per acre are mostly very beneficial to old 
orchards. 
Amateur and Window Gardening. 
Most plants grown for the window, particularly those 
gone out of bloom, w r ould be the better out-doors entire¬ 
ly, while the scorching hot weather lasts. Select some 
sheltered place, where the rays of the mid-day sun do 
not fall on them if possible ; plunge the pots to the rim 
in coal ashes or other light material, being careful 
whether plunged or not, to put something under the 
bottom of the pots to keep the worms from getting in¬ 
side. By plunging the plants, they are not so likely 
to suffer by inattention to watering. 
Pelargoniums , (geraniums,) should now be cut down 
to three or four eyes on each stem, keeping them rather 
dry for a while. When they have made shoots again 
about a quarter of an inch long, they may be taken 
out of the pots, all the mold shaken off, the roots slight¬ 
ly pruned and x'epotted into smaller pots—keeping them 
indoors, shaded from the sun, till they have recovered 
the check. This is one of the secrets to perfect success 
in geranium-growing. The cuttings may be put in as 
recommended below. 
Any plant wished to flower in the fall or winter, such 
as Pelargonium , Heliotrope , Cupliea salvea, and the 
like, should be potted now for the last time, and the 
flower buds kept pinched out till the middle or end of 
August. Keep them liberally supplied with water, and 
when the pots are filled with roots, a little weak ma¬ 
nure water will assist a sturdy growth, and by fall they 
will be prepared for vigorous flowering. 
Mignonette should now be sown in pots for winter 
flowering. When up, thin out to three or four in a pot, 
and the.y will form nice little bushes; or if preferred a 
neat bush may be got from single plants, if a few small 
plants are taken up carefully from the borders, potted 
in good rich compost, kept under glass shaded and 
moist for a few days, and then, as the pots fill with 
roots, gradually shifted into larger, till fall, pinching 
out the flowers as they appear. By following this me¬ 
thod we have had by Christmas and till spring, bushes 
some eighteen inches diameter, and hundreds of flower 
stems on at a time, making the atmosphere of a green¬ 
house as redolent as a walk in the garden on a summer 
evening, and that, too, when Nature’s white sheet is 
spread over everything out of doors. 
