374 
THE CULTIVATOR 
Dec* 
Chili Pine —Araucaria ivibricata of Pavon .—A 
native of the mountains of Chili, where it sometimes 
rises to the height of one hundred and fifty feet. Al¬ 
though at first considered as too tender for this climate, 
further experience warrants the belief that it is suffi¬ 
ciently hardy for the climate of the middle States, but 
should be planted on dry soils. When young the braneh- 
'es are wborled, and close to the ground. The color of 
the foliage is deep green. Its highly ornamental and 
unique appearance, as will be seen by the illustration, 
render it one of the most attractive of lawn evergreen 
trees. —— 
Advantages of Shelter. 
It is familiar to many that the shelter afforded by 
ordinary deciduous forest trees, is so great that young 
plants or roots will endure the winters in woods, that 
would be totally destroyed by the cold in open ground. 
The shelter of evergreen trees is still greater. We have 
been long since satisfied that many plants which are 
wintered in green houses, or with thick covering, would 
be completely protected under the shade of thick ever¬ 
green screens, and that great advantage would be found 
in surrounding gardens or such portions of ground as 
are devoted to half-hardy plants, with belts of ever¬ 
green trees. We observe in the last number of the 
Ohio Cultivator the statement of a successful experi¬ 
ment of this character, made by Ezra Meech, of Shel¬ 
burne, Vt., whose residence is upon an exposed situation 
near Lake Champlain. He has enclosed a large square 
with evergreen trees, closely planted, which so com¬ 
pletely protect his garden from cold winds, that we are 
assured “many plants, fruits, and flowers,” grow there 
freely, “ which otherwise would require a lower lati¬ 
tude by many hundreds of miles.” The evergreens are 
now 25 feet high. 
Cracking of European and American Pears. 
We never saw a worse example of the cracking of the 
fruit, than was presented some years ago by a bearing 
tree of the Dix in the vicinity of Boston—this variety 
being regarded as one of the hardiest of our American 
pears. Single instances, however, are not so reliable as 
a series of instances. C. M. Ilovey, who has had am¬ 
ple opportunity of observing, in a region where crack¬ 
ing is a common disease, says that the native sorts are 
decidedly superior in this respect to the foreigners. 
“ The Beurre Biel, Napoleon, Doyenne, Leon le Clerc, 
Ac., often crack and split open 5 when on the same soil, 
and close by the side of them, Swan’s Orange, Sheldon, 
Lawrence, Collins, Seckel, &c., show no signs of such 
defect. We have just twenty-five American sorts of 
pears standing in one row, and every one is bearing 
sound and beautiful fruit; while on the opposite side of 
the walk, some of the foreign ones have lost half of their 
crop by cracking open.” 
Crossing Varieties of Plants. 
McIntosh, in his article on hybridizing, after speak¬ 
ing of the extreme caution needed to exclude bees, as a 
single foot placed in the wrong flower, might disap¬ 
point the results of years of labor,—says that bees will 
rarely if ever light on a flower which has no petals; 
and hence, if care is taken to clip them off with the 
scissors at the same time that the anthers are removed, 
there is a fair chance that these busy dusters will not 
interfere with the operator’s labors. He should be pro¬ 
vided with a magnifier, that he may see when the an¬ 
ther has reached its powdery state, and the stigma its 
viscous condition; and he should also have a pair of 
small wire pincers, that he may seize an anther loaded 
with pollen, and spread it with a gentle touch over the 
summit of the stigma. All these operations are of 
course to be registered, and the nature of the impreg¬ 
nation marked on the envelope or vessel in which the 
seed are deposited when ripe. 
Experiments with Charcoal. 
In page 134 of the Country Gentleman, I observe an 
extract from the “ Report of the Survey of Essex Co.,” 
which I read with much pleasure and interest. And I 
take the liberty to add my testimony in its favor, and 
fully confirm all the virtues ascribed to it in the extract. 
The experiments that have been made here with it, are 
the following • 
The material used being the refuse thrown out of the 
steam engine, which is mostly composed of charred 
wood finely pulverized, with only a slight apparent 
admixture of ashes. It is very black, and indeed has 
the appearance of nothing but pulverized charcoal. 
This has been applied to early planted evergeen and 
deciduous ornamental trees, a coating having been 
spread over the surface, as far as the ground has 
been dug around, extending from three to eight feet 
from the bole of the tree. Its beneficial effects are 
plainly visible in the strong and luxuriant growth the 
