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Pine-Apples

clay subsoil, and an eastern or southern expo- | fruit has sometimes been picked from one plant, sure. The best fertilizer for the peach is Peruvian the next season after planting. Some cultivators guano. Among the best varieties to ripen in suc- prefer to cut off all the blossoms the first spring, cession are , of clearstones, the Early York; Early so as to strengthen the plants for growth. The Tillotson ; George the Fourth; Oldmixon Free- | best varieties of strawberry are, Wilson's Albany; stone; Columbian; Crawford's Late. Of cling- Hovey's Seedling; Triomphe de Gand; Bartlett; Large White; Oldmixon Cling; Heath.

The principal diseases of the peach are, the yellows, and worms which prey upon the crown roots near the surface of the ground. The most effectual preventive for the yellows is, to be careful to get healthy trees, and to plant them well above the surface of the ground, by throwing up ridges with the plough, say fifteen or twenty feet apart; then plant the tree on the ridge, also making a slight mound to cover the roots. If the tree shows signs of weakness, dig the earth well from the crown roots, scrape the worms away if any, and then sprinkle in the hole around the roots a handful or two of guano, and fill it up with earth. Worms may be prevented, also, by coating the bark of each tree, for three or four inches next to the ground, with coal or gas tar; which will not allow the parent insect to deposit its eggs. Only a short distance must be so coated, as to cover the whole trunk would kill the tree. A kind of coat made of the gas-soaked felt used for roofs will answer the same purpose.

All orchard trees require good cultivation, but especially the peach. Ashes are said by some to be a good addition to its manure.

The Plum.

The plum-tree is hardy, and requires but little attention; it bears abundantly, and may be considered a sure crop when the soil suits. The best for it is a stiff clay, which is not suitable to the habits of the curculio, the great enemy of the plum.

The best varieties are, the Green Gage, Purple Gage, and Prince's Yellow Gage.

The Blackberry.

For the cultivated blackberry the soil should be rich, dry, and mellow. Barn-yard manure and bone-dust are its best fertilizers; it is a good plan to mix them with half-rotten straw, or some such thing. They should be planted three feet apart in the rows; the rows being six feet asunder.

The most approved variety is the Lawton or Rochelle; its fruit is very large, beautiful, and luscious, when allowed to become fully ripe on the bush. The Dr. Warder, Dorchester and Marshall Winder varieties are also very fine. Immense numbers of cultivated blackberries are now sold annually in the markets of our cities.

The Raspberry.

The best soil for the raspberry is a rich, light, deep soil. Plant them in rows six feet apart and three feet asunder in the row. It is well occasionally to throw up the earth around them so as to protect the roots which keep near the surface from the hot sun. The most desirable varieties are, the American Black; Hudson River Antwerp; Improved American Black; Brinckle's Orange.

The Strawberry.

For this fruit the most suitable soil is light and sandy. It may be enriched by ashes, bone, barnyard manure, etc. The plants should be set one foot apart, in rows two feet from each other. Put in the young plants from the middle of August to the middle of September. Keep the ground mellow and free from weeds. In the following spring manure and hoe the ground well, to keep it moist and free from weeds. With such care a quart of McAvoy's Superior.

The Cranberry.

This is a hardy trailing shrub, growing wild in many parts of the country. It is easily cultivated, and when once established in the soil requires very little attention; it produces large crops, and the fruit commands high prices. The best soil is that of swampy, sandy meadows or bogs, which are unfit for any other purpose. This fruit is well worthy of the attention of any one who has wet, swampy land. It will flourish from Maine to middle Virginia.

To plant Small Fruits.

Currants and gooseberries are often planted in lines, by the side of the walks or alleys of the garden; but it is a better method to plant them in quarters by themselves, and to make new plantations every sixth or seventh year. Raspberries produce the finest fruit when young; that is, about the third or fourth year after planting, if properly managed.

It is proper to plant some of all the above fruits on a north border, or other shaded situation, in order to prolong the season of them, if that be an object, besides planting them out in quarters as hinted above.

From four to six feet square, according to the quality of the soil, may be deemed a proper distance at which to plant the above fruits; that is, in good land six feet, in middling land five, and in poor land four feet apart. Some may also very properly be planted against vacant places on any of the walls, pales or espaliers. Antwerp raspberries, in particular, and some kinds of gooseberries, are highly improved in size and flavor if trained to a south wall.

To choose Plants.

No better mode exists at present than having recourse for trees to the most reputable nurseries; and, with McPhail and Nicol, we would recommend, instead of maiden plants, "to make choice of those not very young, but such as are healthy, and have been transplanted several times, and been in a state of training for two or three years at least." A safe mode is to plant partly maiden and partly trained plants, by which means those which come early into fruit, should they prove bad sorts, may be replaced by others.

To manage Orchards.

The whole ground of an orchard should be dug in the autumn and laid up in a rough state for the winter, giving it as much surface as possible in order that the weather may fully act upon and meliorate the soil; thus following it as far as the case will admit. Observe to dig carefully near to the trees, and so as not to hurt their roots and fibres. If the soil be shallow, and if these lie near to the surface, it would be advisable to dig with a fork instead of the spade.

Crop to within two feet of the trees the first year, a yard the second, four feet the third, and so on until finally relinquished; which, of course, would be against the eighth year, provided the trees were planted at thirty or forty feet apart, with early-bearing sorts between. By this time, if the kinds have been well chosen, the temporary trees will be in full bearing, and will forthwith defray every necessary expense. destroying the eggs of insects.

Wherever the bark is decayed or cracked it ought to be removed.

Let a small basin or hollow be made round the | medicated wash of some of the different sorts for stem of each tree, a foot or eighteen inches in diameter and two or three inches deep, according to the extent of its roots. Fill this basin with dung to the thickness of five or six inches, over which sprinkle a little earth, just enough to keep it from being blown about. This both nourishes the young fibres, and keeps the ground about them moist in hot weather if wetted freely once week.

To clothe the Stems of Standard Trees.

This is done by an envelope of moss or short grass; or litter wound round with shreds of matting is of great use the first year after planting to keep the bark moist, and thereby aid the ascent and circulation of the sap in the alburnum. This operation should be performed at or soon after planting, and the clothing may be left on till by decay it drops off of itself. It is of singular service in very late planting, or when, from unforeseen circumstances, summer-planting becomes requisite.

To prune Orchard Trees.

The object in pruning young trees is to form a proper head. The shoots may be pruned in proportion to their lengths, cutting clean away such as cross one another, and fanning the tree out towards the extremities on all sides, thereby keeping it equally poised, and fit to resist the effects of high winds. When it is wished to throw a young tree into a bearing state, which should not be thought of, however, sooner than the third or fourth year after planting, the leading branches should be very little shortened and the lower or side branches not at all, nor should the knife be used, unless to cut out such shoots as cross one another.

The season for pruning orchards is generally winter or early in spring. A weak tree ought to be pruned directly at the fall of the leaf. To prune in autumn strengthens a plant, and will bring the blossom buds more forward; to cut the wood late in spring tends to check a plant, and is one of the remedies for excessive luxuriance.

To recover Deformed Trees.

Where a tree is stinted or the head ill-shaped from being originally badly pruned, or barren from having overborne itself, or from constitutional weakness, the most expeditious remedy is to head down the plant within three, four or five eyes (or inches, if an old tree) of the top of the stem, in order to furnish it with a new head. The recovery of a languishing tree, if not too old, will be further promoted by taking it up at the same time and pruning the roots: for as, on the one hand, the depriving of too luxuriant a tree of part even of its sound, healthy roots, will moderate its vigor, so, on the other, to relieve a stinted or sickly tree of cankered or decayed roots, to prune the extremities of sound roots, and especially to shorten the dangling tap-roots of a plant affected by a bad subsoil, is, in connection with heading down, or very short pruning, and the renovation of the soil, and draining if necessary of the subsoil, the most availing remedy that can be tried. To cure Diseases of Orchard Trees.

A tree often becomes stinted from an accumulation of moss, which affects the functions of the bark and renders the tree unfruitful. This evil is to be removed by scraping the stem and branches of old trees with the scraper, and on young trees a hard brush will effect the purpose.

Abercrombie and Nicol recommend the finishing of this operation by washing with soap-suds, or a The other diseases to which orchard trees are subject are chiefly the canker, gum, mildew and blight, which are rather to be prevented by such culture as will induce a healthy state than to be remedied by topical applications. Too much lime may bring on the canker, and if so, the replacing a part of such soil with alluvial or vegetable earth would be of service.

The gum may be constitutional, arising from offensive matter in the soil; or local, arising from external injury. In the former case improve the soil, in the latter employ the knife.

The mildew may be easily subdued at its first appearance, by scattering flour of sulphur upon the infected parts.

For the blight and caterpillars, Forsyth recommends burning of rotten wood, weeds, potatohaulm, with straw, etc., on the windward side of the trees, when they are in blossom. He also recommends washing the stems and branches of all orchard trees with a mixture of "fresh cow dung with wine and soap-suds," as a whitewasher would wash the ceiling or walls of a room. The promised advantages are, the destruction of insects and fine bark, more especially when it is found necessary to take off all the outer bark.

To preserve Apple, Cherry, and Plum-trees from Frost, as practised in Russia.

The severity of the winters at St. Petersburg is so great that few fruit trees will survive it, even with careful matting; to prevent the loss which is thus usually sustained, the following mode of training has been attended with complete success.

It consists in leading the branches of the trees on horizontal trellises only ten or twelve inches from the ground. When the winter sets in, there are heavy falls of snow, and as the frost increases, the snow generally augments, by which the trees are entirely buried, and receive no injury from the most intense frost.

Another very great advantage of training trees in the above method consists in the growth of the wood, it being of equal strength, and the fruit produced being all alike, the blooms come out much earlier, and the crop ripens sooner. The trees are always clean and free from insects.

The only cherry that does not succeed in that way is the Black-heart; this is attributed to the damps which affect the early blossoms, but in a milder climate this injury would be obviated by placing the trellis higher from the ground. When the trellis decays under the apples, it is never renewed, as the trees keep always (from the strength of their branches) their horizontal position.

There are other advantages of treating fruit trees in this manner; they come sooner into bearing, and their fruit is not affected by high winds. The apples are never gathered, but suffered to drop off, for the distance they fall is not sufficient to bruise them.

To preserve and pack Roots, etc.

Roots, cuttings, grafts, and perennial plants in general, are perserved, till wanted, in earth or moss, moderately moist, and shaded from the sun.

The same principle is followed in packing them to be sent to a distance. The roots, or root ends of the plants, or cuttings, are enveloped in balls of clay or loam, wrapped round with moist moss, and air is admitted to the tops. In this way orange-trees are sent from Genoa to any part of Europe and North America in perfect preserva-