In rooms, plants should enjoy as much of the light and sun from the window as possible, be often turned, giving them a supply of fresh air in fine, soft weather; divest them of all dead leaves, and water them as nature indicates by the earth drying in the pots. Too much water sours and rots, too little dries up the plant, and breeds insects, &c. Plants in a growing stale require more water.
Seeds should be saved from the plants in the healthiest stale, and those first ripe are the best. Clean the seeds, and preserve only those that are full and plump, throwing out those of a light quality.
Leaves are the principal organs of respiration, synonymous with the lungs of animals. Dead or decaying leaves are apt to breed insects.
Plants of all kinds should be so situated that the sun and air may have free access to any part of the leaves, fruit, and all parts as far as possible.
The Dahlia thrives best in a deep, rich, loamy soil, with the full benefit of sun and air. In winter, the roots should be cleared of decaying parts, dead stalks or tubers, and kept in a temperature a few degrees above freezing. For late flowers, plant late. Sow seed in May, in open grounds; but in a pot of light, rich, sandy soil, as early as first April, and transplant about middle of May. Divide the roots and plant in March as soon as the eyes begin to push out, in pots or green-house, and transplant when the weather is settled warm.
FRUIT TREES.
Fruits, in a ripe and perfect state, are beneficial to health, if not eaten to excess.
Stunted trees never become vigorous, nor when too long crowded in nurseries.
In Grafting, 25 well placed are better than 100 grafts placed at random, and ten placed injudiciously will change the whole lop of a tree in a few years, when 200 grafts may be so scattered as not materially to change the top of the tree or its fruit. Graft only on such as are sound and vigorous.
Huggling off limbs and branches and leaving stumps on the trees, which rot off and let the water into the trunk, soon destroys the tree; therefore always cut or saw off smooth, when the wound will heal and the bark grow over.
Sound vigorous trees, and no other, should be set out, as they take no more trouble or space than the worthless ones.
Budding should only be done with fresh buds, on very small stocks of vigorous growth. Begin after sap starts, until 1st June. Later will do. Make incision like a T; raise the corners and insert the bud with as little of the wood as possible, and bandage, not too tight, for three weeks.
Scions may be cut in February or March, before or at the time the buds begin to swell; or take grafts size of a pipe-stem, from bearing branches, not from side shoots nor the rank growth of the top. Put in earth one third their length, keep from frost, and occasionally sprinkle to prevent shriveling, but not so wet as to sprout them.
Composition.–Rosin 8 oz., beeswax 3 oz.; melt up with lard, and work it like shoemakers’ wax: for wounds made in priming or grafting.
Split the stock, drive in a wedge 6 or 8 inches long, open the split so as to admit the graft freely, sharpen end of graft and insert, matching the wood of graft and wood of the stock; remove the wedge carefully, cover smooth over with composition, tight, to exclude air, and the sap will force its way to the graft.
Seed.–Select from healthy trees, sound, ripe and fair fruit, and place in sand, in a cellar or other cool, damp place, until time to plant. If kept too dry, they seldom vegetate. Let the soil be good, well worked, not too wet; cover up and press the ground moderately over. Plant in Fall, before the ground is frozen, or in Spring soon as the ground can be worked.
Soil.–Low, wet or marshy ground is not suitable. Soil appropriate for crops or grain is also adapted to the cultivation of fruit trees, shrubs or vines. Occasional digging, mellowing the ground, keeping down underbrush and weeds, and manuring, are beneficial.
Cleanliness is essential. Destroy all caterpillars, noxious worms and insects, and prune off all affected parts. Scrape off rough ragged bark and moss, and wash well with soap suds or cover with a coat of lime-wash. Remove all suckers from the roots, side branches and excrescences.
Grubs, which occasion disease, may be prevented by coating the roots and lower trunk, about July 1, with tar, train oil, or whitewash, and sprinkling a little lime, ashes, or soap suds, on the ground around the tree. When seriously affected, dig the earth from the roots near the surface, and search thoroughly in the bark for the grub; cleanse off the gum, &c., wash with ley or soap suds, or rub dry ashes over them, and close up with good fresh earth. Doing this as occasion requires, will ensure health and vigour.
A MANUAL FOR PRODUCING SILK,
Planting.–In the Middle Slates, plant the morus multicaulis from the 15th of April to the 15th of May–a little later or earlier, according to the season. The ground to be made fine; furrows three or four feet apart; distance in the furrow about the same. Some plant one, and others one foot and a half apart. The more distant, the more the tree will branch; but the increase of surface to cultivate, increases the labour. Plant the layers or branches entire, or cut them into two bud cuttings, and bury them as you would corn, but not too deep. Be careful the first weeding. Hot, unfermented manure, is bad. This part of the business requires about the same skill and management as corn, observing a dry, sandy loam: sandy, light gravelly, or stony soils, produce the sweetest leaf and the finest silk. An acre will hold 14 500 trees, the rows three feet wide, and trees one foot apart in the row; or it will contain, if three feet each way, 4840 trees.
Preserving Eggs.–Rev. Mr. M’Lean says he folded his eggs in a small tea-chest, lined with lead, and covered with flannel. This box was placed in one a size larger, and the space between filled with charcoal, covered with a loose board. Place in an ice-house or cool cellar, where the heat will not rise above 45 degrees. Dennis says, put eggs in a glass jar, covered, and set in the ground two-thirds of its height in a cool cellar. Roberts says, use tin box or glass, not stopped tight, and keep in a dry, cool cellar, or any other cool place where water will not freeze.
Some experienced Silk-growers think the retarding process is unnatural and improper, and that hatching may be regulated to wait, at the same time, the requirements of nature and the supply of food. (See Journal of Am. Silk Society. By G. B. Smith, Esq., Baltimore.)
