T IER W 13 C e NIBS N FYA R R 1R,



   THE HORTICULTURIST.

A.Gi. HANFOD,   : CORRESPONDING EDITOR



              The 8tiped ktg.
  Ms. EDIToIa-Sir: Some time last spring I
wrote you a short sermon in relation to corres-
poedents and for your own special use, which
you took the responsibility to publish in the
FAaxux, thereby informing its readers that I
was in possession of a method to prevent the
ravages of the striped bug, which, with some
other things, I had communicated to the
FAnxsB, had been withheld, through careless-
ness, or some other unknown cause. from its
readers.
  Since that time I have received some com-
munications from different parts of the State
to learn the mystery, but which came too late
to be of any benefit this season, so I have left
them unanswered, and now claim the columns
of the FARMER to satisfy the curiosity which
the publication of my article to the Editor has
raised. As it is an old affair, I will occupy no
space in explaining the high flown words used
in praise of said article, except to state that
the cure is founded on the principle of "loving
our enemies, or doing good for evil." Now
the whole secret is to feed your bugs with
something they like better than melons. Do
not striped bugs like squash plants better than
the plants of any other vine ? I think so; and
accordingly plant alternate rows of squashes
with pther vines, putting in ten times the
amount of seed which I wish to mature, and
thinning out when so large as to interfere with
those I wish to grow. In this way I keep lots
of bugs in my garden, and have melons sure
every year. If I have no squash seed, I plant
the next better thing, and if nothing can be
had but seeds of the same sort, plant an abund-
ance of them, so that the bugs may have a plenty
and have some left for me.    T. SEARS.
  Xosncztto, Green County, Win.

        Keeping Orchards Cultivated.
  The Gardener's Monthly, an excellent journal,
published in Philadelphia, Thomas Meehan,
Editor, contained an article a few weeks sinoe,



the loading idea of which wa, - that orchards
are, more successful through a series ol years
laid down in grass and annually top-dressed,
than when cultivated aad cropped." The
CGesy   Gaslesan, and some o"r paps,
dissent from the doctrine, and urge cultivation.
The true course, it seems to us, eas between
theilwo extremes. We buve never known an
orchard to Aourish that was continually in
grass, no matter what the other circumstances
were. Perhaps excessive top-dressing might
make it thrifty,-awe have never tried it,-btkt
it would coxtainly greatly promote the growth
of the grass. On the other hand, orchard land
eotinually eultivated for many years, and an-
nually manured, will so force the trees as to
make them tender and liable to disease, and
produce such a surplus of wood as to prevent
their fruiting.-N. E. Farmer.



             Dwarf Apple Trees.
  The above cut is intended to illustrate a dwarf
apple tree three or four years old. These little
trees are especially adapted to the garden and
limited grounds. They occupy but little space
(5 or l; feet apart, when on paradise stocks, is
quite sufficient), hence a number of varieties
may be grown on a small piece of ground;
planted along the border and walks, they need
but slightly interfere with the other products
of the garden.
  The dwarf apple tree, like the dwarf pear,
may be moved safely when of bearing age, and
it is not, unusuqI to send trees from the nursery
full of bloisom buds: where one is in haste
this may do, but trees one or two years old
will geLerally give the best 8atishction.
  By observing s little cae'-in pruning and
training, these miniature tress may be made
objects of beauty, thus adding to the agrees.



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