ened back the spring after they have borne, in order to produce new spurs at the same point.

PROFITS OF GARDENING.-Dr. Bigham, the late physician of the Utica Insane Asylum, gives the following, as the produce in a single season of one and one fourth acre of land connected with that institution. The land was good and annually manured. The produce was as follows: 1100 heads lettuce, large; 1400 heads cabbage, large; 700 bunches radishes; 250 bunches asparagus; 300 bunches rhubarb; 14 bushels pods marrow fat pease; 40 bushels beans; sweet corn, 3 plantings, 419 dozen; summer squash, 715 dozen; squash peppers, 45 dozen; cucumbers, 756 dozen; cucumber pickles, 7 barrels; beets, 147 bushels; carrots, 29 bushels; parsnips, 26 bushels; onions, 120 bushels; turnips, 80 bushels; early potatoes, 35 bushels; tomatoes, 40 bushels; winter squash, 7 wagon loads; celery, 500 heads-all worth 621 dollars in Utica market, but supplied one hundred and thirty persons with all they could consume. Only one man was required to do all the necessary labor.

GARDEN IRRIGATION.-The extraordinary increase of produce which may be obtained by the practice about to be explained here, ought to excite many who have favorable opportunities for so doing, to prepare a plot of ground on the same plan.

The admirable economy of the Chinese in their management of manure, and the nearly equal thriftiness of the Belgians in the same respect, are much surpassed by the method which may be seen at Caversham, in a small garden within a few yards of the lower Reading railway station.

Mr. Wilkins's Model Garden at Caversham, Berks, England. The system. has been pursued there by Mr. Wilkins during some years with perfect success. The practice of giving manure to the roots of plants by pipes under the surface, had been in some instances practiced by ingenious gardeners, in the growing of celery more particularly, but the carrying out of the principle in the general and complete manner shown at Caversham, is considered by Mr. Wilkins to have been his own discovery; and he has obtained a patent for it.

Mr. Wilkins prepares the manure in a covered tank, similar to a tanner's bark liquid-pit, of a size proportioned to the quantity required for the garden. This tank has a false bottom, placed at from one to two feet from the bottom of the tank, and pierced with numerous small holes.

Into this tank are thrown solid manures, such as dung from stables and cow-houses, pigstys, street-sweepings, and various animal and vegetable refuse substances. It is then filled with water, which, in passing through the manuring matter, becomes impregnated with its elements; it trickles through the perforated bottom, and thus strained, is pumped up into a tank on a higher level, to give it a fall into a pipe which conveys it to the beds in which the crops to be irrigated by it are growing.

The ground is laid out in beds three feet in width, and divided into equal lengths by a walk, on one side of which the beds are watered on* Mr. Wilkins's principle, while on the other they are not.

Thus crops under both modes of treatment may be compared. Description of the Mechanical Arrangements.-The beds, under this

new system, are prepared thus: the earth is dug out to the depth of about two feet, and the perfectly level bottom is covered with bricks or tiles (or it may be more cheaply done with concrete) quite watertight, with bricks on edge at the four sides, to prevent the liquid from escaping. Upon the bottom is laid, the whole lengthway of the bed and midway, a line of half-round drain-tiles, laid together (the convex part uppermost) in the usual way. At the end of each bed next the walk, a pipe is slantingly fixed, inclining downward to the main channel, for the purpose of conveying the liquid into it, and an upright pipe is placed at the other end as an index, by which any one looking into it, or gauging the depth, can tell the height to which the moisture rises.

The surface being prepared as described, the earth that had been removed is thrown back again.

By means of a gutta-percha hose, with arms that can be turned to each bed, furnished with stop-cocks, the liquid can be supplied to all or any of the beds at once. It passes along their entire length at bottom, rising through the interstices between the pipes; and being absorbed by the earth, it feeds the roots of the plants. None of it runs to waste: it cannot escape through the bricks.

That this system of applying manure is productive of great results, no one who has seen Mr. Wilkins's crops can doubt. The plants are directly supplied with food in the form in which it is most suitable to them; none of it is lost by evaporation, which in surface irrigation must take place. Neither scorching heat of the sun, nor parching wind, deprives it of its most precious qualities. The plants imbibe the ful amount of nourishment which the manure contains: there is no waste whatever.

On the beds thus prepared and thus manured, the differences in some of the crops were in the following proportions:

On the new beds, mangolds weighed about three times more than those grown on the opposite beds treated in the old way.

Swedes measured twenty-three and a half inches in girth in the one instance, and less than half this in the other.

The yield of wheat, peas, and beans was double the amount on the watered beds.

A single potato grown in mere sand produced ninety-four tubers, while two planted under the old system produced but seventy-seven. A single ash-leaved kidney planted in saw-dust yielded, under the new system, one hundred tubers, weighing twenty-four pounds.

Similar differences were seen in the crops of hemp, flax, hops, Lucerne and Italian rye-grasses: five cuttings were obtained of the two last by the underground watering; while only two were obtained from the unwatered beds.

A very remarkable distinction appeared in the growth of two vinecuttings, both planted at the same time, one receiving the liquid manure, and the other being without it-the former was about fifteen inches high when the other was scarcely four.

Gardens belonging to poor-houses and various public establishments of an industrial nature, might, to some extent at least, be treated on this plan. On very poor and otherwise almost worthless soils, the sys

tem would be especially valuable. The soil would be only important to give fixity to the roots; therefore its quality would not be a very important consideration wherever the liquid tank and a brick or cement flooring of the garden were provided.

A tub would answer the purpose of a tank on a small scale, and the liquid could be poured by hand from any convenient utensils down the throat of an inclined pipe into the horizontal pipe below, whenever moisture might be required by the roots below. There is no expense of any moment involved in a simple contrivance of this nature for poorhouse and parochial-school gardens; such an arrangement as Mr. Wilkins has effected would be highly economical and effective.

The formation of a well-contrived cesspool in a convenient position would be more than half the work to be accomplished.

7

THE FRUIT-GARDEN.- THE FRUITS TO

CULTIVATE.

IN "THE KITCHEN-GARDEN" we have described the fruits appropriate to it, and their modes of culture. We will here confine our attention to the Fruit-Garden proper, and its appropriate fruits, which are

Apples, Pears, Peaches, Plums, Cherries, Apricots, Nectarines.

Before proceeding to describe the varieties and mode of culture of the particular fruits, we will speak concisely of the different methods of propagation, planting, and pruning.

HOW TO PROPAGATE FRUIT-TREES.-This is effected by Seeds, Cuttings, Layers, Grafting, and Budding.

Cuttings consist of a portion of the wood of one year's growth inserted into the soil. They should be from eight to ten inches long, and all the lower buds removed. The earth should be closely pressed about them, and mulched, and the cutting shielded from the direct rays of the sun. The gooseberry, currant, grape and quince are easily propagated by cuttings.

Layers. A few directions will show how layering is accomplished. An incision must be made on the under side of the branch; if done carefully, it will facilitate the striking of roots. The centre should be buried about four inches in the soil. It may be done in spring, or about midsummer, and the roots transplanted the following spring. After the buds of the grape-vine have started a few inches it may be laid along the surface and covered with soil, when each bud will take root. Grafting. The following are the different forms described by J. J. Thomas in the "American Fruit Culturist."

Fig. 15.

Fig. 17.

Fig. 18.

The annexed figures represent the two most common modes of grafting fruit-trees; figs. 15 to 18 representing successive stages of tongue or whip grafting, from the sloping cut of the scion and stock, to the completion of the operation by the covering with the wax plaster. Fig. 19 shows a stock cut off for cleft-grafting with the upright cleft separated by an iron or steel wedge, ready for the graft; fig. 20, cut wedge-form to fit it; and fig. 21, the graft in its place, after the wedge has been

Fig. 16. withdrawn, the projecting angle of the stock sloped off with a knife, and the whole ready for the application of the wax.

Fig. 21.

Whip grafting is particularly applicable to small stocks, or where the graft and stock are nearly of equal size; and cleft-grafting to stocks considerably larger than the scion. In all cases, where the stock is in any degree larger, the graft must be placed toward one side, so that the line between the bark and wood may exactly coincide at one point at least in both, as in the cross section of cleft-grafting.

There are other modifications of grafting which are often useful. In saddle grafting, the stock is sloped

off on each side, giving it the form of a wedge, fig. 23, a; the graft is

b

split in the middle, and each side thinned away with the knife, as in fig. 23 b, until it will closely fit when placed like a saddle upon it, fig. 24. The most perfect way to fit the graft, is to make a long sloping cut from the outer edge or bark, by drawing the blade from heel to point, till it reaches the center of the graft; and then another similar cut completes the acute cavity for fitting the wedge of the stock. A sharp, broad, and thin blade, is needed for this operation. A wax plaster, drawn closely round the place of union, completes the work. When the stock and graft are very nearly of equal size, this is a very perfect mode of grafting, as large corresponding surfaces are made to fit, and the graft receives freely the ascending sap.

a

Fig. 23.

Fig. 24.

In all these modes of grafting, whenever a wedge is made to enter a cleft, it should be thicker on the side where the fit is made between the two parts, so as to receive at that side the full pressure of the cut faced.

Grafts may be cut at any time after the cessation of growth late in the summer, and before the spring growth commences. But they must be kept in a damp place. Wet moss is the best material in which to preserve them.

Grafting-Wax, made as follows, should neatly cover all the splits and cuts made in grafting: four parts rosin, three parts beeswax, and three parts lard. In these, after being melted and thoroughly mixed, strips of cotton cloth should be dipped, and cut when cold to any desired length and width.

Budding. Common shield budding consists in leaving a small piece. of wood at the base of the bud inserted, instead of taking all out. An incision is made lengthwise through the bark of the stock, and a small cut at right angles at the top, the whole somewhat resembling the let