Show THE CARE OF ORCHARDS we find the following excellent article on thib this subject la in the march number of the working farmer and commend ftp it on account of its good practical bense cense to such of our readers as raise fruit the difference between the successful fruit raiser ralser and one whose orchards are a constant failure allure f is measured precisely by the relative amount of care bestowed in the respective cases we have never known a painstaking cultivator to fail tail in producing yearly an average quantity of magnificent ht fruit while the careless husbandman who lets his bis orchard take care of itself will seldom find it a paying investment A few years of neglect will destroy the best trees and render the orchard a worthless collection of dead and dying cum bearers of the ground 21 2 1 the season is at hand when the most industrious dust rious care must be given to apple pear and quince trees in order to insure a fair fain product of fruit trust not trimming of your tree trees to ignorant and shiftless hands but remember ber that you might almost aa as safely confine the surgery of the human body to an quack A aume sume bume to yourself the all important labors of the orchard and allow no unpracticed hand band to touch the sensitive sensa tive trees except under your immediate supervision let all dead branches all unsightly suckers all superfluous branches which keek out the sun and air be carefully pruned away then give the trunks a thorough cleansing with whale oil soap or common soft soap if the former is not convenient or better still use the following soda wash first recommended by the working farmer its value has been repeatedly tested by many of our readers heat sal soda red hot and then dissolve it in water in the proportion of one pound of sal soda eoda thug thus made caustic to one gallon of water this is as we have frequently asserted the beai best tree wash known krown if it be applied to the surface of the bodies of apple trees a few times we shall have no borers mosses or fungi of any kind it destroys the cocoons of insects and so bo decomposes all dead portions of the bark as to cause it to be removed or thrown off by the ex expanding I 1 of the tha tree trees so treated look aa as it if tuy they were scrubbed with great regularity unlike potash it will not injure living portions of the tree but having decomposed all the fungi cocoons ova of insects etc the early spring will find trees so treated ready to avail of natures laws in the production of fruit health growth of wood etc this season of the year while the tree is in its normal condition the saturated soda wash may be used without the slightest injury and any portion of the wash that may be carried to the ground will vill act as a fertilizer after the application of this wash a few times the loose bark and moss m y be readily scraped off and will not appear in an any y quantity thereafter avoid the too common error of whitewashing white washing the trunks of trees besides giving the tree an unsightly appearance ancee the whitewash rapidly changes to carbonate of lime leaving the surface coated with it and all the pores fillad and rendered comparatively inert by its presence itis it is best beat to apply soda eoda wash and cleanse the trunks of the trees before the commencement of spring growth another measure of transcend transcendent ant importance in the preservation of fruit trees is to keep a sharp lookout both in the fall and spring for the borer in doing this the grea t eat cat patience and perseverance er severance are necessary the earth should be removed to the junction of the roots and the surface ot 0 tle trees rubbed by the band hand in this manner the presence preseD ce of the worms may be usually detected it requires keen eyes to discover them but it may be done in young treasby trees by observing obber vinga a little roughness where the maggot enters and a slight discoloration of the bark at that particular spot if it not removed in the month of november noveme er when the insect is only about thre e sixteenths of an inch in length and can be easily extracted from the bark and sapwood sap wood by a sharp pointed knife it becomes very destructive truc tive in the spring working mainly below the surface of the ground then it can ran be detected only by the closest observation and the surest instrument for their destruction is a sharp pointed knife after they have struck into the wood and are working upward a sharp wire or a bit of sponge fastened to the end of a small wire and dip dipped ed in in spirl spirits it a of turpentine may be introduced into the hole and the turpentine is pretty sure to destroy them but great patience and practice alone can insure the against the ravages of this destroyer in regard to manurI Bg fruit trees we again caution our readers against the use of raw materials from the barnyard they cause an unnatural growth soft and imperfect in texture and incapable of stan standing ding our changes of climate but woods earth an and chip chie chip manure are admirable fertilizers for the orchard for they contain proximate a in precisely the condition to be re appropriated by fruits wood ashes also form an excellent manure for fruit trees particularly the pear |