Planting Pears In The Fall

A subscriber, writing from Saint John, N. B., says: "I propose planting some dwarf pear trees this season, and would prefer planting in the fall. Would you, through the magazine, inform me whether you would apprehend any likelihoods of their being injured in the winter? Our winters are very severe, the thermometer ranging as low as 16° or 18° below the cipher; not often, perhaps two or three times during the winter; but not unfre-quently as low as 8° to 10° below." Notwithstanding your cold weather, we, like you, should prefer planting in the fall. We should apprehend little or no danger from cold. A winter mulch of charcoal dust or long manure would be useful. We think you can safely go on with fall planting.

Planting Potatoes

They say abroad that the secret of getting potatoes ripe in August that will keep all winter, is "to set them well sprouted. There is no occasion to put them in early. The month of August is the critical time for the winter potato. But by sprouting the tuber before setting, you obtain nearly a month's advantage, bo that when the disease does come, the plant is in a stronger state than it would otherwise be, and is thereby enabled to repel the attack." The author who thus writes in the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal is the Rev. E. F. Manly, and there may be something in his remarks.

Planting Slips

The Gazette des Campagnes recommends to dip the extremities of the slip in collodion, containing twice as much cotton as the ordinary material used in photography. Let the first coat dry and then dip again. After planting the slip, the development of the roots will take place very promptly. This method is said to be particularly efficacious in woody slips, Geranium, Fuchsia and similar plants.

Planting Strawberry Beds

Pray give a new subscriber, who has not your back volumes to refer to, some plain directions for making a few strawberry beds, for the supply of a small family. When is the best season for planting; what are the best sorts, and how shall the soil be prepared? Yours. A. H. New-London, Ct.

Planting The Vineyard

Supposing the side of a mountain thus prepared, at the expense of much labor and capital, the planting of the vineyard is performed in the autumn, after the vintage is concluded, by taking cuttings from the old vines and placing them flat down, covering the butt ends only with earth, and leaving them so until they callus and form roots, when they are planted two feet deep in the ground and at about three feet apart. These vines take four to six years before they bear well; in the mean time they require much attention, many of them dying, notwithstanding great care is bestowed on them. Our planters in this country will remember this feature as applicable at times to their own practices, and I hope take courage from association, and not become disheartened under the impression that losses only accrue to them.

Planting Vines Deep

There are many, even among our best vine-growers, who advocate planting the vine deep - say eight and ten inches of soil above the upper root. Now it is well known that the most of grape roots, when left to themselves, are grown near the surface, and that one of the great objections to vine-growing, without pruning in a border, is that the roots, if not walled in, will soon extend beyond a desired limit, and that walling, to prevent their extension, causes them to seek food below the genial influence of light and air, and thus create disease. If this prove true, as record makes it in the border, why is it that com-pelling the roots in the field to seek their food deep below light and air can prove a healthy feature in grape culture ? We hope some grape man will tell us wherein lies the value of keeping grape roots below the influence of atmosphere, for in all other fruits all growers advocate the reverse.