FARMING CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6061, 21 April 1881, Page 3

FARMING CORRESPONDENCE.

GBAFTIXG, ETC. "To ' Agricola. : Sir, — Will you please to answer the following questions through the correspondents' column, and oblige a new hand ? No. I.—hen is the proper time to cut scions for grafting, and how do you treat them ? No. 2.—Would it be safe to shift plum trees about six years old ? If safe, when is the best time? No. 3. At what age do you think apple trees are past moving ? I have some that are pretty large, but I do not know their age. They are planted too close.—l am, &c., L. H. Albertland, March IS, ISSI."—I. Grafting should be done when the sap has begun to flow, which is shown by the buds commencing to swell. August and September are the best months for the operation —the former for peaches aud some kinds of plums ; the latter for apples aud pears. Scions are invariably shoots of the previous season's growth. By some they are taken from the tree and worked on the stocks at once; others consider they are better if cut some weeks previously and buried in dry sand, keeping the buds dormant until they are wanted. It is important that scions should not only be from good and vigorous trees, but that the wood is firm and well ripened. If, in grafting, the scion and the stock are the same size, all the better, as the two barks of the one can be united to the barks of the other —the union of the barks being the secret in performing this work. For roots, suckers, or seedlings, whip-tongue grafting is the best method. Where the stock and scion are not of the same size, of course only one side can be made to touch. Where grafting is about to be performed on stocks or branches an inch or more in diameter, what is known as cleft-grafting will have to be practised. After the head of the stock has been cut off an incision is made with a chisel or a knife and the scion, cut like a M r ed»e, is put in. ( When the stock is large, four scions can be used by making two incisions crossways. The whole has, of course, to be bound round with Sax or strips of calico, and then covered with clay or grafting wax. I may remark that budding is a more simple and efficacious operation than grafting. 2. Plum trees can be moved with safety from May to August, taking care, when shifting them, so to prune the branches as to have the roots and top pretty evenly balanced. The trees should be well staked, so that they will not blow about when planted. 3. Whether large apple trees are worth removing must depend upon the life and vigour they possess. Unless very close together, it might be more profitable to prune and cut them back than to shift them, but without I saw the trees I would not venture to give an opinion about the advisability of moving them.

' SPECIMEN*. "To 'Agricola.' Sir, —Be good enough to inform me through the columns of the Weekly News the name of the enclosed specimen of grass, found growing on the road in this district. I planted a root in my garden, and this is taken therefrom. It is now in flower.—l am, &c., H. Symo.vds. Ruarangi, March 19, ISSI."—I have seen this grass in the North, and suppose it to be a native; but not having the book on New Zealaad grasses by me, I cannot give the botanical name. I may, however, some other time. LIGUBIAN BESS. In reply to "Beekeeper," I may remark that opinions differ very considerably about the Ligurian bee. Some parties are very enthusiastic about it, and seem to think it will work wonders in the honey industry, and be the means also of fertilising red clover. Others think just the opposite. As to the clover notion, that is simply an error that has somehow got afloat. Red clover bears seed freely, as every settler who has grown it can testify. The difficulty is not to get clover to seed, but to get the seed out of the pods—a matter that requires special machinery to accomplish. As to the bee itself, this is what a writer in Canterbury has recently said :—This, the latest introduction of ' The Acclimatisation Society,' seems likely to prove a terrible curse to New Zealand bee-keepers, if I may judge by the attack made by these yellow bees on a hive of the common black sorts in a neighbouring apiary. Finding that the door of the hive was not very well guarded, the yellow rascals obtained entrance and completely sacked the city, taking away all the honey they could carry. One is now able to understand the denunciations against these insects made by English and Victorian bee-keepers on their first introduction many years ago. They were over and over again denounced as the greatest robbers of the insect world, and I have now no doubt but that the term is a very apt one. The whole lines from Dr. Watts' hymn, re the industry of the busy bee, will have to be modified, for instead of gathering honey ' all the day from every opening flower,' these wretches help themselves to the stores collected by the black sort. For these reasons, I am of opinion, that the Ligurian bee -will prove anything but a desirable acquisition to the colony." Agricola.