FARM AND GARDEN.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 157, 19 June 1886, Page 1

FARM AND GARDEN.

Mealy Bug on Vines. When vines are badly attacked by the above insect, the only perfect cure is to dig them up and burn thorn, But when only slightly attackod, patience, application.and skill will in time oradicato them. Whenever the foliage is ripened off prune them. Then take off all loose bark in the first then dissolve Soza of Gishurst'a Compound in a gallon of warm water, adding a wine-glassful of paraffin oil. Take a brush and thoroughly scrub every inch of the vine rods, removing some of the soil, and getting down round the collar, always stirring the i mixture whilo using it. Wash all the woodwork of the house with the mixture, and whitewash the walls with hot lime. Then take a further supply of the mixture of the same strength and make ie the consistency of thick pasto by adding clay, lime, tulphur.and soot in equal proportions, and paint the rods thoroughly, rubbing it well in round the spurs and into crevices so that every part of the cane 13 thoroughly J coated with the mixture. Afterward?, remove a few inches deep of the soil in tho ho se renewing with other materials. Ihe work to be well done must be thorough Even in Vinezi,where no appearance of the insect has yet been apparent, the vines and j house should receive a similar treatment, a-< the germ 3 may be in the house, and it ib better to be safe. Prevention is better than cure. In the spriDg and during tho season a thaip look-out should be kept, and if any bugs appear on tho rods or foliage, kill at once.

Planting Trees. Now that the planting season is on, a few hints to amateurs as to the kinds of trees that are most likely to succeed may be of use. Most planters want to see a large tree growing all at once in their grounds, and they think to obtain this object by planting as large a trees as it is possible to procure Now, in some cases only is it possible to obtain this object. If the situation to be planted is well sheltered, and the soil they are to be planted in has boen well prepared, it is possible to succeed. But trees mutt also be specially prepared with that object in view. On cold soils or in exposed situations, however, it is worse than useless to plant large trees. After planting, they get such a check that they will seldom recover, or if they do will always have a stunted appearance. The best of all treeq to plant are small hardy ones, vhich have attained a moderately healthy growth last Beason, and have ripened off well this autumn. Such trees will in the future make much the finest and healthiest trees in all situations. How often have I seen large pine trees, about three to four feet in height planted. What a lot of trouble they give in staking and tieing, so as to keep them in their position, and after all the trouble they only hold their own for the first year. Now a small tree of about a foot or eighteen inches perhaps planted near, does not require half the attention, and the first sea sou it begins to grow perhaps attains as great a height ab its more imposing rival in the first season, and in the second and third outstripping it. I will further illustrate the position by reprinting an extract from the "Country Gentleman." A resident ot one of our large villages, who had come into possession of a fine lot which he wished to plant, but who had had little experience with tree culture, called on a neighbouring nurseryman to make purchases. He wanted nothing but large trees —two inches in diameter if he could find them, and ten feet high. He cared much less for the kind than for the size —anything that was gigantic, early or late, fruit or ornamental, was merely taken. Tho nurseryman frankly gave his opinion that trees of moderate size would be better, but the purchaser qnickly replied, "I want big treep no*' —l may not live for the small ones to grow up,"' He carried off a large load of monsters. In a few years he came again to make additional purchases. The nurseryman at once remarked, " I suppose you want all the largest trees you can get — I think I can supply >ou.'! "No! no!" exclaimed the purchaser, "I've had enough of big trees! No more for me ! Those I got of' you have scarcely grown any since, and the" smaller ones have overtaken them,and they are ever so much handsomer and more thrifty — give me some small, vigorous trees " This incident tells the whole story and should bo remembered by every inexperienced planter. Many years ago Sir Henry Stewart made a plantation of treps in the moist climate of Scotland, bub they made little growth and had a sickly appearance. It was then that Loudon, with his long and extensive experience as a landscape gardener, offered to make a public test with any one who would try large trees, he himself planting small and thrifty ones, with full roots, in rich, deeply trenched and well cultivated ground, with the confident assurance that in a given num.ber of years he would show trees not only larger but immeasurably finerin appearance. The practical hint to be derived from these facts at present, by those who made purchases of large trees last fall, whether already planted or healed-in for next spring, is to givo them the extra care which they require, by spreading all the roots which they have equally on different sides, when they are set filling in all the interstices among them with fine earth compactly trodden oi 1 beaten ; bracing the trees firmly against the wind by staking; and before the buds swell in spring cutting back all the annual shoots to lighten the heads. Taking up a wide circle of uninjured roots is vitally important, but this may have been omitted. Melluw culture through the euuamer is absolutely essential. With all this care the trees may in a year or two recover from tne check they have met with in removal. Bat small trees, with the abundant roots which are easily taken up with them, will need no staking, and with subsequent care and the thorough cultivation of the soil, they will spring up and grow with scarcely a single season's check in growth. Small trees coefc less, are more easily dug, have better roots, are more easily transplanted, are not whipped by the wind, and are more easily trained into the desired form. If purchased at a distant nursery, the freight bill is more easily paid.