Part 10

He highly recommends the practice of heading back the canes, during the summer, to a height of from three to five feet, which will cause the side branches to grow vigorously, and interlocking with each other, enable the bushes to support themselves without stakes or wires. These side branches should be shortened during the following spring, so as to give the bushes a pyramidal form. The result of this pruning has been a greater yield of fruit, and of better quality than when he had allowed the bushes to go unpruned. The unpruned bushes would set a greater number of berries, but could not ripen them. The best and earliest fruit was upon the well pruned bushes.

A plantation set with plants propagated from cuttings of healthy young roots will continue to yield good crops from twelve to fifteen years. Mr. Parry says that he planted ten acres on this sandy land which bore good crops of berries for thirteen years, yielding several seasons six hundred and fifty bushels and once eight hundred bushels of fruit.

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THE GRAPE VINE FLEA BEETLE, _Haltica Chalybea_.

BY W. SAUNDERS, LONDON.

In No. 4, page 62, of the _Horticulturist_, a correspondent complains of the ravages of the Grape Vine Flea Beetle. This insect has been unusually abundant in many localities this season, and where abundant is always very destructive to the grape vines. Its common name suggests activity, and it is as active in mischief as in movement, hopping during the heat of the day from leaf to leaf and from branch to branch with a speed almost equal to that of its smaller namesake.

The Beetle, Fig. 9, survives the winter in the perfect state, lying dormant and torpid under leaves, pieces of bark, or other suitable shelter until called into activity by the reviving warmth of spring. It is a pretty little beetle of a polished steel-blue or green color, sometimes shading into purplish, with a transverse depression across the hinder part of the thorax. The under side is dark green, the antennæ and feet brownish black. Its length is about three-twentieths of an inch, and it has stout robust thighs, by means of which it is able to jump about very briskly. It is more destructive in spring than at any other time, for then before the buds have burst it is astir, with appetite the keener for its long winter fast; and while the tender growth is swelling, this little mischief-maker pounces on it and eats it out to its centre, thus consuming in a short time two or three embryo bunches of grapes.

The beetles appear on the vines in the latter part of April and continue to be destructive until late in May, after which they gradually disappear. Before leaving, however, they deposit clusters of orange colored eggs on the under side of the young vine-leaves which hatch in a few days into small dark-brown worms, which feed on the upper side of the leaves, eating numberless holes in the softer parts, in the manner shown in Fig. 10. In about three or four weeks they become full grown, when they present the appearance shown at _b_, in the Fig.; but here is a magnified view; the hair-line at the side shows the correct size. They are then about three-tenths of an inch long, usually of a light brown color above, sometimes yellowish, at other times of a darker shade, paler on the under surface. The head is black, and there are six or eight shining black dots on each of the other segments of the body, each emitting a single brownish hair. The feet, six in number, are black, and there is a fleshy orange colored proleg on the terminal segment. When progressing, the larvæ does not move its body regularly, but raises it suddenly behind.

In the early part of June they leave the vines and descend to the ground, where they burrow in the earth, and forming a little smooth oval cell, change to dark yellowish chrysalids, as shown at _c_, Fig. 10. After remaining about two or three weeks in this state, the perfect beetles issue from them, and the work of destruction still goes on; but as they live altogether on leaves during the fall, of which there is usually an abundance, the injury they do at that season is scarcely noticed.

To destroy the beetle it is recommended to strew in the fall, air-slacked lime, or a good quantity of unleached ashes around the vines infested. The larvæ may be destroyed by the use of hellebore and water, or where it can be safely used, a mixture of paris-green and water, in the proportion of one or two teaspoonfuls to a pail of water. This latter mixture would also doubtless kill the beetles if the vines were well syringed with it in spring. During the chilly mornings of early spring the beetles are comparatively sluggish and inactive, and some chance is then afforded of hand-picking and destroying them. Fowls allowed at this time the run of the vineyard are also said to devour large numbers of them.

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HOW TO PROPAGATE FLOWERING SHRUBS.

An esteemed member of the Association requests that information may be given on this subject, being desirous of enjoying the pleasure of having flowering shrubs in his grounds, and finding that it is only occasionally that he can succeed in raising those received from the nurseries. In compliance with this request we give the usual methods of propagating some of our most desirable hardy shrubs, in the hope that the information here given may prove both interesting and profitable to many of our readers.

The _Japan Quince_ is one of our shrubs that is very easily propagated by layers, cuttings of the roots, and seeds. The branches should be cut with a tongue, as is usually done in layering, and layered sufficiently deep to be kept moist through the summer, and remain in the ground until the next spring, by which time they will be found to be rooted, when they can be cut loose from the parent shrub and set out as independent plants. The proper time to put down the layers is in spring, as soon as the soil has become somewhat warmed and settled, and before the leaves put forth. It may also be propagated from root cuttings. In order to grow them in this way successfully, it is desirable to prepare a hot-bed sufficiently large to insure a durable, gentle bottom heat. When this has been secured the bed should be covered with about four inches of good, rich, sandy loam, the roots of the shrub cut into pieces about four inches in length, should be thrust into the soil at an oblique angle, so as to be covered about half an inch deep at the upper end, and three inches deep at the lower end, then gently watered with a fine rose, so as to settle the soil well about the cuttings, and the sash kept on day and night until the sprouts have made their appearance above ground, when they should be treated as to heat, air, and moisture in the same way as any tender growth. Care must be taken with the watering before the shoots appear, not to apply so much at any time as to materially reduce the temperature of the soil, or to make it at all sodden. As the young plants increase in strength they should be gradually hardened off, and by mid-summer be enabled to endure the weather without any covering by night or day. They can be taken out of the frame in the fall, and stored in earth in a box in the cellar, and set out the next spring in the open ground. They can also be raised from seed, although there will be more or less variation in the color of the flowers of the seedling plants from that of the parent. The seed should be sown in the fall, in shallow drills, and covered but slightly. In the spring it will germinate, and the young seedlings will require the same care in weeding and cleaning and stirring the soil as a bed of carrots. In the fall they should be taken up, packed in earth, and stored in the cellar until spring, when they should be set out about six inches apart in rows, and cultivated and cared for until large enough to be set in their permanent place on the lawn.

The _Plum-leaved Spirea_ is somewhat more difficult of propagation, though it will root tolerably well from layers, tongued and put down in the usual manner of layering. But the best way to propagate it is from cuttings of the green wood in summer. The most successful plan is to plant the shrub in a box or tub, place it in the greenhouse in February, and gently force it into growth. When the young shoots have begun to harden, they should be taken out and set in pure sand in the propagating bed, over a gentle but steady bottom heat. Here they will soon strike, and when the roots have been well developed may be potted off into small pots and treated like any young, tender, newly potted plant. They may also be grown in the summer from cuttings taken from the shrub in the open ground, and set in sand over a hot-bed having a gentle bottom heat, covered with sash and shaded so as to exclude the sun. Considerable skill and attention are requisite to success in this method of propagation; there is danger on every hand, danger from too much moisture, and danger from too little moisture, danger from keeping the sash shut too close, and danger from admitting too much air, the bottom heat may be too great, or it may be too little, the cuttings may be taken too green, or they may have become too much hardened.

The _Chinese Double-flowering Plum_ is propagated by grafting or budding on stocks of the common plum. It is possible that it might be made to grow from cuttings in bottom heat, but we have never tried that method, the process of budding it upon the plum stock being much more convenient, expeditious, and economical.

The _Purple-leaved Filbert_ is propagated by layering. We have found that in dry and hot seasons the layers do not root freely, and that it is often necessary to allow the layers to remain for two years before separating them from the parent plant.

The _Flowering Hawthorns_ are best and easiest propagated by budding them upon the common White Hawthorn. The buds take readily, unite firmly, and grow rapidly. We have not tried the experiment of budding or grafting these upon our common Wild Thorn; if any of our readers have made trial of this method of propagating them, it would be very interesting to know the result.

_Deutzia Gracilis_, a small, slender, graceful shrub, producing pure white, bell-shaped flowers in great profusion, is best propagated also by placing a plant in the greenhouse, and setting green wood cuttings in bottom heat, under a bell-glass; though it is quite possible to succeed when the bell-glass is not used.

_Deutzia Crenata flore pleno_, comes into bloom towards the end of June. It is the most showy of all the Deutzias, bearing its hanging bell-shaped, scalloped blossoms on the shoots of the current season’s growth, throughout the entire length of the shoot. The flowers are very double, pure white, splashed with bright rosy pink on the outside, and literally cover the branches so as nearly to conceal the foliage. This we have cultivated only from green wood cuttings taken from the parent plant in summer and set in a gentle bottom heat. We believe however that it might be grown from hard wood cuttings taken off in the fall and kept in moist sand until March, and then set in the propagating bed of a greenhouse with a gentle bottom heat, and also that it might be possible to grow it from layers in the open ground.

The _Syringa_, or Mock Orange, is very readily grown from layers; from suckers that spring up around the parent plant; and by dividing the parent plant itself when it has attained to sufficient size.

_Weigela Rosea_, a free flowering shrub, with showy, tubular flowers, of a light rose color, blooming in June, is very easily propagated from cuttings, in a gentle bottom heat, or even under a sash without bottom heat, in sand; also by layering.

Perhaps these instances will be sufficient to give our readers an idea of the various methods of propagating shrubs. As a rule most of them can be made to grow from layers, keeping them layered two years if necessary; when this method fails, resort must be had to green wood cuttings and bottom heat.

=VOL. I.]= =JULY, 1878.= =[NO. 7.=

ROSES.

In the very midst of the wealth of bloom with which we are surrounded, the scent of the roses wafted to us on every passing breeze, it seems exceedingly appropriate to enjoy a little talk with our readers about roses. There is no need to tell of their beauty. Acknowledged to be the queen of the flowers, the rose holds a position of pre-eminence that requires no words of praise from us to establish; ours shall be the humbler task to tell her admirers how best to care for their favorite, so that she may be able to put on her royal apparel, and come forth in all her loveliness.

There is required for the growing of roses in their perfection a something that is not to be found in books. “Poets are born, not made” it is said, and there is somewhat of the same truth in this matter of growing roses. The perfection of the art is the outcome of a devotion that ever burns but never consumes. Deep down in the secret chambers of the heart it is continually glowing, and when to other eyes the rose is no longer a thing of beauty, in the days of the “sere and yellow leaf,” it waits tenderly and lovingly upon the object of its devotion. To such care she most generously responds, arraying herself in gorgeous beauty, putting on her most lovely tints and beaming with most bewitching smiles.

We have some obstacles to overcome in the cultivation of the rose which are quite unknown to her devotees in England. Our mid-summer suns are so scorchingly hot that our roses soon lose the richness of their fresh tints. To enjoy the full beauty of the rose, to see it in the freshness of its coloring, while the delicacy of the tints is yet unimpaired, one should stroll through the rose grounds at sunrise, before the dew-drops are exhaled, and see the flowers unfolding to the morning light. Could we shade our roses from about ten o’clock of the morning until four in the afternoon, the lustre of their beauty would be preserved much longer. But that is almost an impossibility in our latitude, where the sun at mid-day is so nearly vertical. The best thing we can do is to cover the ground over their roots with a thick mulch, so as to keep it moist and cool. Again, the severity of our winters is very trying to our rose trees. Usually the shoots are more or less killed back, so that they require to be cut down in spring almost or quite to the ground. Some protection can be given to them by sticking evergreen boughs around them, so as to hide the rose trees from sight during the winter, while other kinds that are tenderer must be taken up in the fall and heeled-in in the cellar, where they will not be exposed to much frost. Yet, notwithstanding all these difficulties, we can grow roses of great beauty, and that too in the full blaze of our vertical sun, and fully exposed to the severity of our winter frosts.

It is very desirable to have a strong soil in which to grow roses, a rich clayey loam is the very best. And this should be well enriched every year, indeed there seems no danger of making it too rich. An excellent fertilizer is made by composting sods from an old pasture with barnyard manure in about equal quantities. And the ground should be well drained, not merely on the surface, but the sub-soil, if tenacious and wet, should be thoroughly relieved of all surplus water by means of sub-soil drains, having a good outlet, so as to carry off the water rapidly and fully. Nevertheless, where clay loam soil cannot be conveniently had, cultivation and liberal fertilizing will largely compensate for its absence, indeed some of the finest roses have been grown on a sandy loam which had been stirred to a good depth and liberally supplied with compost, the best of all composts that of the farm-yard, where the sweepings from the stable are mingled with the litter of the bedding, and thrown out to be trampled by the cattle, and worked over by the pigs.

The planting may be done either in the fall or spring, as may be most convenient; and whatever time it may be done, after it is completed, the surface should be deeply mulched with a heavy covering of strawy manure, thick enough to keep the ground cool and moist in the hot days of summer, or to keep out the frost in the cold winter nights. If the trees are on their own roots, that is, have not been budded nor grafted, they should be planted so as to stand at the same depth in the ground as before, when the soil has become settled. But if they have been grafted or budded upon another stock, the rose trees should be planted deep enough to bring the point of union two or three inches below the surface. This is desirable for several reasons, but especially that in case the plant is killed back by unusually severe frosts quite to the ground the tree might not be wholly lost, which would be the case if the point of union with the stock be above the ground; for though sprouts might come up from the stock, the roses that would appear would not be the roses desired; whereas, if the union be a few inches below the surface, there is a possibility that a sprout may be thrown up from the part above the union, and thus the desired variety preserved.

In pruning roses, attention must be given to the habit of the variety. Those of a very vigorous habit should be moderately pruned, for if they are severely cut back they will make a large growth of wood, and give but little bloom. But those which naturally grow feebly should be cut back more severely, so that the supply of sap may be sufficient to make the flower-buds that are left grow vigorously, and the roses to be fully developed. The form best suited to our climate is that of a low bush, for the cold of our winters and the heat of our summers bear very injuriously upon tall standards or tree-roses. For this reason it is a waste of money to buy these tree roses and weeping roses which are sold through the country at from three to five dollars each. They are produced by grafting upon tall stems of the Dog-rose, but in two or three years, at best, they succumb to the peculiar extremes of our climate. The so-called Weeping roses, are made by grafting some slender growing variety, sometimes two or three sorts of different colors, upon tall Dog-roses, and frequently the sorts that are grafted upon them are tender varieties, wholly unable to endure our winters; and if they live through the first summer are sure to perish during the first winter, unless carefully housed on the approach of winter.

The rose has also some insect enemies that will require to be watched and treated according to their works. One of the most annoying and injurious is the Rose-slug. It is a small light-green shiny creature that eats the soft green portions of the leaves, so that they have almost the appearance of having been skeletonized, making the rose-bush look brown and very unsightly. The Slug usually makes it appearance as the roses are beginning to bloom, preying first upon the more concealed leaves near the ground, and ascending as its food is exhausted to the higher branches; and as the number is usually very great, in a short time the leaves are all destroyed. The writer has found white hellebore, applied by putting a large table-spoonful into a pail of water, and sprinkling the rose bushes with the water by means of an ordinary watering can, a sure means of destroying them. It is perhaps a better plan to stir a handful of the hellebore into a pail of water and allow it to stand over night until the next evening, and then stir it up thoroughly and add about a pint of the mixture to a pailful of water, and with this sprinkle the rose bushes. It is a very cheap and easy way of getting rid of the Slugs. In some seasons the Green-fly or Aphis are very abundant, covering the ends of the shoots, and sucking out the juices. These are easily destroyed by dipping the ends of the shoots in a strong decoction of tobacco, or by sprinkling the plants, if very badly infested with them, with the tobacco water through a watering can. But a more determined and obstinate insect pest than either of these is the Rose-leaf-hopper, insignificantly small in size, yet making up by infinitude of numbers for all lack of individual magnitude. Entomologists call these little scamps _Tettigonia rosae_. They are, when full grown, not more than three-twentieths of an inch long, the body is of a yellowish-white color, the wing-covers and wings are white, and the eyes, claws, and piercer, brown. They begin to hatch out about the middle of June, and appear upon the under side of the leaves without wings, but with an exceedingly sharp piercer or proboscis with which they pierce the skin of the leaf and feed upon the juices. This operation they keep up, increasing in size, casting their skins when their jacket becomes too tight for them, and sucking the juices out of the leaf all the more vigorously as they grow larger, until it assumes a pale sickly appearance, and no longer is able to perform its proper functions. The cast off skins of these insects may be found in great numbers adhering to the under side of the leaves, and likewise the little creatures themselves, manifesting their vitality by hopping about with great agility. Their hind legs are made somewhat like those of a grasshopper, which enable them to leap very briskly. After a time their wings appear, and then they seem to be more active than ever, and spread about till they find every rose-bush in the garden. The writer has had considerable experience in fighting these little pests, but cannot say that he has succeeded in winning any great victories. Sprinkling the bushes with hellebore and water or with tobacco water from a watering can, is a useless expenditure of labor, for the little hoppers have only to keep their place on the under side of the leaf and use it as an umbrella to shield themselves completely from the shower. The only way of reaching them is with a garden syringe. At one time it seemed as though the hellebore in water applied to them in this way, when they were quite young, was effectual in killing them, but later experiments have suggested the question whether they were not washed off by the force of the shower thus directed against them, and were unable in that early stage of life to find their way back again. If the latter be the correct solution, there need be neither hellebore nor tobacco in the water. The Rose-bug, _macrodactylus subspinosa_ feeds on the leaves, and when numerous are very destructive. Thus far the writer has never been troubled with this insect. They pass the larvæ state in the ground, and come out in the month of June as perfect beetles, remaining about a month to carry on their destructive work. The only certain method of combatting them, known to the writer, is that of gathering them by hand and crushing, burning, or scalding them. They are perfectly proof against whale-oil-soap and decoctions of tobacco; whether they can digest hellebore is not known, but probably they would succumb to paris-green. Should they not appear in too great numbers it would not be a difficult task to pick them off by hand, for they are very sluggish creatures, and easily caught.