For cuttings, select in the
autumn well-ripened wood of the former year, and take fire joints for
each. Bury them till April; then soak them for some hours, and set
them out _aslant_, so that all the eyes but one shall be covered.
Apples, grapes, and such like fruit can be preserved in their natural
state by packing them when dry and solid in dry sand or saw-dust,
putting alternate layers of fruit and cotton, saw-dust or sand. Some
saw-dust gives a bad flavor to the fruit.
_Modes of Preserving Fruit-Trees_.--Heaps of ashes or tanner's bark
around peach-trees prevent the attack of the worm. The _yellows_ is a
disease of peach-trees, which is spread by the pollen of the blossom.
When a tree begins to turn yellow, take it away with all its roots,
before it blossoms again, or it will infect other trees. Planting tansy
around the roots of fruit-trees is a sure protection against worms, as
it prevents the moth from depositing her egg. Equal quantities of salt
and saltpetre, put around the trunk of a peach-tree, half a pound to a
tree, improve the size and flavor of the fruit. Apply this about the
first of April; and if any trees have worms already in them, put on half
the quantity in addition in June.
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