plums are much better than on the peach. The latter
seldom produce good hardy, thrifty trees, although many persist in
trying them. The apricot is a favorite tree for espalier training
against walls and fences, in small yards, where it bears luxuriantly. It
also makes a good handsome standard tree for open cultivation.

It is as much exposed to depredations from curculio as the plum, and
must be treated in the same way. Cultivation same as peach. It produces
its fruit, like the peach, only on wood of the previous year's growth;
hence it must be pruned like the peach. Especially must it be headed in
well, to secure the best crop.

_Varieties_ are quite numerous, a few of which only deserve
cultivation. Any of the nine following varieties are good:--

BROWN'S EARLY.--Yellow, with red cheek. A very productive, great grower.

NEWHALL'S EARLY.--Bright-orange color, with deep-red cheek. A good
cling-stone variety, every way worthy of cultivation.

MOORPARK.--Yellow, with ruddy cheek. An enormous bearer, though of slow
growth. It is a freestone variety of English origin, and needing a
little protection in our colder latitudes.

DUBOIS' EARLY GOLDEN.--Color, pale-orange. Very hardy and productive. In
1846, the original tree at Fishkill, N. Y., bore ninety dollars' worth
of fruit.

LARGE EARLY.--Orange, but red in the sun. An excellent, early,
productive variety.

HEMSKIRKE.--Bright-orange, with red cheek. An English variety, vigorous
tree, and good bearer.

PEACH.--Yellow, with deep-brown on the sun-side. An excellent French
variety.

BREDA.--Deep-orange, with blush spots in the sun. A vigorous,
productive, African variety.

ROMAN.--Pale-yellow, with occasionally red dots. Good for northern
latitudes.

From these, planters may select those that best suit their localities
and fancy. They are a little liable to be frost-bitten in the blossoms,
as they bloom very early. Otherwise they are always very productive.
They are ornamental, both in the leaf and in the blossom. Eaten plain,
before thoroughly ripe, they are not healthy; otherwise, harmless and
delicious. Every garden should have half a dozen.

ARTICHOKE.

There are two plants known by this name. The Jerusalem artichoke, so
called, not from Jerusalem in Palestine, but a corruption of the Italian
name which signifies the tuber-rooted sunflower. The tubers are only
used for pickling. They make a very indigestible pickle, and the plant
is injurious to the