186 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



plished it myself, in my own garden. A little patch devoted 

 to three or four kinds of raspberries has given us an abundant 

 supply for a family of from a dozen to twenty for over a 

 month, — taking the various kinds, the red, the black, and the 

 yellow varieties. 



Then there is the currant. Owing to the ravajjes of the 

 currant-worm, many of the smaller cultivators have been 

 deterred from its culture, so that it is now one of the most 

 profitable fruits to be cultivated for market on the whole 

 list. It cannot be grown anywhere with more success than 

 upon the strong soils and in the clear cool air of our New 

 England hills. I commend that fruit, and I think the most 

 successful examples of its culture I have ever seen, I witnessed 

 last season in some of our fields. 



With regard to the grape, last season was somewhat too 

 short. Very few vineyards, comparatively, succeeded in 

 ripening their product; yet still, the results of the last few 

 years have been very encouraging, and perfectly satisfactory 

 to the cultivators of the vine. And the fact that our forests 

 here are so full of the native vines, growing in such luxuriance, 

 and producing their wild fruit so abundantly, indicates that 

 our soil, in its varied aspects and material substance, is well 

 adapted to the growth of that fruit. 



With regard to the plum, that is one of the fruits that it was 

 supposed we must give up, on account of the curculio, which 

 was thought to be more than a match for us, and that fruit has 

 generall}- disappeared from our tables. There are but a few 

 places in New England where it is successfully cultivated ; 

 but with very little trouble, say two hours' trouble in a year, 

 in caring for my trees, I have been able to obtain a full supply 

 for my family for the last ten or fifteen years, of some dozen 

 varieties of plums in succession, lasting two months. It has 

 been said that you cannot scare away the curculio ; that you 

 must catch him and kill him. But if I have not scared him 

 awa}', I have deceived him away from my place, l)y inducing 

 him to believe that there was no place for him to lay his egg 

 in the young plum. 



The secret of success in avoidi.^i; the curculio, is merelv to 

 apply to your trees, soon after the calyx falls, or about the 

 time the fruit-blossom falls, some mixture, or some substance. 



