AFTER THE BORER. 191 



Mr. Gold. Well, sir, a year ago I saw some of those trees 

 loaded with handsomely colored fruit in Fairfield County, 

 Connecticut. It was most elegant, the way they had spread 

 over. 



Mr. . I was in hopes you could locate it near this 



county. I have got a lot of them, and they do not bear. 



Mr. Gold. "Well, sir, different varieties of trees are emi- 

 nently suited to different sections of country. It would not 

 do to get up here and recommend an apple because it thrives 

 in one section of the State. That may be so, and yet the 

 tree not do at all well in another location. I think I have 

 heard the Fameuse or Snow-apple spoken of as not maturing 

 in Massachusetts. It is the apple which, in my family, is 

 placed at the head of the list as a desirab'e dessert apple. 

 Nothing can surpass it in its delicacy, flavor, tenderness, and 

 all those qualities Avhich make it a pleasant apple for the 

 family; and still, I have ea!en specimens brought from the 

 "West, that were so wanting in delicacy that I could hardly 

 recognize the fruit. The Roxbury Russet, with me, and 

 generally in Connecticut, is being discarded ; it is so attacked 

 by the apple-worm that its planting is not now encouraged. 

 I have succeeded in keeping out the borer, in a reasonable 

 degree, in driving away the curculio, and destroying the 

 caterpillar, and my next attempt will be after the apple-worm, 

 an insect that eats into the core of our apples ; and from the 

 accounts that are given of the opportunities for circumventing 

 it, I believe it will not be difficult. Bands of straw or hay 

 placed about the tree, and taken down and burned or destroyed 

 at intervals, are said to be effectual in destroying thousands 

 of the millers that lay the eggs, of course protecting the fruit. 

 But the only success that I have had against that insect has 

 been in pasturing an orchard. My orcharding is done upon 

 hilly land ; that is, not sufficiently level to admit of continuous 

 culture for a series of years. It is not sufficiently inclined to 

 prevent culture as long as the soil is full of vegetable matter. 

 As long as the turf holds the particles of the soil together, I 

 may cultivate safely for a few years ; but if I continue the 

 culture after that matter has ceased to hold the particles of 

 the soil together, the washing will be such as to seriously 

 affect the value of the land, and remove the fertilitv from the 



