FRUIT CULTURE. 113 



committee of the legislature, but for some unexplainetl reason 

 was never reported. Your Committee, in behalf of the Essex 

 Society, would go heart and hand for such a law, provided it 

 could be passed and carried into successful operation. 



At present, in lieu of such a law by the legislature, your 

 Committee cannot too strongly urge upon ft\rmers and fruit- 

 growers everywhere, to cut down old and neglected apple- 

 trees, not only in pastures and by road-sides, but in fields and 

 gardens ; those that your good judgment and common-sense 

 would lead you to think are past recovery or not worth pro- 

 tecting, we would say, emphatically, cut down. The same 

 would apply to the wild cherry-tree, which is a pest and a 

 nuisance everywhere. Those of our apple-trees which are 

 worth anything, we would say protect and cultivate as any other 

 farm crop, which treatment we have found, both by observa- 

 tion and experience, will recover the trees, causing them to 

 make a strong, vigorous growth, and bear abundant crops of 

 fruit, thus in themselves ridiculing the idea of a "permanent 

 decline." 



This society has for several years past offered very liberal 

 premiums for the " best-conducted experiment for preventing 

 the ravages of the canker-worm," and although experiments 

 have been made and patents applied for, and in one or two 

 instances premiums awarded, we regret to say that in many 

 sections of this county the canker-Avorms still have it pretty 

 much their own way. Probably, if carefully attended, these 

 new-fashioned troughs for oil or coal tar would be effectual ; 

 but how often do we see them neglected for a whole season ! 

 How often do we see the oil overflowing or oozing out and 

 covering a large portion of the trunk below, thus injuring the 

 tree as much as do the worms themselves ! These troujjhs 

 are expensive, and ought to be attended to when applied, and 

 for a few trees, in garden or orchard, are probably the best 

 thing ; but we believe the whole thing to be a failure, and 

 that the old method of applying printers' ink is still the best. 

 One member of your Committee protects a thousand trees 

 every year with this "grub ink" so effectually, that only 

 worms enough are left to keep the seed good, and at an 

 expense, reckoning both labor and material, of only about 

 four cents to a tree annually. This protection would be still 



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