128 



PAVING A NON-PREVENTIVE. 



the country. But this kind of learning 

 can only be got at by a little forbearance 

 and courtesy towards others, and not talk- 

 ing too large about our own breed of 

 cattle. 



As some of the noisiest of this species of 

 tin-trumpet orators have probably gone off 

 to California since last season, I suppose it 

 will be found easy for our future fruit con- 

 ventions to unite in some plan of comforta- 

 ble, harmonious action for the future. I 

 am the more confident that this will be the 

 case, from the spirit of good will which I 

 see maintained in your journal, — taking 



the ground that a genuine fraternity of in- 

 terests is the only means of bringing out 

 all the information in the country. 



Certainly it is a pleasant thought, that 

 all the leading fruit-growers in the country 

 can meet and fraternise once a year, — 

 bringing from all parts of the Union the 

 stores of their experience, and the fruits of 

 their culture, and raising up a pyramid of 

 knowledge for the general good. It is so 

 pleasant a thought that I will leave it for 

 your readers to revolve in their minds, and 

 see what good may come out of it. 



Yours, &c, An Old Digger. 



PAVING A NON-PREVENTIVE. 



BY H. W. S. CLEVELAND, BURLINGTON, N. J. 



A. J. Downing, Esq. — Dear Sir — I have 

 just been reading Mr. Allkn's article on 

 " paving to prevent the curculio," in the 

 Horticulturist for this month. By his ac- 

 count, they were effectually stopped on 

 part of a row of plums and apricots, by 

 paving under the trees with flat stones, 

 while the remainder of the same row, left 

 unpaved, continued to suffer by their rava- 

 ges as in former years. The insects must 

 be much less migratory in that part of the 

 country than with us; and as a proof that 

 paving is not always effectual, permit me 

 to give you some of my experience. 



I have in my front yard, at a distance of 

 some hundred feet from any other fruit 

 trees, and separated from them by my 

 house and a high, tight board fence, a sin- 

 gle old Yellow Gage tree, which is every 

 year loaded with fruit, and which I have 

 been experimenting upon for six years, in 

 the vain hope of saving a single plum from 

 being destroyed by this insect, — the tree 

 itself being healthy and vigorous. I have 



varied my experiments from year to year, 

 and one year I tried the following : First, 

 I took up all the sod about the tree, till I 

 had laid bare a space fifteen feet square ; 

 and this sod was thrown into the hog-pen 

 to make manure, and insure the destruc- 

 tion of any insects it might contain. On 

 the spot thus laid bare I spread a peck of 

 salt, and an eqUal quantity of air slacked 

 lime. I then put on half a bushel of wood 

 ashes, and then covered the whole space 

 an inch deep with coal ashes, and having 

 wet them, rammed it hard with a heavy 

 rammer ; then laid a floor of boards over 

 the whole, as closely and evenly as possi- 

 ble, and filled up the chinks by spreading 

 ashes on the boards, and sweeping and 

 washing them in. Could stones make a 

 more effectual paving ? The effect was, 

 that I had my labor for my pains. I did 

 not save a single plum ; every one being 

 pierced before it was three weeks old. 

 The insects, therefore, must have come 

 from a distance. 



