THE POETRY OF TREES. 



503 



ed infectious, and why the trees most in 

 contact with the sickly tree will be the first 

 attacked ; and, also, why a tree that has 

 been inoculated with buds from a healthy 

 tree, but on which the eggs of the Tor mi - 

 cus have been deposited, will show the dis- 

 ease in the following year, and thus ap- 

 pear to have been inoculated by the sap. 



From numerous experiments tried on 

 trees under my care, I am convinced that 

 nothing can be done to stop the disease 

 from spreading, but to cut the tree down 

 and burn it, root and branch, (for they are 

 alike exposed to its attacks;) and thus by 

 effectually destroying eggs, larvae and per- 

 fect insect, prevent the escape of the beetle 

 from the parent tree, to the injury of the 

 surrounding ones. Whether in the beetle 

 or grub form, this insect is seldom more 

 than one-twelfth of an inch in length ; but 

 what is lost in size is made up in numbers, 

 and thus their destruction becomes hope- 

 less, unless by the sacrifice of the parent 

 tree. M. H. Morris. 



Germantown, Pa., March 15, 18o0. 



Remarks. — The foregoing is, we think, 

 entirely new ; and from the reputation of 

 Miss Morris, as an entomologist, is entitled 

 to attention. It will be remembered that 

 there has been great dispute among culti- 

 vators, whether or not the "yellows" is 

 contagious ; and this appears to throw some 

 light on the subject. 



We are hardly satisfied, however, that 

 the insect here described is the cause of 

 the yellows. It maybe simultaneous, or it 

 may be that the insect prefers the diseased 

 trees. At any rate, the yellows does not 

 wholly depend on the Tormicus for its dis- 

 semination. We have satisfied ourselves 

 that the mere contact of a knife, which has 

 been used in pruning a tree diseased with 

 the yellows, with the sap vessels of a 

 healthy tree, is sufficient to communicate 

 the yellows to the latter ; and this poison- 

 ous condition of the sap hardly appears like 

 the result of the attacks of insects upon the 

 diseased tree. 



Practically, however, the remedy Miss 

 Morris' suggests is the only certain one, 

 viz., digging up and burning every vestige 

 of the diseased tree. This eradicates the 

 disease ; and then, in order to get a healthy 

 stock of peaches again, it is only necessary 

 to send to some district of country — and there 

 are many — where the yellows does not exist. 



Fifteen years ago, there was scarcely a 

 tree in the neighborhood of Newburgh that 

 was not more or less diseased with the vel- 

 lows. By pursuing the course we have in- 

 dicated, the disease has almost wholly dis- 

 appeared ; and peaches of the finest possi- 

 ble quality are now produced in great 

 abundance, upon trees as healthy as were 

 ever seen. Ed. 



THE POETRY OF TREES. 

 BY PROFESSOR WILSON. 



[The following fine rhapsody about trees, 

 by " Christopher North," we reprint from 

 a back volume of Blackwood's Magazine, 

 at the suggestion of our correspondent, 

 Jeffreys. 



Though Sir Henry Stuart's mode has 

 never become popular in this country, a 



very excellent substitute for it, which has, 

 is the well known practice of removing trees 

 20 or 30 feet high, upon sleds with balls or 

 masses of earth, as previously described in 

 our pages. Ed.] 



Trees are indeed the glory, the heauty, and the 

 delight of nature. The man who loves not Trees 

 — to look at them — to lie under them — to climb 



