ri:riT i.\ Mississirri. 



niul tlie fruit without defect, and well flavored. The lato or winter kinds, are apt to rot 

 and fall from tlio tree before maturity. I cultivate about one hundred varieties, and liavo 

 only tiiiio and space to notice a variety whicli I think suri)a3ses all others in size and flavor. 

 It IS tlie 



White Spanish licindtc — My trees were planted twenty-five years ago, are yet healthy 

 and vigorous, and bear every j'oar heavy crops of tliis excellent fruit. This variety is 

 the Camacmr of Spain, where it is said to have been cultivated from the highest antiquity. 

 The early Spanish colonists introduced it to this region of our State. It has become 

 thoroughly acclimated with us. Fruit large, some specimens monstrous in size ; roundish 

 oblong in shai)e ; skin smoth, oily, yellowish green on shaded side to clear yellow ; on 

 some specimens a blush of brownish red next the sun ; flesh yellowish, crisp, tender, with 

 a sugary and highly aromatic juice ; ripens in August and is in eating a month. 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FKUITS AND FRUIT TREES. 



In a countrj- where there are few, if any, old orchards, insects injurious to the trees are 

 not likely to abound. I have never seen the apple borer with us, and never had a tree 

 sustaiu any injury from this insect or the canker worm. Tlie Peach borer {JEgeria exitiosu) 

 is abundant, but its depredations are easily checked. We have, however, an insect which 

 is terribly destructive to our fruit ; this is a small brown beetle, known as the carpoxagus 

 or fruit eater. It is especially destructive to the Peach and Nectarine, boring into the fruit 

 so soon as it approaches maturity, and thus causing it to rot. It also attacks the Pear and 

 Ajjple, if these fruits are allowed to remain upon the tree until maturity. This insect has 

 ajjpeared in the last few years, and is becoming every year more numerous and destructive. 

 I believe it to be the insect which causes the rot in the Cotton pod, of late so prevalent. 

 I neither know nor have I heard of any successful i)lan for its extirpation. I have checked 

 its ravages to some degree in my orchards by burning small torches at night, when many 

 fly into the light and are thus destroyed. I find, too, it avoids the poultry yard, where 

 my fruits have, in a great measure, escaped their attacks. 



All wliich is respectfully submitted. Joiix C. Jexkixs. 



Biffin, Near Natchez, August 31, 1854. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. 



I cannot doubt that the cause of the gigantic vegetable growtli npon the formation 

 alluded to in the foregoing report, is due, in a great measure, to the lime in the loamy for- 

 mation, the strata being filled witli shells partly decomposed, and containing, also, in many 

 l)laces, the bones of extinct orders of the mammalia. 



I had occasion, a few years ago, to dig off six to eigiit feet from a few acres of ground 

 in front of my dwelling house, in order to make a level lawn. This exposed the loamy 

 formation, (the strata of black mould and clay above not averaging over four feet in depth.) 

 Upon this loam I planted the live oak, tlie magnolia, and other of our forest trees. They 

 have grown rapidly, and have all a most healthy foliage. Deodar Cedars, set out in the 

 spring of 1851, when small, eay one foot high, are, to-day, by measurement just made, ten 

 and eleven feet in height ; and Cryptomeria Japouicas, planted at the same date, do not fall 

 much, if any, below them. 



I wished to have said something, in my report, upon the acclimation of the varieties of 

 temperate latitudes to a region eo far south as this ; but I feared it might be misplaced and 

 uncalled for. The Pear, introduced here more than one hundred years ago, by the French, 

 is a late variety, vigorous in growth, and the specimens sound and healthy, hanging well 



