i88s.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



n 



Fruit and Vegetable Gardening. 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



THE INSECT PROBLEM, 



BY T. BENNETT. 



I see by the last issue of the Monthly an in- 1 

 quiry on the subject of insect depredations. Allow 

 me a few words on this important subject. Is it 

 not time to take decisive steps in this matter and 

 form some systematic plan for insect destruction ? 

 I behave the time has come to effect this. 



We have been long acquainted with the natural 

 history of most of the insects injurious to vegeta- 

 tion, but here the matter drops, and but little 

 practical has been achieved. This insect ques- 

 tion has become one of the most important to the 

 whole country, far more important than most 

 people are aware of. For many years insects have 

 increased at an alarming rate. At the present 

 ratio of increase, if there be not some means de- 

 vised to put a stop to their progress, the farmer, 

 gardener and nurseryman may well be apprehen- 

 sive for the future. Birds and parasites do a 

 great deal, but much more than this must be done 

 if we would successfully grapple with the enemy. 



United States officials have told us ; "The ag- 

 gregate annual loss to the nation from insect de- 

 predations amounts to hundreds of millions, and 

 there is a loud call for relief." But they do not 

 tell us the way to relief. Now, therefore, let the 

 question be agitated, and we have reason to ex- 

 pect some valuable results. 



I have been informed that the U. S. Congress 

 has in contemplation a bill calculated to give 

 every man a chance to try and find out a proper 

 remedy for totally subduing, or at least keeping 

 under control, the different species of destructive 

 insects, by awarding a suitable premium for the 

 most reliable plans. This appears to be a move 

 in the right direction, and will undoubtedly bring 

 •into the field all the skill and e.xperience of which 

 the country is capable ; it may save a great deal 

 of useless expenditure, for is it not apparent that 

 practice, the result of patient trials, many experi- 

 ments, and much research, is what we shall have 

 to depend upon ? 



Botany, entomology and chemistry, though 

 most excellent sciences in themselves, do not 



teach how to destroy insects. These however 

 may help very much, if the knowledge they can 

 impart be utilized properly for that purpose, but 

 without practical experience which leads to a sort 

 of intuitive knowledge of the subject, they are of 

 but little use. Geometry may help a good me- 

 chanic, but it will never make one. 



It is apparent, if such a law be carried out fully, 

 it will give an impetus to renewed exertion — help 

 to set the wheels of invention in motion — and with 

 other wise and beneficent laws, tend to promote 

 the general welfare. 



A paper, too, issued by the Department of Agri- 

 culture, a sort of bulletin, weekly or semi-monthly, 

 giving the new schemes and devices in the war- 

 fare against insects, and everything worthy of 

 note, would strengthen the relations that should 

 exist between the governing power and the people. 

 They would see that by such work by the govern- 

 ment, the real welfare of the whole community 

 was being practically as well as theoretically cared 

 for. Chambersburg, Trenton, N. J. 



A HUNDRED BUSHELS OF APPLES FROM 

 ONE TREE. 



BY N. S. PL.\TT. 



In the Gardeners' Monthly for December 

 some one mentions the case of an apple tree bear- 

 ing forty-three bushels of apples in one year, and 

 asks for record of larger yield. 



I would call to your notice a tree in this town 

 belonging to Mr. Delos Hotchkiss, which is be- 

 lieved to be the largest apple tree in New England. 

 In 1880 when I measured it it had eight large 

 branches, each of them as large as an ordinary 

 , full-grown apple tree. The spread of these 

 i branches is six rods ; five of them in one year have 

 borne eighty-five bushels of fruit, since Mr. Hotch- 

 kiss owned the place ; and his predecessor had 

 over one hundred bushels in one year from the 

 same five branches, which had a habit of bearing 

 one year and the other three the next. 



Cheshire, Conn. 



[Our correspondent has our best thanks for the 



information. If we are not mistaken in the identity 



of Mr. Hotchkiss, he is a descendant of a warm 



friend of the unfortunate Louis of France, who dared 



