54 NEW AMERICAN ORCHARDIST. 



ture of its skin. The apple, although equally obnoxious 

 to its attacks, frequently survives, although disfigured in its 

 form and lessened in its size. The pear, although some- 

 times attacked, yet seems to escape the best of them all. 



Various modes have been recommended and practised to 

 destroy this insect, or avert its attacks. Some have recom- 

 mended kindling small and numerous fires in the orchard 

 by night, on the supposition that, like the miller, they would 

 be attracted by the light, and precipitate themselves into 

 the flames. And some have asserted that the odor of tar 

 annoys and disconcerts them, and have therefore recom- 

 mended to suspend slips of shingles to various parts of the 

 tree, which are to be frequently dipped in tar. If the 

 odor of common tar has, indeed, been found so efficacious 

 as is asserted, I would recommend that the coal tar, which 

 may be purchased at the gas works in all our principal 

 cities, be tried with the same intenU This last substance 

 has, it is asserted, an odor so lasting, and so powerful and 

 annoying, that experiments are making by gentlemen in 

 Nantucket, by covering with this substance the exposed 

 planks of their ships which sail to the Pacific, to preserve, 

 them from the destruction caused by the sea worm. 



It has been noticed, that trees situated in lanes and 

 extensive yards, where numerous cattle are confined, gen- 

 erally escape the attacks of the curculio. This is supposed 

 to be in part owing to the ground being trodden so hard 

 as to render it difficult for the worm to enter the earth, and 

 to the annoyance and fright to which this timid insect is 

 subjected, by the cattle tubbing against the trees. The 

 insects, according to Dr. Tilton, in such cases of fright, 

 roll themselves into a little ball, and fall to the ground, 

 where they become liable either to be trodden to death, or 

 devoured by the farm-yard poultry as a delicious morsel. 

 Poultry of all species have been recommended as very 

 useful, from the multitudes of insects they devour, they 

 being particularly fond of the beetle tribe. 



A case is mentioned by Dr. Tilton [see Dom. Ency.l of 

 Colonel T. Forest, of Germantown, who, having a fine plum 

 tree near his pump, tied a rope from the tree to his pump 

 handle, so that the tree was gently agitated every time there 

 was occasion to pump water. The consequence was, that 

 the fruit on this tree was preserved in the greatest perfection. 



Hogs are stated to be extremely useful in orchards, by 



