22 



Mole Trap— Vegetable Silk— Fruit Trees. 



Vol. IV. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



tux: MOIiE TRAP. 





,.,,v,s#^'\0 







As there is nothing among the small trou- 

 bles of life more provoking than to have one's 

 garden reduced from the freshness of spring 

 and promised luxury of teeming vegetables 

 all summer long, "to the sere an.d yellow 

 leaf" in a few days, by these little enemies to 

 the gardener's hope ; who dig and delve and 

 plough without mercy among his peas, and 

 beans, and potatoes, and corn, and tulips, and 

 hyacinths, and whatever else happens to have 

 a root to his taste, I send you a rough and 

 hasty sketch of a trap I have used five or six 

 years, which if properly set never misses its 

 victim. It can be made for about fifty cents. 



A A a are two oak boards, the upper one 2, 

 and the lower 2^ feet long, 6 inches wide 

 and 1 inch thick: in A a is cut a mortise C 4 

 inches long, 1^ inches wide, and the two pieces 

 B B taken out of the sides, each 1 1> inch deep : 

 D D are six iron teeth seven or eight inches 

 long, well sharpened and passed through A, 

 three-quarters of an inch asunder, so as to 

 strike down into the ground close to the sides 

 BB. 



E is tlie treadle, made of good oak, 1 inch 

 wide — drop into the mortice C and fasten by 

 a wire staple, passed though the hole at F, 

 and fasten by clenching underside at Fin the 

 bottom board A, so as to play freely an incli 

 under the bottom. At G is a butt hinge fast- 

 ening the two boards together. In setting tiie 

 trnp use the common figure 4 .-ticks, except the 

 upright must be made of a piece of board and 

 have a mortice cut to stride the treadle E as 

 it stands on the end of A a ; press down tlio 

 run solid, where the treadles end touches it, 

 v.'ith your heel, and put a weight on the top 

 of the trap. Yours respectfully, 



]\TAiir.ON S. KiKKBUlDE. 



Morrisvillo, Ctli mo. 17fli, lfe3!). 



Hens will, it is said, be sure to furnish an 

 extra quantity of eggs, if you deal to each 

 about a gill of oats per day. 



Ve§:ctaMe Silk. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Sir, — Can any of your readers give us in- 

 formation respecting the vegetable silk which 

 is at present all th« rage in Paris? It was 

 first imported by Mens. Pary, and is said to 

 be an excellent substitute for the animal silk, 

 being quite equal to it in very many cases. — 

 It is gathered in lengths from ten to fifteen 

 feet, and four threads plaited together will 

 sustain a weight of 40 pounds ! Now, in all 

 probability this plant would flourish in this 

 country, and the shoots be much longer in 

 our soil and climate — then the people might 

 '■^ grow silk" indeed. I. D. 



riiiladelphia, July 29th, 1>39. 



Fraiit Trees. 



The new method of raising fruit trees by 

 planting the scions, is a great desideratum in 

 the art of raising good fruit. It has many 

 advantages over grafting, because it is more 

 expeditious, aud requires no stake nor tree. — 

 They tnny bo planted where they are required 

 to stand, and the labor of one day will bo 

 sufficient to plant enough for a large orchard 

 after the scions are obtained. The method 

 of preparing the plant is as follows: Take 

 the scions as for grafting, and at any time 

 after the first of February and until the buds 

 begin to grow considerably, and put each end 

 of the shoot in melted pitch, wax, or tallow, 

 and bury it in the ground, the buds uppermost, 

 while the body lies in a horizontal position, 

 at the depth of two or three inches. We are 

 informed that trees obtained in this way, will 

 bear in three or four years from the time of 

 planting. We iiave no doubt of the practi- 

 cability of this method of raising fruit. A 

 gentleman in this vicinity the la.st season, 

 planted about twenty scions of different kinds 

 of pears, which appear to flourish. The com- 

 position which he used was shoemakers' wax. 



