THE FARMERS' CABINET, 



Devoted to Agriculture, Horticulture, andRural and Domestic Economy. 



Vol. IV.— No. 10.] 



5th mo. (May) 15th, 1840. 



[Whole No. 64. 



KIMBER & SHARPLESS, 



PROPRIETORS AND PUBLISHERS, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 



PHILADELPHIA. 

 Price one dollar per year.— For conditions see last page. 



NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. 



The Farmers' Cabinet having passed into 

 the hands of the present proprietors and pub- 

 lishers, they are determined that no reasona- 

 ble exertions shall be wanting on their part, 

 to render the work worthy of the notice and 

 support of the agricultural community, and 

 creditable to the state and country. 



Numerous complaints having reached them 

 respecting the very irregular manner in which 

 the work has hitherto been supplied, they 

 will endeavour to do away all ground of such 

 dissatisfaction for the future ; and they wish 

 that those persons who shall not receive their 

 numbers regularly would inform them, men- 

 tioning those which may not come to hand, 

 and they shall immediately be forwarded to 

 their address. 



They would, at the same time, commend 

 to their notice their Editor, James Pedder, 

 a practical Farmer, who will, at all times, 

 feel pleasure in communicating with practi- 

 cal men on those subjects connected with the 

 work, and be glad to receive from them con- 

 tributions for the purpose of publication, 

 whenever occurrences of general interest 

 offer. Arrangements have been made for 

 his visiting them in person, so far as his 

 immediate duties will enable him so to do, 

 and the most satisfactory results are confi- 

 dently expected from such an interchange of 

 personal correspondence. 



The amount of subscription to the work 

 being so small, the necessity of forwarding 

 it in advance will, it is thought, be evident 

 to all : to a want of attention to this condi- 



Cab.— Vol. IV.— No. 10. 297 



tion, is to be attributed the embarrassment 

 and failure of many of our best periodicals, 

 the price of which is too small to justify the 

 employment of a collector. 



SubsCTiptions and communications con- 

 nected with the work, if addressed, post 

 paid, to the Publishers or Editor, No. 50, 

 North Fourth street, Philadelphia, will meet 

 with prompt attention. 



Just published, by Kimber & Sharpless, 

 Booksellers and Publishers, No. 50 North 

 Fourth street, Philadelphia — Frank, or Di- 

 alogues BETWEEN A FaTHER AND SoN, ON 

 THE SUBJECTS OF AGRICULTURE, HUSBANDRY, 



AND Rural Affairs — by James Pedder, 

 Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 



DEDICATION. 



To the junior members of that mo.st useful class of 

 society, Agriculturists, these Dialogues — the reminis- 

 cences of a long life devoted to Ihe pursuits of Agricul- 

 ture, Horticulture, and Rural Affairs, and in which the 

 characters are real, not fictitious, for there is a Frank 

 and a Sister Susan, a Gralib and u Sykcs; the circum- 

 stances also having " a local haliitntion and a name," 

 and the observations and reflections beinj the result of 

 much experience and investigation— are dedicated, by 

 llioirvery sincere and affectionate friend, James Pedder. 



On Blight. 



In the Linnean Transactions, (observa- 

 tions on the Apis Fly,) we are taught that 

 " those flies are the principal cause of blight, 

 and the sole cause of honey-dews." Dr. 

 Darwin also espoused implicitly, I have rea- 

 son to suppose, the same opinion : these po- 

 sitions are, however, in direct opposition to 

 the whole tenor of my observations. The 

 assertion, indeed, that aphides, caterpillars, 

 or any other insects making a prey of trees 

 or plants, may cause them to wither, no ob- 

 server will deny ; but such assertion is as 

 foreign to the general question, as those in- 

 sects themselves are distinct in their genera 

 to the proper insects of atmospheric blight. 

 The general and well-known affections called 

 blights, are as easily traced by the faculties 

 of sight and feeling, to an atmospheric cause, 

 as any other effect whatever, can be traced to 

 its cause : the blight ever precedes the insects, 

 by a considerable length of time, and the 



