100 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



appeared in myriads last year, in certain districts throughout a 

 vast extent of country, its non-appearance in 18G2 is a mystery 

 not easily explained. It is not to be supposed that the insect 

 has become extinct. It undoubtedly still lives in sufficient 

 numbers to continue the species, though hidden in its secret 

 haunts from ordinary observation. We will not speculate on 

 the causes of the sudden disappearance of this insect, but will 

 merely say, that, as we have intimated previously, the attack 

 on the army-worm by various parasites, has, doubtless, had 

 much to do in lessening its numbers. 



The grain aphis reappeared the past season, though the 

 damage it did was less than the previous season. On some 

 farms, where it greatly lessened the yield of wheat and oats in 

 1861, little or no injury was experienced from it in 1862. This 

 insect is also attacked by various parasites. The lady7bug 

 ( Coccinellci) of several species preys on it ; and on some fields 

 of grain which were attacked by the aphis, these parasites were 

 seen in such numbers that they cleared the grain of its count- 

 less enemies in a few days. 



In August the committee visited the grounds of the president 

 of this society, Hon. Marshall P. Wilder. It was not the first 

 visit we have made to this place ; but during the present season 

 fruits formed so prominent a feature in the productions of the 

 county, that we gladly availed ourselves of the opportunity of 

 repeating our examination of the president's orchards, <fec. 

 Our attention was first called to the pear orchard, which 

 covers about ten acres, and comprises twenty-five hundred 

 trees, which have been planted from five to thirty years. A 

 large proportion of these are on quince stocks. Colonel Wilder 

 having always thought favorably of this mode of propagating 

 the pear for such varieties as succeed on the quince. He has 

 beautiful trees of the so-called dwarfs — some of them are thirty 

 feet high — probably as old, or older, than any in the country, 

 and producing a barrel of excellent fruit in a season. He was 

 one of the first, if not the first, to recommend tlio planting of 

 dwarfs, so as to entirely cover the quince stock — a method 

 which protects it from the ravages of the borer, causes the 

 quince to swell up evenly with the pear wood, and enables the 

 pear to send out roots, which give permanence and size to tlie 

 tree. Thus the only bearing of the tree from the influence of 



