92 CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT 



years, and your orchards will scarcely pay the con- 

 tinued and accumulated expense. Something fur- 

 ther seems to be desirable ; some mode more sim- 

 ple, less expensive, more effectual. In the southern 

 states, I perceive, some persons are still ignorant of 

 the natural history of this insect, and regret that it 

 has not been examined and described by scientifick 

 men. We have nothing left to be desired on this 

 head. The description of the canker worm, by 

 professor Peck, is very satisfactory, and only leaves 

 us to regret that the same ingenuity could not have 

 devised some speedy, simple mode of extirpating or 

 checking them. Until some effectual mode is dis- 

 covered, I think we should make constant experi- 

 ments, and communicate fully the results, in the 

 hope that if our trials shall not prove in every case 

 successful, they may stimulate others to more hap- 

 py ones. 



" I had understood that Mr. Josiah Knapp, of Bos- 

 ton, was induced to try the effect of air-slacked lime. 

 He put it round one of his trees in the spring of 

 1814, and I have been assured, not only by him, 

 but by another respectable friend who examined it, 

 that it was fully successful. The tree was in a 

 small garden in Boston, surrounded with other trees, 

 which were filled with the worms, and this one 

 wholly escaped, except that a few appeared to have 

 attacked its extremities, where they were interlock- 

 ed with the other trees. I mentioned this fact to 

 a Rhode Island gentleman, who informed me that, 

 in that state, they had used the rubbish collected 

 from the breaking of flax, and it had effectually pre- 

 vented the rise of the insect. I resolved to make 

 the experiment of lime on an extensive scale. As 

 the insects rise in the fall, I determined to put the 

 lime on in autumn. For this purpose I had the 

 turf dug in around sixty apple trees, and the earth 

 laid smooth. I then took three hogsheads of effete 

 or air-slacked lime, and strewed it an inch thick 



