OF FRUIT TREES. 97 



which effectually answers the purpose. Take a 

 handful of wormwood, one of rue, and two of Virginia 

 tobacco ; (a sufficient quantity of tobacco alone will 

 do, but not so well ;) boil these together in about two 

 pails full of rain water, for nearly half an hour ; 

 strain it through a cloth, and with this liquor sprin- 

 kle the trees. He performs this with a barrow en- 

 gine ; but the operation should be performed when 

 the caterpillars or worms have left their nocturnal 

 nest or web, and are dispersed on the trees. Re- 

 peat the operation two or three times ; they will 

 drop down and expire. 



An eligible method of exterminating the cater- 

 pillar, will be found in the follow ing communication, 

 from the honourable Mr. Pickering, to the corres- 

 ponding secretary of the Massachusetts agricultural 

 society. (Vol. iv. p. 326. Agricul. Repos.) 



Description of a Brush for destroying Caterpillar's Nests. 



Wenham, May 26, 1817. 



DEAR SIR, For the last three or four years we 

 have had very few caterpillars. Last week I ob- 

 served an increased number, though not many, on 

 my young apple trees. How to destroy them most 

 easily, was a question which had occurred as often 

 as I had seen orchards infested with them : while 

 I always considered it disgraceful to a farmer to 

 suffer his trees to be stripped of their leaves, and 

 their fruit, for that season at least, to be destroyed; 

 seeing it was very practicable to get rid of them, 

 and without much trouble, by crushing them, when 

 small, with the fingers. This was my father's 

 mode when I was a boy. The same long, light 

 ladders, which served in autumn in gathering 

 his winter fruit by hand, enabled one to come at 

 most of the caterpillars' nests in the spring. On this 

 effectual example I have myself practised, since I 

 became a farmer. Some over delicate persons 

 13 



