160 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



rough leaves pinch the top out of each plant to make 

 them branch, and leave but three plants in a hill. 



Melons and S(}uash. — These same reniarks hold 

 good for musk melons and water melons. Make the 

 hills four feet apart in the rows, and the rows six feet 

 apart for Cucumber and Early Christina musk melon; 

 for Orange water melon six feet apart each way. The 

 same remarks also hold good for summer crook-neck 

 squash, and the Boston marrow or winter squash, only 

 that they will require no pinching, and the latter 

 planted eight feet apart each way. 



Tomatoes. — About the first or second week will be 

 time to plant out tomatoes. Plant them four leet 

 apart each way. Choose the warmest and sunniest 

 piece of ground that can be spared for them. Drive 

 a stake, tvro inches square and four feet high out of 

 the ground, at the foot of each plant; directions for 

 training will be given next month. When planting, 

 if it can be had, mix about a table- spoonful of Peru- 

 vian guano in the soil about their roots. 



Purple Egg. — For vegetable egg dig a trench 

 one foot wide and one foot deep; put in four or five 

 inches of good rotten manure ; fill the trench to its 

 former level, with soil that came out of the trench; 

 then dig and mix well together. The remainder of 

 the soil lie along each side of the trench and form a 

 sort of gutter to hold water, in hot weather. Plant 

 your plants two feet apart alon<,' the middle. 



Cauliflowers. — Early cauliflowers may be plant- 

 ed in the same way, only make the trench two feet 

 wide. 



Cabbage. — Early cabbage, or lettuce plants can be 

 planted between the I'ows of peas of the second sow- 

 ing. The spaces between the rov7S of peas of the 

 first sowing should be left for the celery trenches; 

 directions for which will be given next month. 



JosiAH Salter. 



. THE APPLE TREE BORER AND BASK LOUSE. 



Messrs. Editors: — In reading the accounts of the 

 ravages made by the borer and its kindred families, 

 it occurred to me fiat perhaps a short account of 

 the methods that had been successfully practiced as 

 a remedy and protection, would not fall into utterly 

 barren soil. 



We all love good fruit; we all kiow that there is 

 no fear of glutting the markets; we know, too, that 

 paying $1.50 per bushel for good, eatable apples, as 

 has been customary the past winter, cannot be af 

 fox'ded by those of moderate means. 



In Dr. FiTcn's Report on Insects, in the Transac- 

 tions of the JVetv York State Agricultural Soeiety, 

 page 7iG, (1854.) it is stated that an intelligent fruit 

 culturist at the West, (Illinois,) who had kept a pretty 

 accurate account of his fruit trees, found that he had 

 lost one in eight by the borer. A gentleman in the 

 eastern part of this State, who had purchased a lot 

 containing ten young apple trees, was told by the 

 former proprietor that he must not expect fruit trees 

 to do well there, as the soil was not congenial to 

 them. On closely inspecting his purchase soon after- 

 wards, and going to work with his knife, from these 

 ten 'trees he dug out sixty worms. Several of the 

 trees were almost girdled, and doubtless would have 

 been so entirely, had not a timely check been put 

 upon their operations. The same trees show for 

 them elves that it was not the fault of the soil that 

 tiiey did not grow before. 



The borer, in its winged state, as all observers are 

 aware, deposits its eggs upon the bark, at or near the 

 surface of the earth, but sometimes in the first forks 

 of the tree. Each egg hatches a maggot, with no 

 feet; this maggot eats its way directly downwards in 

 the bark. At a later period of the season scrape off 

 the outer dark colored surface, and you can easily 

 trace the path of the young worm. A little black- 

 ish spot, like a wheat kernel, will show the place of 

 deposit, and by cutting a little into the bark he may 

 be found. 



Now, how shall we protect our trees from his at- 

 tacks ? Experiments show that alkaline washes are 

 directly poisonous to insects and their eggs and 

 larvie, and one of the best of these, which every one 

 has, or may have, is good common soft soap. A. B. 

 Dickinson says that a handful of it, placed in the 

 axils (forks) of the lower limbs, is an infallible pre- 

 ventive. Whether it is so or not, experience shows 

 it is beneficial. Downing recommended painting the 

 body of the tree and the axils with a mixture of soap, 

 sulphur and tobacco water. Dr. Fitch recommends 

 a remedy, as tried by himself, as simple, sure, and easy 

 of application: "The upper end of his burrow may 

 easily be found by puncturing the bark with an awl, 

 or even a stiff pin, directly above the orifice whence 

 his castings have been ejected ; then, with the point 

 of a penknife, cut away the dead bark covering the 

 upper end of the burrow, loosen the castings as much 

 as can conveniently be done, and finish by pouring 

 hot water from a tea kettle, or other convenient uten- 

 sil, into the hole at intervals for a few moments, until 

 you are certain, by its oozing out from the lower hole 

 or otherwise, you have reached him." There is a 

 beautiful instance of the application of a chemical 

 fact in the above practice. Albumen (white of aa 

 egg) composes a large proportion of the substance 

 of larvai and grubs. It is coagulated at a tempera- 

 ture of 180° Fahr., so that at a heat considerably 

 below boiling water the destruction of the worm is 

 certain ! 



The bark louse is probably the most destructive 

 pest of all, and its ravages are increasing so rapidly, 

 particularly at the West, that unless one is willing to 

 work, and work faithfully, to defend his trees from 

 their attacks in sections of country infested by them, 

 he will reap but little reward for time and labor in 

 planting out an orchard. 



Mr. Kimball, of Kenosha, Wis., uses the follow- 

 remedy: "He boils leaf tobacco in strong lye till it 

 is reduced to an impalpable pulp, which it will be in 

 a short time, and mixes with it soft soap, (which has 

 been made cold — not the jelly-hke boiled soap,) to 

 make the mass about the consistence of thin paint, 

 the object being to obtain a preparation that will 

 not be entirely washed from the tree by the first rains 

 which occur, as lye, tobacco water, and most other 

 washes are sure to be. The fibres of the tobacco, 

 diffused through this preparation, cause a portion of 

 its strength to remain, wherever it is applied, longer 

 than any application which is wholly soluble in raia 

 water can do. lie first trims the trees well, so that 

 every twig can be reached with the paint brush, and 

 applies this preparation before the buds have much 

 swelled in the spring. Two men, strictly charged to 

 take their time, and be sure that they painted the 

 whole of the bark to the end of every twig, were oc- 

 cupied a fortnight in going over his hundred and 

 fifty young trees." 



