NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



275 



passing over the Isthmus, and after a length of 

 time sufficient for their overtasked and fumigated 

 brains to become nitrated, began to suspect that 

 all was not right; the idea of their baggage, their 

 all, was not such a trifle in that situation, away 

 from home and friends, but that it aroused their 

 feelings for once in their lives to take a kind of 

 view at realities. Their baggage was left at the 

 steamboat wharf, and what must be done ? Sloth 

 awakened to the error of his ways, began to medi- 

 tate upon the better way of recovering his "goods 

 and chattels," and he faced about with an energy 

 which he had never felt before, and days passed 

 before he recovered his forsaken treasure and 

 reached Panama ; on arriving there he found to 

 his regret all the company gone, pursuing their 

 voyage; but Negligence, who continued in a dreamy, 

 undecided mood, waiting for his companion ; after 

 much delay and embarrassment they re-embarked 

 and pursued their voyage to the land of gold, 

 carrying the same organs and animal propensi- 

 ties attached to them in New England, in other 

 words, "Pomp would go with them." s. b. 



Wilmington, April, 1852. 



SULPHUR— FRUIT—TICKS. 



During the past several weeks the Maine Far- 

 mer, published at Augusta, has given very interest- 

 ing reports of the proceedings of their Legislative 

 Agricultural Meetings, which we have read with 

 gratification. Among the speakers there has evi- 

 dently been those of practical experience and care- 

 ful observation. 



In a discussion upon the subject of Fruit Grow- 

 ing, Mr. Foster, of Gardiner, said the preservation 

 of fruit trees from the depredations of insects, was 

 of great importance. A gentleman from Louisiana, 

 had told him of a remedy which, if it accomplished 

 the purpose, would be worth millions to the fruit 

 growers of the United States. He had tried it for 

 thirty years and had always been successful. Had 

 raised good peaches when the crops of his neigh- 

 bors had been destroyed by insects. 



This remedy has been tried before, but with 

 what results we do not know, and we give the re- 

 marks of Mr. Foster, hoping that new trials may 

 be made, and the results made public. The sub- 

 ject is an interesting one and claims attention. 



''The remedy, the gentleman said, first suggest- 

 ed itself to him from observing the effect which sul- 

 phur had when given to cows, when they returned 

 from their ranges, as they frequently did in the 

 Southern States, covered with the peculiar wood 

 ticks which are found in the south. A dose of sul- 

 phur given to the cows at night, would, in a few 

 hours, cause^ the ticks to fall off, entirely dead. 

 Taking the hint from this, the gentleman said, he 

 bored into his fruit trees with a bit, taking care 

 to bore through the alburnum, or white wood, and 

 into the incision thus made, he forced by means of 

 a syringe, a quantity of sulphur, and then plugged 

 up the hole with a plug made of white pine. He 

 had effectually rid his trees of all destructive in- 

 sects by this process, and had never known it to 

 fail. His theory was, that the sulphur, combining 

 with the acidulous sap of the tree, entered into its 

 circulation. The insects were killed by feeding on 



the tree where the sulphur had entered into its 

 circulation. Mr. Foster said he could not say the 

 remedy was worth anything — he had given it for 

 what it was worth, and would say that the gen- 

 tleman who informed him of it was a planter in 

 Louisiana, of sufficient respectability to be appoint- 

 ed by the president as one of the visitors of the 

 military academy. He, Mr. Foster, had mentioned 

 the matter to Dr. Holmes, of the Maine Farmer, 

 who doubted, because sulphur was not soluble in 

 water. In regard to that, iron was not soluble in 

 water, yet he had known a single nail, driven into 

 an oak tree, to discolor the wood for a number of 

 inches, both below and above the place where it 

 was driven." 



For the New England Farmer. 

 A STRING OF QUESTIONS. 



Mr. Editor : — A subscriber to the weekly 

 Farmer wishes advice through its columns. I 

 have fifteen or twenty acres of moist upland of a 

 black loam or muck soil, which was never plowed, 

 being somewhat knolly, and which formerly pro- 

 duced very heavy red top, but through bad manage- 

 ment is rather run out. Now I wish to know the 

 best and cheapest way to bring up this land to its 

 wonted productiveness. As a top-dressing rotten 

 manure is good ; are ashes applied in the same 

 way? also what compost and how prepared, to be 

 applied as a top-dressing ? When is the best time 

 to cut red-top and grasses on moist land, early or 

 late? I have three acres (has been under plow 

 two years) of black loam, rather moist, which I 

 intend to stock, and which is not sufficiently ma- 

 nured ; now I wish to manure and stock it without 

 taking off a crop, as it will exhaust the soil, wish- 

 ing to have the ground in good heart^rhen seeded 

 to grass . What of this plan ? to carton yard ma- 

 nure in June, when the land is dry, and either 

 harrow, (which is best, where the land is rather 

 moist, to plow or harrow it in) harrow again in 

 July, and stock the last of August by harrowing 

 in the seed. Which is best, to sow grass seed in 

 the spring with oats, or to plow the stubble in, 

 and stock by the first of September ? What kind 

 of soil is best adapted to the raising of barley, and 

 what the yield per acre? What kind of grass 

 seeds are best for stocking pasture lands, and how 

 many varieties would you sow at the same time? 

 To fatten pigs with sour milk, which is the best, 

 corn or rye meal ? Excuse my ignorance ; what 

 kind of fruit is the Baldwin variety? Wish to 

 farm it for profit, hence the necessity of farming 

 it right. Respectfully, 



A Young Farmer. 



Bethel, Vt., March, 1852. 



Remarks. — Will some of our correspondents who 

 have leisure, and who are impatient for opportuni- 

 ties of doing good in the noble cause, reply to the 

 above interesting and important questions? 



Stock. — Particular attention is still needed by 

 all the animals of the farm, but particularly the 

 milch cows. There is an important change going 

 on in the system ; the appetite is not so good as in 

 cold weather, and a little grain of any kind, if it 

 be but a little that can be spared, will be of great 

 advantage as the warm weather approaches. 



