1888.] TRANSACTIONS. 25 



chance to be Sunday on Olean, or Mountain, Streets. But when 

 the caterpillar weaves his web, you vow that you will remove it 

 at once. You don't, however, for it is only an apple tree ; nor 

 do you interrupt the cankerworrei* in his work of devastation. 

 You will plough, harrow, cultivate, even hand-hoe maize ; and all 

 for a crop of grain that, computing your own labor, it is ques- 

 tionable if you could not buy cheaper. But you grudge any of 

 that toil in your Orchard, which is neglected as usual. The vigor 

 of the branches may be sapped by sprouts: its trunks enveloped 

 with moss or scale — a sure harbor for insects, — its fecundity may 

 be as excessive as the specimens are knurly and poor ; but — was 

 not such ever your habit? And do you not hold your own at 

 the Agricultural Exhibitions ? — where easy-going judges are " to 

 your faults a little blind." 



1 would not weary your good nature ; but I cannot be patient 

 with that sort of pomological maliiigery which neglects an 

 orchard until it becomes worthless, and then destroys it because 

 it yields no return. Nothing else within the broad domain of 

 Terrfeculture is so treated. The man who will almost break his 

 back thinning out turnips, or weeding the fragrant onion, con- 

 siders it intolerable hardship to reduce the excessive yield of his 

 apple trees. The work is cleanly, can be done in an upright 

 posture, between seed-time and harvest. But — my father never 



*The Cankerworm Disgrace.— a good apple tree, well established in bearing, 

 if estimated by the income which may be derived from it, is worth from $30 to $100 

 and more. In other words, the individual trees in a good orchard are worth as much 

 as the individual animals in a good herd of cattle. Owners of herds spare neither 

 time nor trouble, nor outlay in money, in order to keep their herds healthful ; but 

 owners of orchards stand by and do nothing, while the cankerworm destroys their 

 trees. It is a shame. The eticctive remedy, spraying with a solution of one pound 

 of Paris green or London purple to 100 gallons of water, is inexpensive. The use of 

 these poisons requires care; but long experience with them in fighting the potato bug 

 makes it easy to exercise the requisite care in saving the orchards. The apathy with 

 which we submit to ravages of the cankerworm would lead a foreign observer, igno- 

 rant of our character, to infer either that we are not sufficiently intelligent to meas- 

 ure the loss, or else that we are fatalists, like the Mohammedans, and accept the 

 cankerworm as a dispensation of Providence, which it would be useless and perhaps 

 impious to oppose. We know better. Our people are neither unintelligent nor 

 fatalistic. The trouble comes from ultra conservatism. "We have always been used 

 to letting the orchard take care of itself, and it is hard for us to realize that fruit 

 trees, as much as domestic animals, may require and Avill reward watchful protec- 

 tion. There are times, however, when conservatism becomes disgraceful, and I think 

 this is one of them.— ^m/tersf, Mass., cor. Homestead. 



