No. 124.] 79 



I manured the same trees with stable manure, having secured to it the 

 ammonia, and covered it immediately with earth. Strange as it may 

 appear, thisyear they are literally bending to the ground with the finest 

 fruit I ever saw, a specimen of which is before you. The other trees in 

 my orchard, not treated as above, are barren, next year being their bear- 

 ing year. I am now placing around each tree one peck of charcoal 

 dust, and propose in the spring to cover it from the compost heaps. 

 I have grown corn, beets and carrots in pure charcoal this season; 

 likewise, cuttings of the rose bush, camelia japonica, grape vine and 

 wax plant, and believe it to be one of the most valuable manures we 

 have. Once placed upon the soil, it is there forever. 



2d. Pear Trees. — I treat my pear trees pretty much the same as 

 the apple. I find it has but few enemies, viz: the mouse, curculio, 

 slug worm and fire-blight, as it is termed. The curculio is a winged 

 beetle which rises from the earth when the young fruit is forming, 

 and climbs up -the tree to deposite its egg in the fruit. Whale oil 

 soap placed around the tree will prevent its climbing; if it should 

 succeed in reaching the fruit by means of its wings, syringe the tree 

 with tobacco water. Place lime and charcoal around the root, and it 

 will not be molested by the mouse. As for fire-blii^ht, caused as 

 some suppose by a stroke of the sun, I am convinced it is nothing- 

 more or less than an insect known by the name of scolytus pyri, 

 a very small worm, which rray be found upon examination in the 

 abburnum of any pear tree, the top of which presents a black and 

 withered appearance during. June and July, The branches so affected 

 should be immediately cut off. In pruning I take off only such limbs 

 as cross each other, and balance the tree by keeping the head open to 

 the sun. 



3d. Peach Trees. In planting peach trees, I dig my holes two 

 and a half feet deep and three feet in diameter; then place lime, 

 charcoal, ashes, salt and well rotted barn-yard manure in the bottom, 

 which is thoroughly incorporated with the soil first removed ; the 

 tree is placed in the centre, and the top soil mixed with poudrette 

 thrown on the roots, previously spread ian-shape to receive it. Du- 

 ring the operation of filling up the hole, the tree is constantly gently 

 shaken and occasionally watered with soot water. 



I am fully convinced that the disease called tlie yellows^ is caused 

 by a worm at the root, produced from an egg deposited by a fly in 

 the fruit. When the egg of the fly comes to maturity in the fruit, 

 it falls; the v;orm then enters the tree near the ground, which is the 

 most vulnerable part, and at once commences its work of destruction 

 by eating the sap wood. To prevent this, the tree must be inocu- 

 lated at the age of one year, (instead of tw^o years, the common prac- 

 tice,) and limed ; surrounded by charcoal dust at the age of two years, 

 and when it comes into bearing, place around the trunk, near the 

 ground, a piece of flannel well saturated with whale oil soap, which 

 will prevent ants and other creeping insects from climbing the tree. 

 I never prune peach trees. 



4th. Plums. — Fourteen years since, I removed eighty plum trees 

 from the lower part of my farm, in the month of May, and set them 



