No. 124.J 121 



To RENDER OLD AND BARREN ORCHARDS ThRIFTY AND PRODUCTIVE. 



- — Early in the spring plough the entire orchard, and enrich with a 

 compost of manure, swamp muck, ]inie,ancl chip manure. Scrape 

 off all the old bark with a deck-scraper, or a hoe, ground sharp. Ap- 

 ply half a bushel slaked lime, and the same of fine charcoal around 

 each tree. Apply then soft soap or strong soap-suds on the trunks and 

 limbs as high as a man can reach. While the trees are in full bloom, 

 throw over them a good supply of fine slaked lime. 



To Destroy Caterpillars. 



As soon as the nests can be seen, procure some pure spirits of 

 ammonia, tie a small piece of sponge to a pole that is long enough 

 to reach the highest nests, fill the sponge with ammonia, and once 

 filling will be sufficient to rub off and destroy from thirty to forty 

 nests. 



CuRCULIO. 



This destructive insect, in some portions of the country, has de- 

 stroyed the cultivation of the plum and apricot. Among the pre- 

 ventives tried, for the last forty years, there seems to be but one 

 that proves successful. Where there is but one or two trees, the 

 diseased fruit may be picked up daily and destroyed. Where there 

 is an orchard of plum trees, put in a sufficient number of hogs to 

 eat all the diseased fruit as it falls to the ground; otherwise, the 

 worms in the fruit attain their growth, go into the soil, and the fol- 

 lowing season appear as a winged beetle, ready again to deposit its 

 egi2;s in the small fruit, and thus perpetuate its species from year to 

 year. By destroying the diseased fruit, the whole race of the Curcu- 

 lio is destroyed. 



Pruning. 



The best time for pruning is when trees are in bloom, or even 

 when in full leaf. The wounds made by cutting off the small limbs 

 will heal over by the oozing out of the sap. The wounds made by 

 cutting off the large limbs should be painted with any common paint, 

 to keep the wood from the weather. As a general rule, those limbs 

 should be cut off that cross other limbs. When young aj^ple and 

 pear trees grow very thrifty, they will sometimes get too tall j in 

 such cases, they should be headed down by cutting off a portion of 

 the tops. The most successful cultivators of the pe:ich, never trim 

 their trees after they are taken from the nursery. 



[Senate No. 124.] Q 



