66 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT. 



will bear. Now, my friends, try some of your old lazy plum-trees ; give them a regular trouncing, and 

 report results." 



We all know what Captain Cuttle said of his friend Jack Bunsby's judgments, 

 '* wisdom as is wisdom." Even so we may characterize a communication from A. C. 

 Hubbard, in a late number of the Michigan Farmer, telling of some one who had been 

 told by an " old Frenchman," that he must hang elder-bushes in his trees. He did it, 

 and had plenty of plums. So Herman Dousterswivel, by means of " suffumigations," 

 found a casket of gold and silver coins in Misticot's grave. To faith like this, the witch- 

 hazel tells where to dig for water, and a horse-shoe nailed over the door insures good luck. 



Those readers who have had the patience to follow me through the last few 

 pages, may suppose that such articles can only be found in obscure newspapers. 

 Read the following : 



" To Prevent Fruit from being Wormy. I have a communication to make in reference to the worm 

 nuisance. You will, I think, receive the thanks of two cities by publishing the following : 



" With a large gimblet or auger bore into the body of the tree, just below where the limbs start, in 

 three places, a groove inclining downwards. With a small funnel pour a shilling's worth of quicksilver into 

 each groove. Peg it up closely, and watch the result. Had it been done when the sap first started on its 

 upward circuit it would have been more efficacious yet, even now, it will greatly abate the nuisance. 



"The plan was first tried for a wormy apple-tree by Samuel Jones, Esq., of Canaan, Columbia county, 

 New York, and with entire success. It is believed that, far from damaging the trees, it will even add to the 

 beauty of the foliage. In the case of the fruit above mentioned the cure was surprising, not only the fruit 

 becoming perfect and beautiful, but the very leaf seemed to be larger and far more dark and glossy. 



" Any one desiring further particulars (though no other is needed for doctoring our city trees), is 

 referred to an eye-witness, the daughter of the above named gentleman, at 225 Union street, Brooklyn. 



" BROOKLYN, May j. A CONSTANT READER." 



When such nonsense can find its way into a paper like the New Tork Evening 

 Post, it may be asked What are the people to do ? 



Crude quicksilver is as harmless as water until it undergoes some chemical 

 change, and this it cannot experience when plugged up in wood. But suppose 

 it should change into corrosive sublimate, and so much of it get into the circulation 

 of that tree as to poison it, how is it to interfere with the insects ? They know 

 enough not to eat poisonous food, and will not remain on a dying tree. 



Every year many accounts go the rounds of the papers, that some one has saved 



