:31 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



Aogtist 22, 1828. 



surface of the leaf witli a web, beiieatli which 

 they feed in company, devouring only t!i^; upper 

 cuticle anil parcachyma of tiie leaf, leavin;; tlie 

 lower cuticle and uervures untouched. As the}' 

 increase in size, tiiey progressively extend their 

 web downwards, till, eventually, it covers a larfje 

 portion of the branch. The full grown caterpil- 

 lar is about one inch and one eighth long, and is 

 of a yellowish colour, the back covered with con- 

 tiguous black spots and a double series of small 

 black tubercles, and the sides with several rust 

 coloured tubercles. From the tubercles proceed 

 (hin bunches of diverging, slender, whitish, beard- 

 ed hairs, intermingled with a few black ones. — 

 The head and feet are black. When it lias ceas- 

 ed feeding, the caterpillar leaves the tree, and, in 

 Kome secure place, forms a thin cocoon, in which 

 '.t becomes a pupa, and remains duri::g the wai- 

 ter. In the following June it makes its esca 

 and is then a smrdl v.hito iiiiller or moth, fre- 

 qu;ntly seen round houses in the evening. It c- 

 iongs to the genus Arctia, and the spcciee has 

 not, to my knowledge, been described. It may, 

 therefore, for the present, be denominated, from 

 its well known habit, the iceaver, or Arctia texlor. 

 Body and wings white, immaculate ; anterior 

 i highs tawny; feet blackish above. Length of I wedge 

 the body rather over half an inch, expansion of tamed 

 the wings one inch and two-fifths. 



Such being the habits and metainorphoses of 

 ihi? insect, it is apparent that, at no time, can they 

 30 well be attacked, with the view of arresting 

 them in their destructive career, as when the lar- 

 vse are small, and the webs just begin to appear. 

 The leaf or leaves which then support them should 

 be stripped off, and their inhabitEuls be immedi- 

 ately crushed or burnt, without being suflered to 

 disperse. 



The description of oiu' supposed nondescript de- 

 structive insects might be greatly extended, but 

 this paper is already sufficiently jirolix, if not tire- 

 some both to yourself and your readers. 



You mil please, whenever you wish, command 

 ihe services of voiir humble servant, 



T.WM. HARRIS. 



J^lon,J}ug. 11,1828. 



wishes of some respectable friends, by communi- 

 cating to you the result of numerous experi- 

 ments, made under my own observation, in en- 

 grafting various kinds of delicate foreign grapes 

 and superior varieties of our domestic grapes on 

 the more vigorous stocks of cultivated vines, or on 

 the native vines of our fields, or transplanted na- I am respeclliilly 

 live vines, removed from our hedge rows into our dient servant, 

 gardens at the moment of engrafting. The pro- 

 cess is extremely simple, and as far as I can learn 

 from inspection of the most apiiroved English and 

 French writers, and from inquiry of intelligent Ho 

 foreigners, is not practi-ed in Europe. It is per- 

 ' formed by inserting a scion, of the usual size for 

 planting, iti the root or stock, under the surface 



native of France, possessing large estates in that 

 country and in the United States, assured mc, af- 

 ter careful inspection of njy vines, that it was per- 

 fectly new to him, and would encourage him to 

 introduce it in his extensive plans of imiirovenieiit, 

 to which he is devoting much of his amjile means, 

 nd truly, your friend and obe- 

 WM. COXE. 

 Burlington^uly 22, 1828. 



MS— GR.APES. 



to make sure nj'intiing Plums — Hints for pre- 

 serving Grapes. 



Columbia, Pa. .Inly 21, 1828. 

 If your correspondent H. B. of Dayton, Ohio, 



of the earth, coveting it with the earth, raised will plant all his plum trees in a lot by themselve.sr. 

 round the stock high enough to protect the scion, and either constantly keep hogs in the lot s.tii- 

 which is about six hichcs long, with two eyes on- cient to eat all the fallen fruit, or keep the ground 

 ly, the upper one to be even With the top" of the perfectly free from grass and weeds, tramping the 

 little hillock raised around the plant. No clay or ground hard, and frequently sprinkling it with sah 

 composition is necessary. The stock must be at water or brine, sweeping the fallen Iruit together, 

 least one inch in diaineter, at one or two inches burning and burying it four or live feet deep, or 

 above the crown of tlie iilai.t, when bared to the destroying it in any way so as to prevent the 

 first roots, it must be sawed off at that point.— worms from entering the ground, and to have no 

 The stock is to be carefully split, after the loose other fruit trees growling within 300 yards from 

 bark is scraped off, and if necessary opened by a the lot containing the plums, I will venture to 



the scion, when firmly fixed, will be re- 

 n its ])!ace by the pressure of the stock, 

 after the wedge has been withdrawn or cut off. 

 The time for engrafting is the same as for the apple 

 about ti-.e 1st to the 10th of jVpril in this State. 

 In two or three weeks the buds will sprout. One 

 only must be permitted to grow ; it must be train- 

 ed to a stake, and kept pruned of lateral shoots. 

 In a good soil it will grow ten to twelve feet the 

 first 3'ear ; after this it may be cut down to two 

 or three eyes, or trained at greater length to a 

 I trellis, according to its strength. They invariably 

 bear fruit the second year, and frequently will jiro- 

 I duce one or more bunches the first year. This, 

 I however, should not be permitted, except from a 

 wish to ascertain the the quality of the fruit. It 

 is now about six years since the first attem))t of 

 an intelligent neighbor in this mode of engrafting 

 was exhibited to me, after repeated failures of the 

 ordinary mode of engrafting above the surface. 



FOE THB HI."' ENGLAND I'AEWKR. 



predict that in 4 or 6 years his plum trees will 

 bear more uniformly than apple trees : he ought 

 not, however, to make the experimenl with two 

 or three trees, as it will undoubtedly fail on a 

 small scale. The curculios from the neighboring 

 trees will be sufficient to destroy the fruit on a 

 few trees ; turkeys, ducks, and fowls in general, 

 will assist in destroying insects, as also birds, toads 

 frogs, &c. and ought never be debarred the libci- 

 ty of ranging in an orchard. 



As the mildew is the most destructive enemy 

 to our choice variety of foreign grapes, and as the 

 time is at hand wli£n it usually makes its appear- 

 ance, (beinc in the not moist weather of August,) 

 I will mention a remark communicated to me, by 

 Mr Wm. Prince, of Flushing, Long Island, New 

 York ; he states that by the use of powdered sul- 

 phur blown on the leaves and fruit they have be- 

 come complete masters of mildew at Boston, and 

 by the experiments of a skilful man here, he 

 1 states his conviction that vines which are trained 



GRAPE VINES. 1 



Mr. FESSEriCEN,— I perceive by your paper of 

 die 15th inst. that one of your correspondents un- 

 iler the siffuature of "J. B." says that he lias suc- 

 ceeded verv well by engrafiing the grape the last 

 spriuff. Your corrcspoiidcnt, (or any other horti- 

 culturist) would confer a favor on the cultivators 

 of the vine, if ho would, tbrciigh the medium of 

 your paper, communicate the particulars of the 

 course pursued. ^ 



AVere the scions of the first or second years 

 ■■•rowth ?— At what lime w ere the scions cut ?— 

 Was cleft or whip grafting resorted to ?— Was 

 the scion inserted near the rool of the stock, or in 

 lio iipper branches ? -''- "• 



Dodl-ey, Mass. Aug. 20, 1828. 



From ihf Aniericati Fann.'r. 



I'aluahle practical information niid hints on the cul- 

 ture of the Vine. 

 [Yr-'m the nulhor of-' Coxe on Fruil Trees.''] 

 S,n,_Thc cultivation of the vine has become 

 M important to the health, morals, and prosperity 

 .if our country, that I cheerfully comply with the 



with tlie aid of clay and composition. I liad ex 

 perienced similar failures in mr ow n experiments, \ lower than ten feet, although subject to the mil- 

 owing to the greater flow of "sap in our climate, i dew, will not be subject to it if trained to a great- 

 I have now growths of at least ten feet from the ; er height, on that part which rises above ten feet, 

 grafts of this spring, exhibiting a luxuriant growth j Respectfully yours, J. B. G. 



of a single bunch of grajies. When the stock is 

 sufficiently large, two scions may be inserted, and 

 if succcssiiil, may be reduced to a single stock, or 

 one of them may be laid down by training, about 

 six inches under the surface, to form another vine 



which the second year will be nearly equal in , ,, , 



strength and productiveness to the parent vine. Turkey, was wholly lost to the world. 

 From the facility with which this operation may 



MALLE.ABLE CAST IRON. 



A remarkable instance occurred to my knowl- 

 edge of an individual fact, which might have 

 been of the utmost use to society, but which, ow- 

 ing to the state of knowledge and government in 



An Ara- 

 bian, at Constantinople, had discovered the secret 



be performed, and the short interruption it creates 



of casting iron, which, when it came out of the 



n the bearing, it will be easy to change any num 

 her of vines from unproductive and inferior kinds,! 

 to such as may be adapted to the soil, chniate, 

 and object of the cultivator. Foreign and tender 

 kinds may be speedily acclimated, and an early 

 diffusion of the finer kinds through our extensive 

 country may be accomplished, wherever native 

 stocks are to be found. 



I believe this mode of engrafting will be new 

 to the greater portion of your readers ; it certainly 

 is not noticed by the Abbe Rozier, by La Nouvelle 

 Quintinye, by Miller and Forsyth, all of whom I 

 have consulted— and a highly intelligent friend, a 



_ i mould, was as malleable as hammeren iron; some 



of his fabrication was accidentally shown to Mr 

 de Gaffron, the Prussian charge d'affaires, and 

 Mr Franzaroli (men of mineralogical science) 

 who were struck with the fact, and immediately 

 iiistituteil an enquiry for its author. This man, 

 whose art in Christendom would have insured 

 lini a splendid fortune, had died poor and un- 

 linowTi, and his secret had perished with him ! — 

 His utensils were found, and several pieces of his 

 casting, all perfectly malleable. Mr Franzarolt 

 analyzed them, and found that there was no ad- 

 mixture of any other metal. Mr de Gaffron has 



