NEW ENCJ1.AWD FARMER. 



Published by John B. Russell, at .Mo. 52 JVorth Market Sired, (over the Agricultural JVarehouse). — Thomas G. Fessenden, Editcr. 



VOL. YII. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1828. 



No. 18. 



HORTICULTURE. 



FOR THE NEW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



FIRE BLIGHT. 



Mr Fessekbf.n — Fiie bliiilit is still employed 

 to ileiiote tlic new malady wiiich destroys our pear 

 ;ind apple trees ; and the cause, by many, is im- 

 puted still to the malignant infliieno.e of the solar 

 rays, which, since the world began, have given 

 life, growth and maturity to the vegetable cre- 

 ation. Vide JV. E. Farmer, vii. p. 19. 



It is a sound axiom that like causes produce 

 like effects. If the sun does the mischief, why 

 has it not done the like for centuries before .' Has 

 the benign influence of its lays changed ; or have 

 tlie laws of vegetation altered, within tlie last few 

 years? The tumors on the plum and Morello 

 cherry, which in some districts have operated to 

 the almost entire extinction of these vahinhle fruits, 

 have been ascribed to a spontaneous extravas- 

 ation of sa|), and to other equally erroneous caus- 

 es. But it has been satisfactorily shown, by emi- 

 nent naturalists, as well as practical gardeners, 

 that this disease originates from the poisonous 

 puncture of an insect, probably but a short time 

 among us, which operates upon the vegetable 

 blood like the poison of a rabid animal upon the 

 human system, causing disease and death. But 

 as the circulation is infinitely more rapid in the 

 animal than in the vegetable, the cure in the lat- 

 ter is more easy and certain. Governed by ti- s 

 opinion I have persevered in cutting off and burn- 

 ing the diseased branches until I have overcome 

 the evil, although some gardens in the vicinity are 

 as much afflicted as ever. I have some thousands 

 of the plum and Morello cherry on my gronnds,and 

 have found but one diseased tree among them 

 during the season, and that came into my posses- 

 sion last s])ring. Forty years ago the Hessian fly 

 was unknown to us. New enemies to our crops 

 are annually recognized in the insect tribes. 



I do not believe this disease is produced by the 

 sun ; because its attacks are indiscriminate, where 

 the sun's rays are obstructed by foliage, as well 

 as where exposed to its rays ; on the north 

 as well as the south ; on horizontal as well as 

 perpendicular shoots ; and on tlie under as well 

 as upper side. 



I dissent equally from the theory, that it is oc- 

 casioned by ony deleterious matter in the soil ; 

 because it occurs where the soil has undergone 

 no apparent change ; and because, were this the 

 case, the whole system of sap wood, through 

 which the juices circulate before they become veg- 

 etable food, would be ahke affected, and first the 

 roots and trunk. 



I object to every opinion which goes to ascribe 

 it to atmospheric influence ; because this influence 

 would exert itself first on the leaves, the most sen- 

 sitive and exposed organs, and the extremities 

 would invariably give the first indications, whicli 

 is not the case. 



I do not believe it pccuhar to any particular va- 

 riety : because it attacks my apples as well as 

 pears. It most abounds where the wood is most 

 thrifty and tender. My Poir d'Auch, Winter but- 

 ter and Priestley apples have suffered inost. 



It ill becomes me, after objecting to other theo- 

 ries, to set up one of my own, without ample 

 proof to support it. But as my only object is to 

 excite investigation, an<l elicit truth, I hope I shall 

 be pardoned for my presumption in suggesting it, 

 uusupported as it is by anything but casual obser- 

 vation and i-eflection. 



My theory is, that the new disease of the pear 

 and apple trees, like that of the plum and Morello 

 cherry, is occasioned by an insect which injects a 

 matter through the bark, that poisons or vitiates 

 the descending sap, and causes diseaSe and death 

 And my reasons for this opinion are briefly, — 



1. That the progress of the disease is doion, 

 with the elaborated or proper sap, towards the 

 trunk and root ; and not vp, with the ascending 

 sap, towards the extremities and leaves ; that it is 

 pe.''ceptible to a greater extent on the cambium, 

 and inner bark, than on the exterior surface. — 

 The former will be found brown, in longitudinal 

 slips, sometimes an inch lower than the exterior 

 is affected. The sap frequently continues to as 

 cend, is elaborated, and nourishes and preserves 

 the verdure at the extremity, after the Ijranch is 

 affected, and the whole circle of the bark below 

 become brown and withered ; and in these cases 

 it is not until the sap-wood under the blighted 



(partis contracted hy disease, and refuses to per- 

 ! form its oflice, that tlie extremity perishes. 



2. That the commencement of the disease, from 

 wiiat I have stated, is in the descending sap, is 

 c:/Rinunicated next to the bark, and finally to the 

 wood. 



3. That it is most common in thrifty branches, 

 tender bark, and new wood. And 



4. That it appears only when the sap is in full 

 flow, and vegetation luxuriant ; and extends in 

 proportion to the vigor of circulation and growth. 



What the msect is that does the mischief I will 

 not ])retend to determine. I have seen insects, 

 in the morning, so firmly attached to a branch (at 

 the commencement of the new growth) of an aji- 

 ple tree, that cutting off the hnib did not disturb 

 them ; and at evening I have found many of them 

 enveloped in the dead and curled leaves of a 

 branch which they had probably destroyed in 

 part. As I am no entomologist, I submitted them 

 to a gentleman of science, who gave them the 

 generic name of saperda, the specific name not 

 being known. J. BUEL. 



Albany, J^ov. 7, 1828. 



CANADA THISTLES. 



I was amused, Mr Editor, by the directions for 



' destroying Canada Thistles, in vol. vii. No. 3, of 



your paper, which directed to " cut off each thistle 



half an inch below the surface of the ground, and 



then put on a gill of coarse salt." 



This is very much of a piece with the directions 

 I received when a boy, for catching birds, by put- 

 ting salt on their tails. Pray what will your cor- 

 respondent charge for putting his theory in suc- 

 cessful practice upon an acre of thistles ? or can 

 .'le tell how much salt it will require .' 



Philosoi)hy, as well as experience, conclusively 

 prove, that morning them off two or three times in 

 a season, particidarly when in blossom, will effect- 

 ually destroy this pest of our farms, without the 



application of a gill of salt. Repeated defoliation 

 will destroy"any tree or ])lant with which I aui 

 acquainted. Leaves are necessary to the growth 

 of jilants, and tlicy cannot live without them in 

 summer. A few years ago, whole forests of sugar 

 maple were killed by the cateqnllar destroying 

 their leaves about midsummer. The white mul- 

 berry is very tcmicious of life, and yet were it en- 

 tirely and repeatedly snipped of its leaves it would 

 die. I have lott hundreds of young plums and 

 cherry trees the last summer, by iinall black lice 

 which attacked and destroyed the foliage of the 

 new budded stock. Leaves are to the vegetable 

 what the stomach is to the animal — tlie organs of 

 digestion, which convert food into nutriment. — 

 And without tiiis nutriment the plant nor the ani- 

 mal cannot long subsist. The Canada thistle has 

 diminished in west Vermont, nine-tenths within 

 my recollection. They are annually cut above the 

 ground, and have not, I believe, been dosed witli 

 either salt or pickle. RUSTICUS. 



Albany, jYov. 12, 1828. 



YELLOW LOCUST. 



You have reconimeuded, in one of your num. 

 hers, the sowing of yellow locust seed in March. 

 I sowed once the last of Ajiril, and lost nine-tenths 

 of the young plants by frost. The seed, after 

 being scalded, comes up as speedily as corn, and 

 is as tender as the bean. It should not be sowi. 

 before the bean. 



Albaiiy, J\ov. 14, 1828. 



. ■«-."- —^ 



I OR THE NEW ENCLANU FARMEK. 



FOREST TREES. 



Mr Editor — From the suggestions of a nuiii 

 ber of your correspondents on the subjects of cui 

 tivating timber and woodland, I am induced Ic 

 try the experiment upon a field, which I wish to 

 describe to you ; and to ask your advice, or that 

 of some of your correspondents upon the follow- 

 ing points, viz : 



The most valuable kinds, taking into considera- 

 tion the value of timber, wood, the kind of soil. 

 Sec. The Sfil on the field to which I allude, is 

 light, and worn out by long tillage. One third 

 part of the field, say five or six acres, is a level of 

 a sandy loam, mostly sand, entirely free from 

 stone, producing very little grass or herbage of 

 any kind — will yield a fair crop of English or win- 

 ter grain, when ploughed once in five or six years. 

 Another third part of the field is hilly, sandy, and 

 gravelly, inclining to wash or gully ; the "other 

 third part is gravel or loam, also hilly producing 

 more herbage and grass than either of the iior- 

 tioiis before described. . The timber, whicli is of 

 natural growth around this field consists of the 

 pitch or yellow pine, the oak, chesnut, poplar, &c. 



The yellow locust, as described in your paper, 

 is a fine valuable tree, which I would most gladly 

 attempt the cultivation of, on the lot described, if 

 there was a fair prospect of success. If the soil, 

 or any part of it be deemed the most suitable for 

 the cultivation of the yellow, pitch or white pine, 

 what is the best method of stocking it, either by 

 seeding or transplanting, and when is the best 

 time of doing it ? Also, the same query with re- 

 gard to oak or chesnut, which might be thought 



