THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



45'^ 



cherry. The huicr imleetl suHers annually lo 

 some extent; and ii lew \ears ago, owinjr lo a 

 scarcity of oilier Iruif, our peaches were almost 

 entirely destroyed hy ilieni. 



Thetse coni-iderations have induced us this eea- 

 eoii lo pay more attention to them than in years 

 past ; and we have been surprised to find them so 

 numerous. In a late article on this subject, we 

 proposed to jar the trees helbre tiie tin iroughs 

 were put up ; but one, or even a dozen jarrinirs 

 are not sullicient to get them all down. The 

 iroiighs, therefore, shoukl he fixed and filled, very 

 early in the season, before the insects ascend the 

 trees, or the labor may be vain. We offer some 

 proof of this remarU : For nine mornings in suc- 

 cession, some of our trjt;es had been repeatedly 

 struck with an axe, 60 as to produce violent con- 

 cussions, each lime obtaining a goodly number ol 

 curculios ; and yet on the tenth morning, Irom the 

 same trees, we caught more than double tlie 

 number that we had at any other time, owing to 

 the cold which benumbed them, and rendered 

 ihem less able to hold on. From the same trees 

 we have since obtained many more. 



Some persons have doubted the efficiency of 

 water troughs ; but from what we have seen of 

 Ihem, our confidence lias not been diminished in 

 the least. We have frequently caught curculios 

 on the rim, as if wailing lor a passage ; and have 

 sometimes found them in the water perlecily help- 

 less. Now to prevent ihera Irom climbing u[), is 

 all that we can reasonably expect from a water 

 trough. It cannot bring them down. 



For lari^e trees, (he expense of these fixtures 

 will be greater than on small trees, the amount ol' 

 materials to mal<e them being greater. If a 

 sufficient space be left between the trough and 

 the tree, however, it may remain several years 

 without being taken down — a hole being made in 

 the bottom as soon as the curculio season is over, 

 to let oH the water which might collect there, 

 from rain or Irom melting snow. A small chisel, 

 culling ihrough ihe tin into a block of wood held 

 firmly under, would make a sufficient aperture, 

 which might be closed the next spring, and 

 secured by a drop o( solder. Three or more 

 wedges pushed up between the trough and the tree 

 fisstened by small nails, support the trough : and 

 rags or tow stop up the remaining vacancy. We 

 cap the whole with a coat of mortar to prevent 

 the insects Irom working their way through the 

 crevices. 



Hogs sometimes neglect to eat the fallen fruit 

 when it is very green ; but shorter commons will 

 generally bring Ihem to their duty. If the fruit 

 hes long under the tree, the worm escapes into the 

 ground. 



SHELL, MARL UNDER PEAT, IN VERMONT. 



To the Editor of tlie Farmers' Register. 



Woodstock, Vermont, 3'Jarch 6, 1841. 

 * * * Our marl I think is very ditlerent Irom 

 that with which your experiments were made, 

 containing probably a greater per cent, of lime. 

 It lies in the bottom of a " lime pond" of about 

 fifteen acres in extent, and varies in depth from 

 two to twelve leet and upwards, and is covered 

 with a layer of peat from two to seven feet in 

 thickness, with the exception of a pond covering 



about three acres, which is supplied in part with 

 water by P()riiigs in the bottom, and partly by 

 small streams in the: edge of the meadow, which 

 can beconducied off by ditches. 



A great portion of the m^iss is reduced lo an 

 impalpable powder, cuntaining ii[)()arenily much 

 animal mailer ; and when wet has a very olea- 

 ginous leeling. The lew shells, whose Ibrms are 

 discernible, are very small, and completely friable ; 

 !hey are very free from any admixture of eanh 

 or other lorei</n substance, and are of a very 

 while color. The deposite consists principally of 

 snail shells, iniei mixed with a few bivalvular 

 shells, rarely as large as a kidney bean. 



It has noi been used lor agricultural purposes, 

 but has been burned lor lime, which was of a very 

 superior quality. Charles JVIarsh, Jr. 



SHEEP POISONED BY THE COMMON RED 

 CHERRY. 



From tlic New Genesee Farmer. 



Messrs. Editors — Some six or eight years 

 since, while carrying on farming at Rock Stream, 

 one of my orchards, in which was a variety of 

 Iruit trees, including a number of the common red 

 sour cherry, became covered with a luxuriant 

 growth of grass, to destroy which, I turned in, 

 about the first of September, filiy or sixty Merino 

 sheep. The animals seemed umjsually lond ol 

 eating the young cherry sprouts which had sprung 

 up very thick under and about the cherry trees. 

 In less than an hour a larire proportion of them 

 were discovered to be diseased, and tliey were 

 immediately turned out. They staggered continu- 

 ally, piiching Ibrward upon their heads, and olien 

 turning eniirely over upon their backs. In the 

 course of two or three hours several of them had 

 died ; the remainder gradually recovered. 



Post mortem examinations proved that their 

 stomachs were compactly filled wiih the leaves of 

 the cherry sprouts, containing, I presume, prussic 

 acid sufficient to destroy animal lile. 



E. Barnes. 



Note — A neighbor of mine lost a cow Irom her 

 eating the leaves of a cherry tree, which had 

 been blown down by a wind storm. E. B. 



Geneva, May 29, 1841. 



mistakes OF THE names AND CHARACTERS 

 OP GRASSES. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



West- Chester, Pa., July 5, 1841. 

 I have to acknowledge the leceipt of some ad- 

 ditional numbers of the Farmers' Register, lor 

 which you will please accept my thanks. I am 

 much pleased to observe the spirit of inquiry 

 which you have roused among the farmers and 

 planters, in reference to the various grasses in 

 which they are interested, and particularly the de- 

 sire manilested to ascertain more accurately the 

 identity of the several species of which they treat 

 in their communications. This is certainly the 

 first step towards a useful discussion, and the only 

 way to arrive at satisfactory conclusions. It is 

 worse than labor lost, and leads to endless confu- 



