1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



479 



at once attacked by insect scavengers to hide 

 the deformity from the fair face of the earth. 

 But when the committee endorse the theory of 

 Professor Hind, of Trinity College, Toronto, 

 and English writers, who recommend "good 

 husbandry as among the remedial measures to 

 arrest the progress of insects," we think they do 

 not, to say the least, give the true cause of the in- 

 crease of insects. They say, "high farming is as 

 destructive to vermin as to weeds, and it is rare- 

 ly that the devastation committed in highly cul- 

 tivated land is very serious." 



We believe that the reverse of this is the case 

 — that high farming produces insects — that it 

 feeds and shelters them, and produces the condi- 

 tion of things best fitted to a rapid and wonderful 

 increase. This, too, is in accordance with a nat- 

 ural law. The forests of certain sections of coun- 

 try sometimes yield no mast, or nuts, for sever- 

 al years in succession, so that the animals that 

 enlivened their tops all disappear. At length 

 they blossom again, and lo ! long before the 

 fruit has matured, the forest is vocal with the 

 hopeful sounds of its old denizens, waiting for 

 their accustomed food. And so is it with the 

 grasses on the prairies — it is the plentiful crop 

 that increases the destroyers, and not the lean 

 and hungry ones. 



We should aim to secure large and healthy 

 crops, notwithstanding — but must set our wits 

 to work to devise the ways and means to pre- 

 vent their destruction by insects. But we cer- 

 tainly have done much that is favorable to their 

 multiplication and vigor, in increasing the varie- 

 ties and excellence of our crops. When apple 

 trees were few, the fruit small, gnarly and almobt 

 as hard as flint, and the leaves were small, tough 

 and wiry, we had but few curculios ; but now 

 that the cultivated apple is juicy and tender, the 

 curculio finds it so admirably adapted to its pur- 

 poses of propagation that scarcely an apple is 

 left untouched by this tiny depredator ; and so 

 the caterpillar finds the leaves of the apple tree 

 large, succulent and tender, and the very food it 

 requires in order to sustain millions of its kind. 

 So the tender leaves of numerous other fruits, as 

 well as the great variety of vegetables which we 

 have been pleased to introduce into our gardens 

 and fields and cultivate, contribute to the aid and 

 comfort of numerous insects, as well as to the 

 gratification of our own apj)etites. Life, in this 

 respect, as in many others, is a continued war- 

 fare. It is so between us and the insects, and 

 between them and us. Who shall gain the mas- 

 tery ? They, by their instinct, or we, by our rea- 

 son ? 



The committee then refer to the want of a 

 more uniform and systematic mode of collecting 

 the statistics of agjiculture, so that we may bet- 



ter know the number and value of our stock, of all 

 kinds, and how to form a general estimate of av- 

 erage crops raised. They also speak of Agricultu- 

 ral Associations, and quote high authorities in 

 their favor. The Sorghum or Sugar Cane, and 

 -Si'eaniP^om/?^ are considered, and the importance 

 of a choice Agricultural Library is dwelt upon 

 with considerable emphasis. 



Their address last year was given by Joseph 

 R. Williams, President of Michigan Agricul- 

 tural College, — it occupies some thirty pages, 

 and was of so excellent a character as to bs very 

 generally published in the agricultural papers 

 during the last winter. 



The next paper contains extracts from an ad- 

 dress by Prof. North, on '"American Trees and 

 Tree Planters," and is full of excellent facts and 

 suggestions. He says that trees make generous 

 returns for the room they occupy. The destruc- 

 tion of trees not only diminishes the absolute 

 quantity of rain, but prevents its accumulation in 

 springs, shaded valleys and swamps. A bare 

 hill-side will shed water like a roof. Let the 

 trees remain as nature intended, and the same 

 soil becomes a sponge, absorbing the rain as it 

 falls, and sending it down little by little to the 

 thirsty lowlands. He gives an interesting ac- 

 count of the leading men who have presented the 

 claims of trees, beginning with John Bartram, 

 who founded the first botanic garden in this 

 country, on the banks of the Schuylkill, and men- 

 tioning Andre Michaux and his son, William 

 CoxE, of New Jersey, Downing, M. P. Wilder 

 and H. W. Sargent. In confirmation of our 

 theory about the increase of insects, and the 

 state of warfare we are in, he says — "Every val- 

 uable tree has its enemies. The more useful the 

 tree, the more numerous, busy and implacable 

 its foes." 



The retiring President, WiLLlAM T. McCoUN, 

 made a speech in which the subject of steam as 

 a motive power on the farm was very ably dis- 

 cussed, — and then the newly elected president, 

 Abraham B. Conger, made short, congratula- 

 tory remarks upon taking his seat. In a gener- 

 al discussion at another time, Mr. Conger made 

 an earnest address to the farmers to abandon the 

 exhaustive process of feeding mainly on hay and 

 adopt the root cultivation. He believed in the 

 English dogma, that without roots for food, there 

 must be few cattle ; that with few cattle there 

 must be little manure ; and with little manure 

 there must be light crops. 



The report of the committee on Dairy Farms 

 is a long and interesting one. We notice that 

 the result of inquiries among dairymen, as to the 

 amount of milk required to make a pound of 

 butter, was stated at fourteen quarts. Colonel 

 Pratt's dairy, of 50 cows, in 1857, was twenty 



