376 



Agricultural Society. — Slitting Fi~uit Trees. 



Vol. X. 



similar spines from the otlier rings. Their 

 mode of holding, while at rest, is also differ- 

 ent. These hold with all their feet on the 

 flat surface of a leaf. After eating quite as 

 voraciously as the preceding species, until 

 the 24th of September, they spun silken co- 

 coons between the leaves given for food, and 

 are yet nymphse. I have, however, seen 

 some of these commencing their depreda- 

 tions in a neighbouring orchard this season. 

 These do not confine their ravages to the 

 apple, but with me, have attacked the cherry 

 and quince. J. K. E. 



Paradise, Pa., July 1st, 1846. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Moorestowu, Burlington County Agri- 

 cultural Society. 



This Society was organized on the 26th 

 of Second month last, by the adoption of a 

 Preamble, Constitution, &c. It has forty- 

 nine members. The following were chosen 

 officers for the present year, viz. Levi Bor- 

 ton, President ; Allen Jones, Edward French, 

 William Matlack, Israel Lippincott and Wil- 

 liam Lippincott, Yice Presidents ; William 

 Parry, Recording Secretary; Chalkley Gil- 

 lingham, Corresponding Secretary ; Samuel 

 R. Lippincott, Treasurer ; Silas Walton, 

 Thomas B. Evans, Isaac Collins and John 

 Perkins, additional members of the Execu- 

 tive Committee. 



The stated meetings of the society are 

 held on the first Third-day in the Third, 

 Sixth, Ninth and Twelfth months, at two 

 o'clock, P. M., in the Town-House at Moores 

 town. 



The Executive Committee, which consists 

 of all the officers above named, with the four 

 additional members, meets on the first Fifth- 

 day in every month, except the months in 

 which the stated meetings are held, and the 

 other members have the right to meet with 

 them. 



At the stated meeting held on the 2nd 

 inst. Dr. Joseph Parrish, of Burlington, de- 

 livered an address, very appropriate to the 

 occasion, and it was, on motion resolved, that 

 a vote of thanks be presented to him for the 

 kind and able manner in which he has dis- 

 charged the task, and that he be requested 

 to furnish a copy for publication.* 



Resolved that the Executive Committee 

 be instructed to procure a suitable place for 

 an Agricultural Library, for the use of the 

 members of this Society, and that they be 

 authorized to purchase, or otherwise procure 

 such works connected with the subject of 



agriculture, as in their judgment will ad- 

 vance the objects of this society. 



Resolved that an extract from the minutes 

 of this society, be published with the address, 

 in the Farmers' Cabinet. 



William Parry, Rec. Secy. 



Moorestown, N. J., Sixth mo. 8th, 1846. 



* This Address appeared in our last number.— Ed. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Slitting Fruit Trees. 



Mr. Editor, — In a late number of an 

 agricultural paper is an article ridiculing 

 the practice, time-honoured as it is, of slit- 

 ting the bark of fruit trees to render them 

 healthy and fruitful. The writer remarks 

 that he would as soon think of slitting the 

 skin on a boy's legs to make them grow, as 

 the bark of trees. 



This comparison is more witty than just. 

 If the circulation of blood was confined to 

 the inner coat of the skin, and if the inte- 

 rior skin kept accumulating by successive 

 annual layers until it reached the thickness 

 and solidity of sole-leather, then such a prac- 

 tice might be very useful. 



It is true, I believe, that the outer bark of 

 most fruit trSes runs with its greatest strength 

 directly around the tree; and thus when a 

 number of dry and hardened coverings have 

 accumulated, forms a powerful obstacle to 

 the expansion of the mterior wood, and 

 presses so hard upon the circulating portion 

 of the bark as greatly to obstruct the move- 

 ment of the juices. 



Such, I say, may be the case, when these 

 annual coverings have accumulated from 

 any cause, and to satisfy ourselves on this 

 point, we have only to observe the effect of 

 the yarn, or slip of bark, or matting, with 

 which the limb of a tree is bandaged or tied, 

 in the process of budding, which, if not 

 timely removed, will, by the expansion of 

 the wood, come to press so hard upon the 

 interior bark as to ruin all. This- effect 

 is produced, we see, by a simple woollen 

 yarn. How much more powerful must be a 

 series of coatings of bark wrapped around 

 just like this bandage. It is said that nature 

 provides for the removal of these outer coat- 

 ings as rapidly as is necessary. So she 

 does, in general, but not in particular dis- 

 eased states of the tree. It might as well 

 be said that nature provides for everything 

 necessary to the growth and perfection of 

 trees, fruits and vegetables; but we find on 

 the contrary, that tliey require our constant 

 care and supervision. Their diseases must 

 be looked to and remedied, as in the human 

 subject, or both will soon be beyond the 

 "reach of surgery" — and this is one of those 



