458 



NEW ENGLAOT) FARMER. 



Oct. 



in winter and early spring, to impart warmth and 

 dryness to the wet soil. In such situaiions a row 

 of weeping ashes is very efff ctive, and at the same 

 time exceedingly picturesque. This may be ob- 

 tained by setting out young ash trees at distances 

 of eisrht to ten teet, and when tLey have grown to 

 a suflicient stature, cutting th' m down to a uni- 

 form heij^ht ot tifteeii feer, and grafting the tops 

 with scions of the weeping ash. Tnese take read- 

 ily, and in two seasons will have thrown over a 

 shower of long, drooping boughs, reaching to the 

 ground, g ving the tffect of a cataract of liviipg 

 green. Alter the tir.'-t year all shoots of the origi- 

 nal tree should be caiefully n moved, otherwi-e 

 th( y will mar the b> auty of the drooping wall. 

 I have succeeded in forniing such a screen with 

 b;it btde labor, and it promises to be peifectly 

 effective. AfousTiNE Shuktleff. 



Biookline, Mass.,Ju,ly 25, 1869. 



Remarks — With the protection recommended 

 by the writer of this valuable article, we have no 

 doubt that pears and oiher fine fruits might be 

 raised on many farms in New England which are 

 now supposed by their owners to be too far north 

 or too elevated for their successful cultivation. 

 Such a screen is often equal to the removal of the 

 garden into a cli mate several degrees warmer and 

 several days earlier. 



THE PALMER WORM. 



Will \ou be so kind as to inform me if there is 

 such a worm as the Palmer worm ? and if th^ re is, 

 please (iesci ibe it to me e. p. 



Biidgtwater, Mass., July 29, 1869. 



Remarks. — In 1853 an insect something like 

 the Canker worm made its appearance in many 

 parts of New England. In a communi .ation to 

 the Farmer, — Monthly page 370, — dated July 6, 

 1853, Prof. Harris of Cambridgi', says of the Pal- 

 mer worms, "the^e insects which have appeared 

 in gnat nnnibirs upon fruit and fo! est trees, dur- 

 ing the past month, agree in all respects with the 

 accounts given of the Palmer worms that pte- 

 vaiied in many parts of New England in June, 

 1791." As he calls th^m the Palmer worm, wc 

 must answer the above inquiry in the affirmative, 

 although it is proOa'Jy true that the name 

 has been applied to ditferent worms. Prof. Harris 

 said that until the insect is obtained in the winged 

 or moth Slate its scientitij name cannot be de- 

 termined. We do not know that this has been 

 done, but we picsume that Mr. Scuddcr's proposed 

 work on Butterflies will give it. We have heard 

 nothing of the Palmer worm since 1853. At that 

 time Prof. Harris gave the following description 

 of it: "In its early stages, this ivonn, or caterpillar, 

 though varjing somewhat in color, is mostly pale 

 green, with two slendir brown lines along the top 

 of the back, and a pale brown head. It has six- 

 teen teet, six of which, near the head, are jointed, 

 and end with a single claw : the others are merely 

 fleshy protuberances without joints, the terminal 

 pair being the longest. When fully grown, the 

 in»ect measures half an inch or rather more in 

 length, and then bears a striking resemblance to 

 ,the common bud worm of the apple tree; the 

 back assuming, generally, a darker color, and the 



sides of the body being marked with black points, 

 arranged there together on each side of every ring. 

 Two blackish semi-circular spots or marks, may 

 also generally be observed, at this period, on the 

 top of the first ring. A few short hairs may be 

 seen on the body by means of a magnilying glass. 

 On my own trees, these insects have confined 

 themselves mostly to the terminal leaves and buds ; 

 on others, in places where they have bt en numer- 

 ous, they have spread over all the leaves, and 

 have devoured the whole green substance, leaving 

 only the net work of veins untouched. They 

 are exceedi'gly active in their motions, moving 

 either forwatds or backwards at pleasure, wih a 

 kind of impatient jerking motion, which renders 

 it difficult to hold them. When the trees are 

 shaken, these worms drop, and hang suspended 

 by threads, like canker worms. Whether they 

 leave the trees in the same way, when they have 

 finished their course, — if indeed- they do leave 

 them at this time, and where they undergo their 

 final transformations, I have not ascertained, be- 

 ing prevented by other engagements from watch- 

 ing their further progress." 



DISEASED CHERRY TREES. 



I have some nice cherry trees of the Washing- 

 ton va'iety, but very few cherries. Tney blos- 

 som full, but when the fruit gets about the size of 

 small peas, it drops off. Tne trees are of about five 

 years' growth, and appear to be very thritty. 



Lyman J. Tower. 



Cummington, Mass., July, 1869. 



Remarks. — Our correspondent, we suppose, is 

 aware that the cheiry trees all over New Eng'and 

 have greatly deteriorated, within the la&t twenty 

 years. We are inclmed to think that this is not 

 occasioned by a disease of the tree itself, as in the 

 ca-e of the "j el lows" in the peach, but is the re- 

 sult of annual attacks upon it by iasects, during its 

 early growth in the spring. These insects are a 

 little "saw-fly," only about one-tiith of an inch in 

 length, and quite black. 



As soon as the young shoots on the ends of the 

 twigs, put our, and new leaves are formed, these 

 little black slimy insects infest them in astonish- 

 ing numbers, and destroy all the new growth. In 

 attempting to get them off, the hand soon becomes 

 glutd, as it were, with a disgusting, sticky sub- 

 stance, with which their bodies seem to be cov- 

 ered. 



They soon affect the tree so that the foliage on 

 the ends of the branches, all around the tree, is 

 curled, looks dirty, and is so to the touch. They 

 begin to lay their eggs early in June, and finish 

 and disappear within the space of three weeks. 

 The eggs are deposited on the under side of the 

 leaf. The worms, or slugs, hatch out in about 

 fourteen daj s, and have twenty very sh a't legs. 

 The trees attacked by them are forced to throw 

 out new leaves during the heat of the summer, at 

 the ends of the twigs and branches that still re- 

 main alive; and this unseasonable foliage, which 

 should not have appeared until the next spring, 



