306 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



April 11, 1832. 



gage has few, his yellow gage more ; a young 

 "green Claud.e," imported, lias few, [this is the 

 small kind, and bears the most delicious plum I 

 ever tasted.] A blue plum, called with us the 

 horse-plimi, an excellent plum, has many buds ; 

 a young damson, full ; [these buds matured into 

 fruit, which was entirely cut off in the early dry 

 weather.' I had not one plum, peach, or apricot; 

 as to the plum, a circumstance unexampled.] 



May 5th. Returned from Albany, after an ab- 

 sence since 30th idt. Find vegetation very back- 

 ward. There appears to be more than a week's 

 ditierence between vegetation on the Hudson and 

 at this place. Buds of plums and cherries just 

 begin to open. 



6th. Transplanted some musk-melon, and put 

 charcoal dust around some on the surface ; [these 

 plants appeared to be invigorated by the dust — 

 never so fine in my garden.] 



i)th. Very cold ; fires all day ; snow nearly all 

 the afternoon, by turns. x\t 5 o'clock, P. M. be- 

 gan to cover all grape vines old enough to bear 

 fruit, with mats ; this done in one hour, being as- 

 sisted by two men for half that time, there being 

 about a hundred vines that were likely to bear 

 fruit. This from extreme caution, as the buds do 

 not seem forward enough to be injured. [Of 

 these one hundred vines, I had fruit only on about 

 one third part. The greater munber were not 

 more than two years old after transplanting ; many 

 being three years old from the slip ; at that age I 

 believe they do not generally bear.] 



10th. At 5 o'clock, A. M. thermometer at freez- 

 ing ; ground stilf with frost, but nothing injured ; 

 iriany plants covered, melons, &c. 



IJth. Some pears in blossom fairly out ; apple 

 blossoms not quite out ; early strawberries in full 

 blossom, on terraces. • •^ 



I'ith. A few blossoms of the Ilautbois. 



13th. Pears in full blossom. Grapes on terra- 

 ces, in a few cases, in leaf. Thermometer, yes- 

 terday at 78, at half past eleven in the morning — 

 it being warm in the evening, the beetle first seen 

 on fruit trees. [As the ravages of this insect are 

 becoming more and more destructive,! have taken 

 great pains to ascertain facts in regard to it, but 

 thus far without success that has led to any satis- 

 factory results. In this part of the country the 

 evil is worse and worse ; .tlie plum, the apricot, 

 anil lately the apple, are its victims. I say the 

 heetk, for I suppose this to be the insect. The sug- 

 gestion was made to me by my friend, Mrs Grittith 

 of Brunswick, N. J. some years since ; a lady equally 

 well known lor her knowledge, skill, and admira- 

 ble enthusiasm, in the art to which she has princi- 

 pally devoted her time and talents. Unsatisfactory 

 as my efforts have been, they may perhaps supply 

 uset'ul hints to some more fortunate cultivator ; I 

 therefore. Sir, give you extracts from my Journal, 

 both of the last year and the present. 



tjth May, 1^30. On the night of the 3d inst. 1 

 saw, for the first time, the beetle on my fruit trees. 

 Trees full of the insect, ajipeaied about dusk ; at 

 9 o'clock I shook from one tree about one hundred 

 and fifty, into a sheet. The two succeeding nights 

 ajipeared the same way, on plums, apricots and 

 cherries ; at the same hour on both nights, shook 

 all my trees and thousands came off; some enter- 

 ed the ground iiniuediately, others remained on it 

 nearly in a state of torpidity ; I could not perceive 

 that they rose again to the trees. On the 7tli 

 instant, the weather having come off" cold, wind 

 to the northwest, at 9 o'clock in the evening 1 



could fiud none on the trees. During two nights 

 I protected a French plum tree, by covering the 

 half of it with a sheet ; there were no insects on it. 



1830. May 14th. There having been a succes- 

 sion of cold nights, I have not seen the beetle 

 again till the night before the last, when the trees 

 were again covered ; at dusk they seemed 

 to be in motion generallj' ; at 9 o'clock they 

 had Settled upon the trees which jvere then sha- 

 ken, and I could not observe that they rose after 

 falling. 



1830. June 10th. Having for several nights 

 made fires with shavings, in the hope of attracting 

 the beetle, I have failed ; a very few only flew 

 into the tire ; this insi^ct is yet in numbers on my 

 plum trees. I have not found shaking the trees 

 to effect the object of driving them away^, though 

 most for the time fall ; the.y now feed uponthe 

 leaves of the trees ; this I can see every night, but 

 T do not tee them on the fruit, though it is obvi- 

 ous that a large portion of the fruit has been stung. 

 The youi g plum trees which 1 put down last year 

 look very badly, which I attribute jjartly to the 

 season and partly to the beetle, having ascertained 

 that the beetle resorts regularly to' these young 

 trees. Some of my early apples look ipiite spec- 

 kled, as if they had been stung in several directions.] 

 Journal for 1831, continued. 



May 13th. At 12 o'clock, wimu out with a lan- 

 tern and discovered the insect (beetle) on two Si- 

 berian crab-apple trees, saw them eat the blossom ; 

 took off' the stem and insect, brought them into 

 the house ; before tnorning the blossom was en- 

 tirely devoured ; after witnessing- their progress on 

 the crab, saw them afterwards on the plum. 

 Shook several trees, and saw the insect fall ; found 

 several on young green gages, eating the leaf, there 

 not bring any blossoms on those trees. 



14th. Saw the beetle again at 9 o'clock, P. M. 

 on the crab and on the plum, but not near as nu- 

 merous as last year ; many much smaller. Saw 

 it on some young green gages, on which there was 

 not a blossom. 



15th. Hung the two halves of a mackerel in 

 two plum trees, to try the effect of the scent of the 

 fish upon the insect. [This is a New Jersey pre- 

 scription, and though I am no great believer in 

 these ])ennaceas, we- are too ignorant of the laws 

 of nature to be authorised to reject, as quackery, 

 all such propositions.] 



Ifith. Find the beetle at 9 o'clock, P. M. on 

 one of the trees in which the fish was. See very 

 few of these insects, though the night is warm and 

 fine. There are few, conqiared with last season. 

 Sweet corn, potatoes and beans, up. For the last 

 three days, have watered with liquid manure some 

 of my oldest grapes and some of my fom- years' 

 old vines ; watered also strawberries, cabbages, 

 lettuces, onions, &c. There has been no rain for 

 a week. Hautbois in beds, in full blossom. — 

 Thermometer at 58, at 10 o'clock, P. M. 



17th. Beetle apjiears ; not so many by far as 

 last year ; find them again on the trees where the 

 fish was. 



20th. Examined young nursery plants, found 

 some badly injured by the worm ; same worm 

 that destroys the peach tree ; several trees so batlly 

 injured as to be nearly girdled by the worm. 



21st. Laid down lead pipes in garden. [In the 

 mode of delivering this water, there is a peculiarity 

 that is worthy of attention. The water proceeds 

 from a spring, that was supposed to be sufficient 

 for forty or fifty houses only. It being important 



that there .'should be no ivdste water, it is delivered 

 through apertures in leaden pipes, not generally 

 larger than to admit the head of a common j)in ; 

 at iny house a common knitting-needle will not 

 enter the aperture, and still nothing has ever in- 

 terrupted the watt r, for more than a year, but 

 careless management in one or two instances.] 



To be conclutled nesl week. 



The followiiio; letter, from an eminent cultivator in 

 Maine, will prove uselul as well <is interesting to all who 

 have suffried by the destnictiou aiiioDg fruit trees, so 

 much deplored by hoiticulturisls. 



Maine, M;irch -26, 1833. 

 Hor». John Lowell, Boston,- 



Dear Sin — I have read, with regret, your in- 

 telligence on the subject of the death of the shoots 

 of certain fruit trees.* If the evil ])revads to the 

 extent apprehended, you will judge how Jar the 

 following exjiedient offers a chance of a partial 

 remedy. 



\'arious botanists conceive that nature has pro- 

 vided trees with sets of imperfect buds, or latent 

 germs, ready to be brought into activity as exigencies 

 sli:ill require. Now I presume to suggest the cut- 

 ting off'tlie whole of the wood of the damaged trees, 

 which was generated in 1831, (so far as shall be 

 found requisite ;) and trusting to the exertions of 

 the shoots made in 1830, for providing you with a 

 stock of buds, or germs, to form new wood for the 

 present season, 1832. No evil seems to attend the 

 first part of the operation, namely, the removal of 

 the damaircd wood tiom your trees, but the con- 

 trary, and you may then as the residt of it, probably, 

 bring into play some of the buds or germs which 

 we have supposed to be laid up by nature for or- 

 ciis'onal usef, esjiecially if you employ the ordin- 

 ary means for provoking their appearance, sug- 

 gested by different authors. For experiment's 

 sake, however, it may be wise to leave some of the 

 damaged shoots of 1831, standing, to see whether 

 nature (who is fertile in resources) may not do 

 something unexpected for us, out of that very 

 wood, even though it has lost its primary ostensible 

 buds. 



It will be observed, that the principal object in 

 the scheme above jiroposed is to luovide buds for 

 the present year, 1832. 1 shall proceed, therefore, 

 to offer to your notice two other auxiliary modes 

 for obtaining the very same object, namely, the 

 supply of buds for the present year, 1832. 



The first of these auxiliary methods is founded 

 on a particidar within my own knowledge. Many 

 years ago, some Inindles of fruit scions came to 

 to me from England, late in tlie season ; and the 

 lower ends of the scions being well packed, many 

 powerful shoots (both terminal shoots and side 

 shoots) made their appearance. The bundles be- 

 ing forwarded to me in this condition by the mail 

 coach, a Postmaster in a neighboring village, who 

 was cmious as to fruit, cut off" some side shoots, 

 from which he look buds ; and he told me, that 

 on inserting these bufts in proper stocks, they grew. 

 Hence I ask, whether some of the various bundles 

 of scions, iyqiorted this year from Europe, may 

 not be pushed forward in their vegetation so as to 

 form powerful shoot?, from which shoots buds 

 may be taken and employed as above mentioned 

 liv the ]iostmaster. May not the same question 

 also be put, as to valuable scions received this sea- 

 son, from different parts of the United States .' 



But I break off these queries to cofctinue my nar- 



*For the documents to whicli reference is here made, 

 see New England Farmer for March 14th, 1832, p. 278. 



