NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



197 



So long as we refuse to plant the seed, it is folly to 

 expect a rich harvest of knowledge. 



We over-estimate the value of mere physical 

 strength, like that of the ox or mnle, and under- 

 estimate the intrinsic worth of cultivated, well- de- 

 veloped reason, in practical agriculture. No incon- 

 siderable degree of mental culture must precede all 

 scientitic tillage and husbandry. An oak is not ma- 

 tured from an acorn in a day, nor in a year ; nor is it 

 i:iossible to form, in a single generation, a univer- 

 sally educated and highly improved race of men. 

 Such improvements, to be general, and fixed in a 

 people as a distinguishing feature in their character, 

 must be deeply impressed on several successive gen- 

 erations. 



As a class, farmers have few advantage? for being 

 well informed in the rapid progress now making in 

 the economical improvement of soils, cultivated 

 plants, and domestic animals. This lack of oppor- 

 tunity is a serious misfortune, and leads to this prac- 

 tical result : With -5,000,000 farm-laborers — 2,700,000 

 in the slaveholding, and 2,300,000 in the free states 

 — American agriculturists so misdirect this immense 

 power of production, that the injury done to 

 100,000,000 acres of land is nearly equal to all the 

 apparent net profits on the whole rural industry of 

 the country. 



To illustrate an important fact, as well as prin- 

 ciple, let us suppose that a farmer produces crops 

 worth $1000, and that they cost him, including 

 all expenses for labor, wear of implements, interest 

 on capital, &c., $850. Nominally, ho has a profit 

 of $150 ; but it often happens, that, if he under- 

 takes to replace in his cultivated fields as much of 

 potash, soda, magnesia, phosphorus, soluble silica, 

 and other elements of crops, as both tillage and 

 cropping had removed, it will cost him $175, or 

 $200, to effect that purpose. It is only by consuming 

 the natural fertility of the land that he has realized 

 any profit. 



In a national point of view, all labor that imj^ov- 

 crishcs the soil is worse than thrown away. No fact 

 in the science of political economy is more imj^ortant 

 than this. To reduce a field, which in its virgin 

 state produced forty bushels of corn per acre, down 

 to twenty in ten years, and then cultivate it forty 

 years, and harvest only twenty bushels per acre in 

 place of forty, is equal to a loss of four hundred 

 bushels of corn per acre in the aggregate, or half the 

 diminished product, without any equivalent what- 

 ever. Thus to impoverish land is to wither the 

 muscles of both man and beast employed in its til- 

 lage. Human toil is often jiraised for being highly 

 productive, when, had the whole truth been known, 

 it would have been seen to be remarkably destructive. 

 Labor never creates a particle of new matter by 

 ploughing deep or shallow ; but it frequently places 

 the elements of grain, cotton, and provisions beyond 

 the reach of all scientific farmers who may live here- 

 after, and find the soil wanting in the raw material 

 for making human food and raiment. 



Is it not the duty of government to diffuse among 

 its citizens acknowledge of the true pi'inciples of til- 

 lage, and impress upon them the obligation which 

 every agriculturist owes to posterity, not to leave the 

 soil lie cultivates in a less fruitful condition than he 

 found it ? 



When we understand better the importance of 

 concentrating labor instead of scattering it ; when we 

 shall come to estimate duly the superior profit of " a 

 little farm well tilled," over a great farm half culti- 

 vated and half manured, overrun with weeds, and 

 scourged with exhausting crops, we shall then fill our 

 barns, and double the winter food for our cattle and 

 sheep, by the products of our w.xstc Ltn h. 



THE CURCULIO. 



This insect has become very destructive to plums, 

 particularly, and as it is a great evil, which should 

 receive more attention, and which requires further 

 investigations, the following recent communication 

 from Dr. Eastman Sanborn, of Andover, to the Pu- 

 ritan Recorder, will be read with interest and profit. 

 In our first volume, we introduced Dr. S. to our 

 readers, in relation to this subject. His thoroui'h 

 and numerous experiments on this subject give an 

 importance to his articles. 



A few years only have passed, since the curculio, 

 or Rhijnchaenus Nenicphar, was Icnown as the de- 

 stroyer of fruit. At its first appearance, its demands, 

 like those of many other invaders of the vegetable 

 kingdom, were modest and unpretending. It seemed 

 quite satisfied with visiting here and thcu-e tender 

 plum-trees, and depositing its egg in their fi'uit. 



But, alas ! 



" The young disease which must subdue at length. 

 Grows with its growth and strengthens vfith its strength." 



The present year this invader holds almost the entire 

 kingdom of Pomona in subjection. Apples, pears, 

 peaches, plums, cherries, apricots, and nectarines 

 have fallen a Y>rej to it. What further encroach- 

 ments it is to make on the productions of the soil, in 

 1850, and in succeeding years, may well excite the 

 most serious apprehensions. Individuals and asso- 

 ciations, if not legislatures, should put forth such 

 exertions as will exterminate it. 



In compliance with your request, that all exper- 

 iments calculated to give valuable information upon 

 this, as well as other branches of agriculture and 

 horticulture, may be reported, I here submit a few ex- 

 aminations made in 1819. If they suggest thoughts, 

 or lead to discoveries which shall have a tendency to 

 preserve to us the golden productions of our fruit- 

 trees, and thus gladden the heart of honest industry, 

 and reward labor, my object will be abundantly 

 accomplished. 



May 18. Plum-trees in my vicinity were in fuQ 

 bloom, and, to be in season for the curculio, I had a 

 platform built on cross-bars and stakes, four feet 

 high, covering the entire surface of the earth under 

 a Green Gage and a Bolmar's Washington. These 

 trees stood nine feet apart. The expense of the ma- 

 terials was less than two dollars. 



From this dijte to Wednesday evening, June 6, 

 the trees were jarred morning and evening. Thou- 

 sands of otlier insects, perfectly innocent, but which 

 are often mistaken for curculio, fell upon the plat- 

 form, but not a solitarj' insect of this tribe was to be 

 found above or below it. The wind was west and 

 north-west. The next morning, June 7, on jarring 

 the trees at six o'clock, though jarred so thoroughly 

 the previous night, a whole shower of curculio fell 

 upon the boards, and were secured in network cages 

 for exhibition and experiment. 



At seven o'clock I*. M., about a dozen more were 

 taken, and " shown up " in due form. I speak of this 

 operation as the duty of all who have the opjiortunity 

 of exhibiting " these foxes, these little foxes, that spoil 

 our tender fruits," till all fruit-growers may recog- 

 nize them wherever they sec them. At this time, 

 the plums were about the size of the marrowfat pea. 



June 8. At six o'clock A. il., I jarred off live 

 curculio ; at seven o'clock P. ^I., six ; on tlie morn- 

 ing of the next day, two; but at night, r.one. Be- 

 tween this time and the evening of tlie loth, none 

 were taken. At the last date 1 caught one ; the 

 next morning, two, and on the s:une day, one. On 

 the morning of June 18, another sliov.'cr of a dozoji 



