NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



231 



upon the trees. After the egg is hatched, the worm 

 eats tothe centre of the apple, and then out at the 

 side, and are the cause of the windfalls, or moth- 

 falls. I saved a number of apples by placing a piece 

 of beeswax over the eye ; but the plan, for i)ractical 

 purposes, is to syringe the fruit with Mhitowash. 

 This will fill the eye, and thus prevent the moth from 

 laying her egg. I am happy to state, that I discov- 

 ered a trap for the larva; of this insect, by which an 

 orchard can be cleared of them with little labor. 

 Noticing two or three of the larvae creeping upon a 

 piece of cotton cloth, which was thrown accidentally 

 into the crotch of an apple-tree, my curiosity led to 

 further examination, and, to my surprise and pleas- 

 ure, I found thirty of the larvoD in their silken homes, 

 going through their chrysalis state. They knit the 

 folds of cloth together with silken ties, and there 

 quietly change from the loathed worm to the perfect 

 insect, which is perhaps as beautiful, under a micro - 

 scojjc, as any production of the insect tribe. I again 

 placed the cotton cloth in the crotch of the tree, and 

 examined it in three weeks, and found another en- 

 campment of them in the same state, and hence con- 

 cluded they were quite in my power with very little 

 labor. The cloth should be placed in the tree about 

 the 2.5th of June, and should be examined every 

 three weeks, as it requires about this time to go 

 through the chrysalis state. In one or two seasons, 

 they must be destroyed, if this operation should be 

 followed up. Thej' find their silken web very readily 

 attach to the little fibres of cotton, and, by tying the 

 cotton cloth to the tree, the v\'ind will not disturb them. 

 There is still another insect which does some dam- 

 age to the foliage and fruit of trees. The perfect in- 

 sect is a long, dark, slender fly, with long feelers and 

 two steerers behind; they were found on the trees as 

 early as the loth of March, mating ; they lay their 

 eggs in the young bud.. As soon as it opens, the egg 

 hatches, and the young larva commences eating the 

 young leaves, and curling them up, in which he makes 

 his home. They are destroyed by applying the white- 

 wash to the limbs of the tree. The whitewash also 

 kills a very destructive little insect, the eggs of which 

 are contained in little muscle shells, on the bark of 

 the apple and pear trees ; [a species of coccus. - ■ Ed.] 

 I will communicate the effect of syringmg the trees 

 ■with the wash before the buds break, in July, when 

 the whole eftect of the experiment Avill be known. 



THE RAVAGES OF INSECTS. 



Such insects as Hessian and wlicat flies, curculios, 

 weevils, army and boll worms, annually destroy crops 

 to the amount of twenty millions of dollars. If a 

 pirate on the high seas, or an Indian savage on land, 

 injures the property of a citizen to the amount of a 

 few dollars, millions are expended, if need be, to 

 punish the offender. This is right. 13 ut when pub- 

 lic enemies of a different name do a thousand times 

 more injury to a whole country, are its citizens under 

 any necessary restraint which forbids their making a 

 common effort to protect their property from insect 

 devastators ? Parasitic plants, such as rust on wheat, 

 and many fungi, as well as injurious insects, are on 

 the increase. To attempt to explain the reasons 

 %ohy this is so, would lead at once into questions in 

 animal and vegetable physiology, out of place in this 

 brief sj-nopsis of such rural topics as are believed to 

 be of general interest. It may not be amiss to re- 

 mark, however, that many boys are apparently edu- 

 cated to kill all small birds that subsist mostly on 

 insects, so soon as these youngsters are large enough 

 to shoulder a gun. 



Government can do miich to check the ravages of 

 insects, by collecting and diffusing useful information 

 as to their- habits, times of transformation, and the 



best means of destroying or avoiding them. If farm- 

 ers fold their arms, and say that nothing can be done 

 by the science of entomology, nor by any other means, 

 what but an increase of the evil is to be expected ? 

 Not to try to escape the infliction, is treating one's 

 enemies with unmanly forbearance, and evinces a 

 belief in fatalism worthy a disciple of Mahomet. — 

 Patoit- Office Report for 1849. 



ANALYSIS OF SOILS, MARLS, AND FER- 

 TILIZERS. 



Something should be done in reference to the anal- 

 ysis of soils, fertilizers, marls, and other minerals 

 constantly sent to the patent-office .for that p\irpose. 

 For many years, chemists and philosophers have been 

 investigating the affinities and other peculiarities of 

 "molecules," or ultimate indivisible particles of mat- 

 ter. These scientific researches have revealed many 

 important truths and natural laws, which have a di- 

 rect bearing on all the economical purposes of agri- 

 culture. Some pains should be taken to impart a 

 knowledge of these laws to all practical farmers. 

 When we consider how little opportunity the mass 

 of agriculturists have to study the chemical compo- 

 sition of their soils and crops, it will readily be seen 

 that information of this kind is greatly needed in all 

 operations which aim to feed cultivated plants with 

 their appropriate aliment. 



Prof. Henry, the distinguished secretary of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, has authorized me to say 

 that the extensive chemical apparatus and excellent 

 laboratory of tlic institution will be at the service of 

 any reputable chemist, to make investigations for the 

 increase and diffusion of knowledge in this branch 

 of science. 



I have compiled for this report about one hundred 

 analyses, embracing most of the cereals, several 

 grasses, clovers, legumes, roots, cotton, tobacco, flax, 

 and the ash of fruit and forest trees, from the latest 

 European and American authorities. Tliese analyses 

 will be found valuable for reference. 



An elaborate paper on the " Study of Soils," giv- 

 ing the chemical composition of their parent rocks, 

 the amount of the elements of crops in a cubic foot 

 of earth available as food for plants, together with 

 researches into the annual production and consump- 

 tion of mould, the variation of the temperature and 

 hygrometric properties of soils, has been deferred, to 

 keep this document within a moderate size. For a 

 similar reason, no space has been allowed for mere 

 guesses at the quantity of grain and other crops grown 

 in the vear 1849. — Ibid. 



Tax ox F.vumixg. — The county commissioners, for 

 some years past, have assessed upon farmers a tax 

 for their occupations, for county purposes. Objec- 

 tions having been made against this as illegal, a case 

 was stated for the opinion of the court, and argued 

 before his honor Judge Gordon, by Messrs. Filbert 

 and Salladc for the county commissioners, and Henry 

 "W. Smith, Esq., on behalf of the farmers. On Fri- 

 day last, the court gave judgment for the defendants, 

 thereby deciding that it was illegal to tax farmers for 

 their occupations. — Berlcs Co. {Pa.) Press, 



A Fact you Daiuywomex. — I. E. Philbrook, says 

 the Vermont Chronicle, kept three cows on liis farm 

 last year, from which his mother, a lady ninety years 

 of age, with his assistance, made, in nine months, 

 nine hundred pounds of butter, eight hundred pounds 

 of which were sold in the town of Ilardwick. This 

 is a fact worthy of record and emulation. 



