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DEVOTED TO JIGRICULTURS AND ALL ITS KINDRED ARTS AND 



SCIENCES. 



Agriculture not only gives riches to a nation, but the only riches she can call her own. — Johnson. 



VOL. II. 



SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 1850. 



NO. J7. 



S. W. COLE, Editor. 



QUINCY HALL, BOSTON. 



J. NOURSE, Peoprietor. 



THE CURCULIO. 



This formidable insect has done immense damage 

 this season, by stinging plums and other fruits. In 

 some sections nearly all the plums have been de- 

 stroyed by it. "We have often recommended the use 

 of salt as a remedy. It is not an infallible remedy 

 or prevention, but it is usually a protection, and 

 when it docs not prevent the evil it lessens it. 



A cultivator remarked to us, some years ago, that 

 a i>lum-tree of good growth had borne no fruit, 

 though it blossomed full every spiring. "\Ve advised 

 him to apply salt early in the spring, which he did 

 for several years, and he had good crops of fruit. 

 Recently he neglected to salt the tree, and the fruit 

 failed. 



Dr. S. A. Shurtlcff has used salt around his plum- 

 trees for many years with good success, both in pre- 

 venting the operations of the curculio, and the black 

 wart ; and his valuable communications on this sub- 

 ject, which we published some years ago, have been 

 very instructive to others. 



A short time ago we were on the farm of Mr. 

 Moses Jones, of Brooklinc, under whose skilful man- 

 agement almost every spot of earth and every fruit- 

 tree yields well ; and observing that his plum-trees 

 were bending beneath their heavy and growing load 

 of fruit, wo inquired how he prevented the depreda- 

 tions of the curculio. lie said that he jarred the 

 trees morning and evening, and let the curculios go 

 as they fell from the trees, and they flew away and 

 returned not, as he supposed. His plan was remark- 

 ably successful, but as it is difficult to recognize 

 these little insects, it would not be easy to determine 

 whether his neighbors suffered from his driving, 

 instead of killing the insects, from his trees. So a 

 doubtful moral ciuestion is involved in this mode. 



Mr. John Day, of Bo.\ford, informs us that for 

 some yeai-s his plum-trees, mostly the Green Gage, 

 did not produce fruit, though they blossomed fully. 

 This season he applied a small portion of salt to 

 them in March, and in T^Iay, he applied more ; and as 

 he had several trees of the same kind, he thought 

 that he would " kQl or cure" in one case. So he 

 spread around one tree, as far as the branches ex- 



tended, a peck of salt, nearly covering the ground. 

 The tree is three or four inches in diameter ; it is so 

 full of fruit that he finds it necessary to thin it. 

 Other trees were salted less, and they have less fruit 

 on them. Some of the fruit on this tree, which is a 

 Green Gage, has been stung, but the operations of 

 the curculio were abortive, as there have been no 

 Avorms in the fruit. 



The fruit might become impregnated with salt, so 

 as to prevent the hatching of the egg, or the devel- 

 opment of the young ; or the curculio, on stinging 

 the plum with its proboscis, might find the plum too 

 brinj' for a nidus for its yo«ng. Without any regard 

 to our suggestions, the facts communicated by Mr. 

 Day favor the opinion of many that the prevention 

 by salt is by its imparting a slight saline taste to the 

 fruit, readily perceived by the insect, rather than by 

 destroying the insect in the ground. 



THE SEASON AND THE CROPS. 



The WE.vrHER. — - May was a cold, wet month, and 

 the spring was one of the most backward ever known. 

 Pine weather commenced about the first of June, and 

 since that time it has been very favorable for vegeta- 

 tion. It has generally been warm, and we have had 

 a good proportion of rainy and fair weather. There 

 has been no drought, and only once have there been 

 symptoms of it ; and even then the busy farmer 

 wished for more sunshine that he might make hay. 



The Chops have generally been good, or are prom- 

 ising. An abundant harvest will crown the labors 

 of the skilful and industrious husbandman. 



7/f/y. — This crop is one of the largest ever raised 

 in New England. But farmers sliould be cautious, 

 and not count too much upon it, and prepare to win- 

 ter too much stock. Large hay crops do not spend 

 well, and early in the season the grass was cut im- 

 mediately after several weeks mostly of dull weather, 

 and the hay, as well as the strawberries that ripened 

 at that time, lacks substance and flavor. Old hay is 

 mostly consumed throughout the country ; and owing 

 to several fine seasons for grass, there is a great deal 



