396 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



For the New England Farmer. 



INSECTS -POTATOES. 



Ma. Cole : — 



" Just when I thought my work all done, 

 Alas ! I found it scarce begun." 



I quote from myself, to show that I am a poet, lest 

 the world should not know so important a fact. Yet 

 the sublimcst strains of my muse will not charm 

 away the mischievous propensities of destroyers. I 

 ■wrote you about the phenomena of a peach-tree 

 casting its fruit, or retaining it merely to wither, rot, 

 and come to nought. The roots had been guarded 

 thoroughly with frequent deposits of ashes, as I 

 thought, after exterminating borers ; last fall, and in 

 tiie spring, the tree was generously mulched with 

 forest- leaves. But sad to say, after my disappoint- 

 ment, a reuxamination below my ashes brought to 

 view a whole summer's work of several fat borers. 

 " Eternal vigilance is the price," not only of " lib- 

 erty," but of the safety and health of fruit-trees. I 

 revoke the imputation of my poor slandered trees' 

 failure to the blight of winds and cold storms. 



I have bored into some apple-trees, and filled the 

 orifice with tar, to ascertain whether the sap will not 

 absorb something of the quality of the tar, and repel 

 curculios, &c., next season. Agricultural philoso- 

 phers may laugh at me and welcome ; for I do not 

 myself know of any assimilating power of fruit-tree 

 sap of any kind to incorporate turpentine with itself, 

 and carry it out to the extremities of the branches, 

 nud to the fruit-buds. Sifting the blows over with a 

 mixture of sulphur and plaster, which a friend found 

 was followed by a good sound crop of apples, seems 

 more philosophical ; but it is a more difficult opera- 

 tion. Yet there is good sense in the old adage, 

 " There is nothing like trying." My tar has, how- 

 ever, trapped myriads of one species of insects, be 

 they what they may. They cluster upon the ex- 

 tremities of the branches of peach-trees, in Septem- 

 ber, and with them congregate hordes of small ants. 

 Some have wings, but most of them are without 

 them ; and they are quite minute, adhering to the top 

 of the twigs, thoroughly dwarfing their growth, or 

 else killing them. Having bored into the fork of a 

 thrifty young apple-tree, where marks of decay ap- 

 peared, and then thrust down tar with a stick, mul- 

 titudes of ants rushed out of the fork, finding their 

 camj) invaded ; and where the tar had smeared the 

 tree and run down, I found multitudes of the fore- 

 said insects stuck on. Apparently, they were on 

 their way to their burrow, and were arrested in their 

 march, the last of October, when the tar was ap- 

 plied. Perhaps they are aphides going to winter 

 quarters. 



Examining the loose scales of bark upon an ap- 

 ple-tree, I lind, this morning, that under them these 

 in.nects have taken refuge, in vast numbers, prepared 

 to resume work on houselike scales next spring. I 

 want a wire brush with a long handle, to curry my 

 trees over tlioroughly. Erush-makers, can you fur- 

 nish the article ? 



My potatoes, dug early, and .spread on my cellar 

 bottom, keep well ; and had I exhumed my chenan- 

 goes promptly after the first blight of the top, and 

 served them thu.s, my belief is, I should have saved 

 their lives also. Those potatoes which I found, upon 

 digging, lying deepest in turf ground, were almost 

 (ill sound and healthy ; and those nearest the surface, 

 and on rootlets shot out near the further edges of the 

 hills, were uiost usually rotted. The air and change 

 of temperature seem to have had something to do in 

 producing the difference discovered. The potato's 

 rctentivcnesB of vegetating power I detect, strikingly, 

 in some found in juy cellar, under an inverted box, 

 thk ffiU, and which were raised last year. They had 



struggled in darkness to propagate themselves, and 

 sent out long rambling vines, which would have 

 borne leaves, in open air ; but in lieu of these, many 

 little potatoes were growing, sustained by the life of 

 the parent root. It is mj' purpose to save parents 

 and offspring, for experimenting upon next year, if 

 spared to do so. 



J. LEE. 

 Salisbury, Conn., Nov. 1850. 



For the New Englaiid Farmer. 

 ART vs. NATURE. 



Mr. Cole : I should be very sorry to monopolize 

 a tenth of a tithe of your valuable space without a 

 justification; but, instead |0f one, I have got two, to 

 exonerate me from any charge of uncalled-for ap- 

 propriation, (and these will appear in the sequels;) 

 therefore I almost demand a right to be heard, pro 

 bono publico. 



Where the natural conditions of soil aud circum- 

 stances favor experiment, effort to improve both is 

 laudable ; but, where each is separately averse to 

 improvement, and that result happens to be attained, 

 to great perfection, by dint of a purely practical, 

 science-directed energy, the labor of improvement is 

 praiseworthy correspondingly. I think you will con- 

 cede the infallibility of my premises ; and I am not 

 at all prepared to realize that such a thorough-going 

 pomologist as I know you to be, will deny my con- 

 clusion. 



Well, sir, I have been '• down east " recently ; and 

 one of my balmiest recollections is one including a 

 visit to Colonel Moulton, in the town of Porter, 

 Maine, whose reputation as a pomologist is well 

 known. He has constituted a paradise where Po- 

 mona herself, I am sure, has a special pride to rusti- 

 cate in. I saw her choice blessings on this spot in 

 all the luxuriance of their autumnal plenitude ; and 

 such a noble sight I could hardly wish to see ex- 

 celled. 



I saw some fifteen hundred fruit-trees on Colonel 

 Moulton's farm, in the full magnificence of their pro- 

 ductive munificence ; and such a scene was fitted to 

 warm the conception of the most indifferent observer 

 into a glow of pomological enthusiasm. I could talk 

 of details, and profits too, but these are so obvious 

 (by inference) as to require no elaborate mention. 



The grand advantage I noted was that which had 

 arisen from example. Such a sight as those barren 

 hills and vales, you, sir, know full well, present now, 

 contrasted with what they exhibited twenty . years 

 ago, repairs the vision of the present to the full dis- 

 cernment of the beauty, value, and pride of enlight- 

 ened improvement. Such improvement is owing to 

 the spirited practice of Colonel Moulton ; and, as a 

 benefactor of his kind, and the very palpable inter- 

 ests of humanity, he deserves the grateful recogni- 

 tion of the agricultural community. 

 Yours, very truly, 



JOHN C. MOORE. 



Boston, Nov. H, 1850. 



The Charleston Mercury states that a quantity of 

 castor oil, manufactured from the seed grown in the 

 vicinity of that city, has been shipped to this port. 

 The article, which is represented as being of a supe- 

 rior quality, Mas prepared by Mr. C. Alfs, who has 

 gone extensively into the business. The seed from 

 which the shipment under notice was made yielded 

 thirty bushels to the acre, and sold at ^2 per bushe^l. 

 The Mercury thinks that quite a lucrative business, 

 both to the planter and manufacturer, will spring up 

 in thi.s new article of export. — BaUimorc pap«r. 



