1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



327 



WHITE THIMBLEBERRY. TUE WIRE WORM. 



Mr. Editor : — I saw aa inquiry in your paper As this little insect is often very troublesome 

 of the 15th ult. in relation to the white thimh)le- to many farmers, injuring their potato crop, I 

 berry. They have been in several of the gardens 'thought I might be doing a favor by stating how 

 of this town for the past ten or fifteen years. 1 1 they can prevent their perforating their potatoes, 

 have some that fruited finely last season, but I [The remedy is simply this : — when planting the 

 find that they will fruit better to be protected in i potatoes, drop a piece or the whole of a cob in 

 winter, and partially shaded in summer. They 'each hill, and the worms will gather around the 

 maybe bent down to the ground and covered! cob and penetrate it instead of the potato. 



like the raspberry. The wood is of a pea green 

 color, and exposure to the sun turns it to a dark 

 brown. The growth is very luxuriant ; some of 

 mine grew last year twelve feet. 



West Danvers, 1855. J. S. Neediiam. 



TO PREVEXT FOWLS FROM SCRATCniNG. 



Among the latest inventions of the age is one 



North Berwick, May, 1855. 



THE ONIOX GRUB. 



A correspondent of the Gardener s Chronicle 

 states that he has applied nitrate of soda to the 

 plants with good eflect in preventing the ravages 

 of this grub. He used half a pound of the salt 



for the prevention of that pestiferous scratchiTi(jY'^ a gallon of water, and applied eight gallons to 

 of fowls. Loop a strip of thin leather on the, a bed of ten yards in length. lie states that it 

 legs about five inches long, and you have accom- checked the progress of the worms, and the crop 



plished the object. Try it, and be sure and not 

 laugh the first time you see them waddle. It is 

 a perfect preventive. John Patient. 



Vt., May 23. 



DIX PEAR. 



I have grafted the Dix pear on a medium-sized 

 tree which bore the fourth year, and has borne 

 well annually since. 



I should like to inquire which is the best for 

 milch cows ; to give them salt at stated times, or 

 to keep it by them. If at stated times, how much, 

 and how often. A Subscriber. 



Remarks. — Cattle will not take more salt than 

 is useful to them, so that if it is where they can 

 have constant access to it without waste, it is as 

 well as any way. If at stated times, twice a week 

 is often enough — as much as they will take. 



UNFRUITFUL APPLE TREES. 



Mr. Editor : — I have a fine lot of apple trees, 

 have taken much pains with them, scraped, dug 

 and manured them, but they do not bear — many 

 of them — as I could wish, and indeed, I think so 

 much as they Avould, were there not some draw- 

 back, not well perceived and understood. I find 

 the well-scvaped trunks and limbs covered with 

 innumerable little gnat-like or rather louse-like 

 little things, whether animal or vegetable, I can- 

 not certainly say, but apparently the former. 

 Now what I wish, and for what I write, is an ex- 

 planation and an antidote from you or your cor- 

 respondents. Please answer, and oblige 



Norlhfield, N. H., 1855. A Subscriber. 



TO prevent grape vines from bleeding. 

 /. H. Monroe, Esq., of Boston, informs us that 

 common hard soap applied to the end of a re- 

 cently pruned grape vine, will effectually stop 

 the bleeding. Mr. Nourse, tlie proprietor of the 

 Farmer, has recently made trials of this remedy, 

 and fully confirms the statement of Mr. Monroe, 

 and thinks .sawing better than cutting, as it leaves 

 a rougher surface, to which the soap will adhere 

 more readily tlian to a smooth one 



turned out well 



CURE FOR WARTS. 



J. M. Jessup, in the Country Gentletnan, statdB 

 that paring warts down with a sharp knife or 

 razor until they bleed a very little, and then rub- 

 bing them with fine salt, will obliterate them ; 

 and thinks the same process will have the same 

 effect on cattle. 



TO DSETROT TICKS. 



A Subscriber, at Nantucket, says that one pound 

 of tobacco, steeped in six quarts of water, and 

 applied to sheep and lambs, will destroy ticks. 



VALUE OF STATISTICS. 



"We published last week some strictures on the 

 returns of the last census : — four or five cattle 

 and the same number of horse dealers in Ken- 

 tucky. Our attention was called, by a Rev. 

 gentleman, several months since, to the return of 

 apprentices in Massachusetts, which was as wild 

 as that spoken of in Kentucky. But it is not so 

 much in reference to the inaccuracy of the returns 

 to which we wish to ask attention, as to the cau- 

 tion required in drawing conclusions from such 

 returns, even if they were strictly accurate. For 

 example, certain employments are deemed very 

 healthy, others very unhealtliy, and this conclu- 

 sion is drawn from the average age of those en- 

 gaged in those employments, or from the average 

 age at which persons thus employed die. Now 

 this at first view seems a just comparison, but a 

 little thought will show that it is extremely falla- 

 cious. Professional men, as ministers, lawyers, 

 and doctors, enter comparatively late into their 

 business, and once entered remain through life. If 

 they engage in some other employment, tliey still 

 retain their profession, or so much of it that they 

 are counted in the number. There areexceptions, 

 but they are comparatively few. Hence the average 

 is high. 



Again, on the other hand, shoemaking, print- 

 ing, making clothes, and all the varied mechani- 



.1 01 



cat operations, are called hazardous Ix'cause a 

 In case ofi^"'^S° proportion of those who die are young ; but 

 „.,,,,. , ,, ' I it should l)e remcmliered that a large lu-oportinn 



accident, this remedy may enable us to save aLf th^se thus engaged are young. Compamtively 

 valuable plant. ' o o j o i j 



