No. 42. 



Peach Trees, ^c. 



355 



in reg-ard to the green sand, or N. Jersey marl. 

 The reason for this is, that the specific gravity 

 or weight of these mineral manures is so great 

 compared with vegetable mould or common 

 earth, that they soon find their way too deep 

 into the ground for the fibrous roots of plants 

 to derive the greatest possible benefit from 

 their use. 



Some good farmers of the old school, and 

 many bad and indifferent ones, still resist the 

 use of lime on their lands from a pretended 

 apprehension that the ultimate effect of it will 

 be injury to the soil ; but some think that the 

 real reason is, that it costs something in the 

 first mstance, and that they are of the class 

 of people who are too stingy to grow rich, 

 and may be said to hold a penny so near the 

 eye that they can't see a dollar afar off. Be 

 this as it may, I know not; but one tiling is 

 very certain, that those who have been spread- 

 ing lime on their farms for the last eight or 

 ten years, have been subjected to vast expense 

 in pulling down their old barns and building 

 greater, or adding immense codicils in the 

 shape of hay houses to them; building bar- 

 racks, and even subjecting their hay and grain 

 to the danger of injury from the weather by 

 stacking them out. Many also have been 

 obliged to enlarge their barn yards, which 

 have either become contracted in their di- 

 mensions by the use of lime, or the number 

 of cattle and the quantity of manure have so 

 increased by it that much expense has in some 

 cases been incurred, and an additional quan- 

 tity of ground been devoted to the purposes 

 of making more ample accommodations for 

 the herds of cattle, and space for the accumu- 

 lation of vast quantities of manure. I throw 

 out these matters for the benefit of timid far- 

 mers, so that they may not embark in the use 

 of lime without being fully warned of the pro- 

 bable consequences which will soon ensue in 

 the shape of increased expense in rebuilding 

 of barns of larger growth, hay houses, and 

 extending dung heaps over a large piece of 

 most valuable ground. Aguicola. 



Montgomery County. 



For ihe Farmers' Cabinet. 



Peach Trees, &c. 



The sentiment of a Jefierson, that errors 

 in opinion are only dangerous when reason 

 is not left free to combat them, is only correct 

 under certain circumstances. The promul- 

 gation of error may lead to the investigation of 

 truth, and thus materially improve our know- 

 ledge of things. In this case, error is not 

 dangerous— but it is only so, where such an 

 investigation is gone into as will more effec- 

 tually establish the truth. Unless this be 

 done, errors in opinion, when promulgated, 

 are always dangerous — for no one — and es- 



pecially no one who writes for an agricultu- 

 ral journal — can be supposed so obscure, or 

 so insignificant, as not to exert some influ- 

 ence on the minds of his readers. 



An Old Farmer, in;the last Cabinet, p. 325, 

 complains, as many others might do, that a 

 part of a former communication was rendered 

 unintelligible by an error of the press; — 

 and, in my opinion, he has rendered a part of 

 his last one much worse than unintelligible, 

 by an error of his pen. He says the worm 

 in the root of the peach tree, and the excre- 

 scence on the branches of the morello cherry, 

 are not the cause, but the effect of disease, 

 which arises either from a poisonous subsoil 

 or an exhausted surface ! Perhaps none will 

 deny the truth of a part of this sentence, and 

 I hope that none, except some of the " old 

 folks," will believe the other part of it. The 

 ivoria and the excrescejice are truly the ef- 

 fects of pre-existing causes, but they, like 

 most other eifects, become causes in their 

 turn, producing their own consequences. It 

 is with the alleged cause of ihaworm and the 

 excrescence that I have to do at present — 

 viz. That they are produced by *' disease 

 which arises either from a poisonous subsoil 

 or an exhausted surface." I admit that a poi- 

 sonous sub-soil may produce disease, and that 

 an exhausted surface may impair the growth 

 of the tree. I will also admit that, under the 

 operation of these causes, the tree will be less 

 able to resist the injury which insects may 

 inflict upon it. But, 1 ask, can either th<" 

 poisonous sub-soil, the exhausted surface, or 

 their consequent disease, deposit the egj;^ 

 which produce the worm in the peach tree, 

 or the excrescence on the morello cherry? 

 Until this question shall be fully answered, in 

 the affirmative, by an Old Farmer, or some 

 other of the old folks, the error of which I am 

 speaking will not prove very dangerous. 



The peach fly (iEgeria exitiosa,) and the 

 cherry insect, which, so far as / know, has 

 not yet been observed, appear to have begun 

 their ravages to the eastward and progressed 

 to the west. In their desolating course, no 

 soil, no culture, has been found a sufficient 

 protection — particular trees or plantations 

 may have resisted them for a season, but tJiose 

 exceptions have occurred under every vary- 

 ing circumstance of soil and situation. The 

 oldest peach tree in this vicinity, and the only 

 one of many years' duration, sprung up spon- 

 taneously by the road side, under the protec- 

 tion of a large locust tree, where the soil is 

 extremely poor, and never has been culti- 

 vated. 



The position of the " Old Farmer'* does 

 not, therefore, appear to be sustair,ed by facte, 

 and is totally inconsistent wi*ji reason. It 

 would be quite as rational to say, that the de- 

 cay of the roof of my t^ juse- or the boieis 



