1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



93 



ity ; then disappear for a series of years. Cultivat- 

 ed trees are less subject to danger from insects 

 than others. Feeble trees are most likely to be 

 attacked. He does not consider strong potash lye 

 a safe application. Ashes and water, or strong 

 soap suds, are equally effectual, and perfectly safe. 

 A peck of ashes, or other alkaline substance, put to 

 the root of a tree, tends to keep off the borer. 



John Reynolds suggested cotton batting wound 

 around the tree, as a hindrance to the ascent of the 

 female canker worm moth. Many can be caught 

 while entangled in it. One gentleman had found 

 it quite advantageous. 



Simon Brow:n thought if trees were in cultivated 

 ground, and washed once or twice a year, at the 

 right season, they were not in much danger from 

 the borer. A practised eye readily detects the 

 marks of the borer, and a gouge may be used to dig 

 them out, or a wire may be thrust into their holes 

 and kill them. Potash lye, if used as strong as 

 some recommend it, is not safe, He once had oc- 

 casion to notice a young orchard in Framingham, 

 that was much damaged by its use. On the south 

 side of many of the trees a strip of bark was killed, 

 and the bark of most of them was discolored. Has 

 seen young orchards utterly ruined by the use of 

 too strong a lye. He examined a young orchard 

 belonging to Mr. Buckminster, treated with lye, 

 but his trees did not appear to be injured. If trees 

 are healthy, and not infested by insects, there is no 

 need of washing. But he sometime washes to take 

 off moss. 



E, W. Bull said that Loudon tried an experi- 

 ment on two young trees, to test the value of wash- 

 ing. One was washed, the other" let alone. At 

 the end of the year, the washed tree was nearly 

 twice as large as the other. Probably, the wash 

 afforded nutriment or a stimulant to the tree, be- 

 sides preventing drafts upon its juices by vegetable 

 and animal parasites, 



Joseph D. Bkown thought there would not be 

 sufficient nutriment in the wash to make so great a 

 difference in the growth, especially as the feeding 

 rootlets were mostly at too great a distance to find 

 much of it. 



John Reynolds mentioned a gentleman who had 

 successfully used spirits of turpentine as a remedy 

 for the borer. 



Mr. Bull said the late Mr. Phinney, of Lexing- 

 ton, tried the same experiment, and killed his 

 trees. 



Simon Brown said he had found an old dust- 

 brush the best instrument for destroying caterpil- 

 lars on small trees. 



Mr. Pratt had found the round, pointed caterpil- 

 lar brush, fixed to a long pole, a very efficient in- 

 strument for the destruction of caterpillars. His 

 method is, to carry with him a bucket of pretty 

 strong soap suds, and dip the brush into it, both 

 before and after it is twisted into the nest. Every 

 caterpillar that is but touched by the soap suds, is 

 sure to die. M. P. 



Vermont. — Through the politeness of George 

 F. Houghton, E>q., of St. Albans, we have before 

 us a preliminary report on the Natural History of 

 Vermont, by which we learn that on the 29th of 

 February, 1856, AUGUSTUS Young, Esq., was ap- 

 pointed State Naturalist. Mr. Young was appoint- 

 ed to fill the place made vacant by the death of 



Professor Zadock Thompson, a brief biography of 

 whom was given in our columns a few months since. 

 By reference to acts of the legislature, we find 

 that provision has been made for a thorough geo- 

 logical and mineralogical survey of the State, un- 

 der the three followings titles, viz : 



First. — Physical Geology, Scientific Geology and 

 Mineralogy. 



Second. — Economical Geology, embracing Bot- 

 any and Agriculture. 



Third. — General Zoology of the State. 



We hope the project will be faithfully carried 

 out. 



For the JSetv England Farmer. 



PATENT OFFICE SEPORT. 



BY HENRY F. FRENCH. 



Swamps and MiU-Ponds — Draining of Haarlem Lake — the 

 Potato Disease, as Affected by Color, Form, Early or Late 

 Planting, &c. 



Every farmer in New England who understands 

 his true interest, and that of his neighbors, is inter- 

 ested in every fact that relates to draining land. 

 There are hundreds of acres in almost every town- 

 ship of what we call swamp land ; too low and too 

 wet for present cultivation, but just low enough to 

 have received the rich washings of the hills, and the 

 flying autumn leaves for centuries. In many plac- 

 es, there are ponds, or mill-privileges, where hun- 

 dreds of acres are flowed by some saw-mill or fac- 

 tory, and the stagnant water is kept up just high 

 enough in dog-days, to generate fevers and other 

 "rebellious diseases ;" covering, as on the Concord 

 River in the Bay State, large tracts of the most 

 valuable lands, in localities where such land, if dry, 

 would be worth more per acre than the price of 

 factory shares. These swamps, and ponds, and stag- 

 nant meadows, might all be drained, and afford vast 

 tracts of easy and fertile land, equal to the bottom 

 lands of the West, and right by the doors of the 

 young men who leave their homes with regret, be- 

 cause the rich land of the West offers temptations 

 which their native soil cannot equal. 



"But," asks some amazed factory agent, "what is 

 to become of our mills ? Will you take away our 

 vested rights, and stop our wheels, tear down our 

 dams, and turn our operatives out of en- ploy?" 

 Certainly, no such violent measures should be 

 adopted- Suppose, however, we have careful surveys 

 made, or use those which the companies already 

 have, and should ascertain that a factory or two 

 flows and ruins by its back-water, ten thousand 

 acres of rich alluvial soil in Middlesex county 

 worth, the moment the water is lowered to its na- 

 tural course, one hundred dollars per acre, or a 

 million of dollars in all. That tract of land, at the 

 rate of population which subsists in a great part of 

 Holland upon agriculture, might sustain, at the rate 

 of one person to each acre and a quarter of land, 

 an agricultural population of 8000 people ! 



