446 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



Oct. 



Everything is conducted quietly here, though the 

 people of the town have had illuminations and 

 adornings of all kinds, in honor of the occasion, 

 and it is evidently a great day for old Salisbury. 

 Having written this when I ought to have been 

 asleep, I do not feel sure that it is very thorough 

 or accurate, but it is the best I can do. I hear that 

 a South-down ram has been bought to go to Amer- 

 ica, for one thousand and thirty dollars ! 



Truly yours, H. F. French. 



For the New England Farmer. 



CAN THE PLUM BE SAVED FROM 

 THE CURCULIO ? 



Messrs. Editors : — In the Farmer of June 27th, 

 I noticed an editorial article upon salting plum trees, 

 giving some very excellent advice in reference to the 

 free use of salt around them, in order to develop vig- 

 orous, healthy trees, and perfect fruit, which advice 

 should be generally followed by fruit-growers. To 

 every sentence in that article I can most heartily 

 subscribe, and only wish that all who try to culti- 

 vate the ])lum, would follow the suggestions there 

 offered. In this section of country, however, bor- 

 dering, as it does, upon the southern shore of Lake 

 Erie, where fruit trees grow luxuriantly almost rt){</i- 

 out cultivation, the great difficulty is to save the 

 fruit from the ravages of the curculio. But very 

 few of the thousands of plum trees in this section, 

 which give promise of an abundance, by a full blow, 

 ever mature their fruit ; and for this reason the 

 trees are rendered nearly worthless, and do not 

 pay for the ground they occupy. Some do not try 

 to save the fruit, thinking it useless ; while others 

 are discouraged, and do not attempt to cultivate the 

 plum at all. 



I am .somewhat interested in fruit-growing, hav- 

 ing a fine apple orchard of about eighty trees, graft- 

 ed with the choicest varieties, and nearly all the 

 good varieties of the plum, peach, cherry, pear, &c., 

 and have no trouble in saving enough from the de- 

 predations of night-prowlers and birds, for my fam- 

 ily's use, in abundance, with the exception of the 

 plum. Despite all my efforts to save them from 

 these miniature opossums, the curculio, they con- 

 trive to sting the fruit, and of course destroy it. I 

 have four good-sized trees of the Blue Gage variety, 

 and two of the White Egg*. They are located in 

 my garden, where the ground is moderately rich, 

 and thoroughly cultivated all around them. The 

 trees are very thrifty, and grow rapidly every year. 

 These blossom very full every spring, but as the 

 fruit begins to develop ilself, the curculio is on 

 hand to commence its depredations, which are con- 

 tinued, if they are unmolested, until about the first 

 of July. From these half-dozen trees, which are 

 large enough to produce annually one-half bushel 

 of plums each, only one season during the last six 

 years have I had one-half bushel of them that were 

 fully matured, and free from the insect or worm 

 deposited by the curculio. 



Now, Mr. Editor, I would like to have you, or 

 some of your correspondents, who have had some 

 experience in this matter, give through your valua- 

 ble journal the most efficacious mode of preventing 

 the ravages of the curcuHo. I am frequently asked 

 by fruit-growers, "How can the plum be saved 



from these destructive insects ?" without being able 

 to satisfy the inquirers, otherwise than to give my 

 own experience. I may as well state here, that I 

 have tried nearly all the remedies proposed, such 

 as spreading sheets under the trees, and with a 

 wooden mallet, jarring the curculio off upon them; 

 tying cotton batting around the body of the tree 

 and sifting unslacked lime into it ; shaking or jar- 

 ring suddenly, the trees three times a day ; throw- 

 ing unleached ashes and air-slacked lime among 

 the branches every morning, and in fact, have tried 

 all the preventives proposed of which I have read, 

 (excepting making a hog-pasture of my garden) all 

 to no purpose. And now, at the present writing, 

 and from my window can be seen the effects of the 

 ravages of these insects, by the ground under the 

 plum trees being covered with worthless fruit two- 

 thirds grown, and within them the worm which is 

 to be warmed into life another spring, ready to 

 commence again its work of destruction. 



The entire loss of this delicious fruit, is a matter 

 of no small moment, and for one, I should be wil- 

 ling to incur any reasonable amount of expense to 

 rid my plum trees of this pest, if it is among the 

 possibilities. And, in conclusion, I would ask, from 

 what experience or information you may have in 

 reference to this matter, upon ivhat plan can the 

 plum he the most easily saved from the attack of the 

 curculio ? As before intimated, the plum tree here 

 grows vigorously, and is healthy ; and there is noth- 

 ing in the way (late spring frosts excepted) of rais- 

 ing an abundance of the fruit, were it not for this 

 insidious insect. INQUIRER. 



Chardon, O., July 27, 1857. 



For the New England Farmer. 



HORSE-RACING, &c. 



My Dear Sir : — Having subscribed to your 

 journal, through your agent. Dr. Bigelow, request- 

 ing him to send me the back numbers for this year, 

 I made it a rule to read them in their rotation, and 

 have derived much pleasure and information from 

 the same. In these numbers, I find much about 

 fast horses. In the one now taken up (May,) 

 the first communication is on this subject. Your 

 correspondent says he can find no one that boldly 

 encourages their introduction. Why not? Is it 

 because gamblers and fast young men are attract- 

 ed thither ? If so, could he name any public amuse- 

 ment, or probably private entertainment, where 

 some of the parties could not be pointed out as ei- 

 ther the one or the other ? Look at your watering 

 ering-places. Look at your exchanges, &c. 



Would your correspondents on this subject 

 "open their eyes wide" to the enjoyment of the 

 vast number of people, who having a day or two of 

 holiday, during a long and tedious year's toil, are 

 attracted to an agricultural fair, with the hope of 

 seeing a horse race, — A horse race ! — let them see 

 and feel their heartfelt enjoyment of the same, and 

 my word for it, they, like the mass, will neither see 

 or know, that there is a blackleg there ; but if their 

 nature or education forces them still to see the evil 

 side of things, let them make out a fair average of 

 the number of blacklegs, &c. &c , at one of these 

 fairs, and at any one of the aforesaid places of busi- 

 ness or amusement, and they will probably think 

 with me, that a horse race at an agricultural fair, 

 is not so very bad after all, and that we certainly 



