"^^^RICAN HERD-BOOS 



DEVOTEDTO 

 AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



Perfect Agriculture is the true foundation of all trade and industry. — Libbio. 



Vol. VIII.— No. 5. 



12th mo. (December) 15th, 1843. 



[Whole No. 107. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY, 



BY JOSIAH TATUM, 



EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 



PHILADELPHIA. 



Price one dollar per year. — For conditions see last page. 



Disease of the Plum Tree. 



There is scarcely any subject in which the farmers 

 of our own vicinity are more immediately interested' 

 than that of fruit. The value and profitableness of, 

 the article,— the diseases and enemies to which the 

 trees are exposed, and consequently, the great precari- 

 ousness of the crop, all combine to direct our attention 

 to our fruit trees, whether in the garden or the orchard. 

 The remark may be made in passing, that within the 

 last few months, it has been suggested in some of the 

 agricultural journals, that it might be better to leave 

 the peach orchard unploughed— toget it in grass, rather 

 than to cultivate it! This we believe to be a very se- 

 rious error, and if followed out, our own experience 

 and observation leave us no room to doubt that it will 

 prove ruinous. Our successful Jersey peach growers, 

 esteem it as necessary to keep a peach orchard under 

 the plough, as they do to tend their corn-field. 



In the second number of this volume, an article was 

 given on the diseases of the pear tree— in our last, we 

 gave one on those of the apple tree— below, will be 

 found some observations of similar character, in rela- 

 tion to the plum tree. We are indebted for them all 

 to Dr. Harris' work on the Insects of New England, 

 which are injurious to vegetation. — Ed. 



Speaking of the insect so mischievous 

 among our plums, Dr. Harris says: — "These 

 Cab.— Vol. VIIL— No. 5. 



beetles begin to sting the plums as soon as 

 the fruit is set, and, as some say, continue 

 their operations till the first of August. Af- 

 ter making a suitable puncture with their 

 snouts, they lay one egg in each plum thus 

 stung, and go over the fruit on the tree, in 

 this way, till their store is exhausted ; so 

 that, where these beetles abound, not a 

 plum will escape being punctured. The ir- 

 ritation arising from these punctures, and 

 from the gnawings of the grubs after they 

 are hatched, causes the young fruit to be- 

 come gummy, diseased, and finally to drop 

 before ii is ripe. Meanwhile the grub comes 

 to its growth, and, immediately after the fruit 

 falls, burrows into the ground. This may 

 occur at various times, between the middle 

 of June and of August; and, in the space of 

 a little more than three weeks afterwards, 

 the insect completes its transformations, and 

 comes out of the ground in the beetle form. 

 The history of the insect, thus far, is the re- 

 sult of my own observations ; the remainder 

 rests on the testimony of other persons. 



" In an account of the plum-weevil, by 

 Dr. .Tames Tilton, of Wilmington, Delaware, 

 published in Mease's ' Domestic Encyclopa- 

 dia,' under the article Fruit, and since re- 

 published in the ' Georgical Papers for 1809,' 

 of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society, 

 and in other works, it is stated that peaches, 

 nectarines, apples, pears, quinces, and cher- 

 ries, are also attacked by this insect, and 

 that it remains in the earth, in the form of 

 a grub, during the winter, ready to be ma- 



(137) 



