NEW ENOL.AND FARMER 



PxMhhed by John B. Russell, at M. 52»JN'bri4,'!BS^ Street, (at the Agricultural M'arehousej.—TaoMAS G. Fessenden, Editor. 



BOSTONTlklDAY, AUGUST 7, 1829. 



VOL. YIII. 



No. 3. 



HORTICULTURE. 



Brinley Place, July 4, 1829. 

 sMARY GRIFFITH, 



Much Respected Madam — At a recent mcet- 

 of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, a 

 solution was adopted, directing nie to request, 

 It you would be so kind as to cause a Bee Ilive 

 be made for our institution, in conformity to 

 ur improved plan, for preventing the entrance 

 the insects which have committed such fatal 

 prcdations upon the bees. It is intended as a 

 )del for the benefit of those, who may wish to avail 

 nnsclves of the advantages which it offers, over 

 hives generally used. ItmaybesenttoMrTuoR- 

 RN the distinguished Seedsman and Florist, iu 

 ; city of New York, who will defray the es- 

 nse, and forward it to Boston. 

 It will be esteemed as a great favor, if you will j 

 lige me, by furnishing such directions, as may 

 deemed requisite, as to the mode of using the ' 

 'e, and such other information as you may find i 

 suretocommunicate, on the management of bees. [ 

 Your very interesting and valuable essay on I 

 subject, which has been published in many of | 

 r periodical journals, has been universally read j 

 th pleasure and instruction. You have done ! 

 nor to yourself, your sex, and your country, by 1 

 ! intelligence, genius, and taste, which you have : 

 need, in this rich contribution to the fund of lit- 

 iture and science ; and merit the gratitude of | 

 iir colaborators, in those delightful pursuits, ! 

 uch all the various branches of rural ecouo:ny ' 

 brd. I 



With the highest respect, 



I have the honor to be, madam, 



Your most obedient servant, 



H. A. S. DEARBORN, 



Pres. Mass. Hort. Soc 

 IS Mary Griffith, > 

 arlieshope, .Veto Jersey. ) 



[Reply.] 

 Charlieshope, July 22, 1829. 

 i.H. A. S.DEARBORN, 



Dear Sir — Your letter, dated 4th of July, nev- 



reached me until yesterday. I am very much 



tered by what you say of my article on bees, 



I by your request to have a model of my hive. 



m glad that I anticipated your wishes. I sent 



mall model, put up in a box, to the office of 



BERT Sedgewick, Esq., Pine street, New York. 



was directed to Gorham Parsons, Esq. I 



)te to this gentleman begging him to present 



hive to your Society. It is more than a month 



e the box was sent. 1 shall inquire about it. 



1 will perceive, on opening the bo.x, that there 



frame for the hive too. In this frame the 



rests when moved to the swarming place, 



the hive may always remain in it if it suit 



owner as well ; but I place my hives on joists, 



ed sufficiently high from the ground to allow 



to look under the hive. In hiving with viy 



! there will be a little difficulty at first, to those 



have not examined it. You will observe that 



top of the hive \s screwed on. When liie swarm 



I tlie hive, which is put iu after the usual man- 



the hive must be set gently in the frame, and 



top slid on slowly, that the bees which cluster 



on tlie imI^cs may be pushed out of the way^,with-; 

 out being hurt. As soon as the top orcover'ison, 

 the scre'V^Sjfreshly oiled, can br put in again, tight. | 

 If the beplj^se, and liglit again, they can be j 

 shook from*xjl§ljirab a second and a third time. | 

 A person with a blijnt Stick can then shove them 

 into the little opcniii£ below. They will all enter 

 wliere a few; lead the ^vay. The great art in hiv- 

 ing bees is to dg everytijifg slowly and gently. — 

 Almost everything depends on this. People are 

 generally in a great fright 'thqmselves, and they 

 conmnmicate their fears to the bees, who are thus 

 irritated. Car^/tKiust be taken to mark the cover, 

 otherwise the holes for the screws will not cor- 

 respond when the screws are to be put iu again. 

 You can always command answers to any q-ues- 

 fions you choose. Perhaps you Kd better have 

 ] art of tlie article on bees printed ;^iere are some 

 minute directions there. 



I am on a very important topic *teow, that of 

 identifying the insect which stings our fruit. I 

 i!iade known, several years ago, in the American 

 Farmer, that it was the Beetle, or Jlay Bug, 

 ivhich deposited an egg in the fruit. I was 

 scarcely heard with patience, and have neither re- 

 ceived credit nor attention from any one. Since 

 my first discovery I have been making every va- 

 riety of experiment, and I have reduced the whole 

 to clearness. 



I have, at this moment, the maggots of the 

 beetle and the curculio in different pots, where I 

 shall keep them until they go through the differ- 

 ent changes. The curculio, which arose into the 

 fl" state in June, and which deposited its egg and 

 became a worm, has undergone the usual change, 

 and is nearly ready to become a fly again — indeed 

 two rose yesterday morning — thus propagating 

 twice iu the season. The beetle worm even of 

 last year, has not yet changed, those of this last 

 month are still the same, they have gone down to 

 the bottom of the pots. I have the maggots from 

 the cherry, plum, apple, peach, apricot, all in sep- 

 arate pots. I see no difference, the maggots are 

 all from the same insect. 



I never saw a curculio on my trees until this 

 summer. There is no doubt now but that there 

 are two depredators — the beetle which stings at 

 night for the purpose of depositing an egg, and 

 the curculio, which stings the fruit during the day 

 for nourishment. I enclosed a limb, having sev- 

 eral unstung plums, in a box, or rather over a box 

 of earth, which had been raised to meet the limb. 

 I completely covered it with gauze, the whole 

 measuring five feet in circumference. Within this 

 gauze net I threw about twenty curculios. In a 

 very short time they completely destroyed the 

 plums, which fell to the ground, in the box. I 

 covered the limb of an apricot in the same way, 

 and threw in the same number of beetles, the fruit 

 was not so soon stung, nor were there so many 

 punctures. I understood the reason of this, which 

 was that the breeding season was nearly over 

 'vith them. The, maggot, however, was in the 

 iruit, whereas, I now recollect that I did not see 

 any in the plums, only presuming that they had 

 been in, by seeing the perforations, and that they 

 had gone to the ground. I am now of opinion 

 that the curculio does not deposit an egg in the 



fruit, but somewhere in the earth. I see a num- 

 ber of httle oblong white eggs scattered through- 

 out. I have some in a tumbler of earth, and shall 

 soon tell what they are. I have no less than 

 twelve pots and tumblers containing the larvae of 

 insects. These insects have caused me so much 

 loss, that it has become a matter of moment to 

 learn their habits, and then invent some mode of 

 destroying them. I have detailed all this to you 

 because it is of the utmost importance to horticul- 

 turists. I am astonished that the evil does not 

 make a greater impression than it does. No one 

 appears to view it as ai v drawback to success. — 

 People seem but too wt 11 contented if out of a 

 bushel of plums which the tree promised they are 

 spared a few quarts. Of 400 plum trees, each 

 promising a bushel, I am not in possession of a 

 pint. AJl I have are from a few trees immediate- 

 ly near the house, from which I hare caused the 

 insects to be taken. I have lost all my cherries, 

 and what few apricots the winter left, in the same 

 way. The apples are all stung too. You never 

 saw such complete destruction. There must be 

 a remedy somewhere. Nothing but a large pre- 

 mium — one of a thousand dollars — raised in small 

 suras of a dollar from each horticulturist, will draw 

 attention to the thing. I wish to know whether 

 your fruits have been misch, or partially stung this 

 summer. Yours very respectfully, 



MARY GRIFFITH. 



Remarks by the Editor of the JV. E. Farmer.— 

 The following remarks on this destructive insect, 

 copied from F ^senden's JVeJO American Gardener, 

 page 175, may, perhaps give some hints, which 

 may tend to the eventual extirpation of this dep- 

 redator. 



" Curculio. — This is a small bug, or beetle, 

 which perforates the young fruit of the pear, ap- 

 ple, and all stone fruits, and deposits its eggs in 

 them. The eggs soon hatch, and a small maggot 

 is produced, which feeds either on the pulp of the 

 fruit, or on the kernel of the seed ; for the tastes 

 and habits of the different species are not similar. 

 In the stone fruits, this injury destroys their 

 growth, and they fall with their little enemy with- 

 in them. The insect retreats into the earth, and 

 passes the winter in the chrysalis state, and comes 

 forth just as the young fruit is forming, or the 

 petals of the flowers are falling, to renew its mis- 

 chievous labors. This insect continues its depre- 

 dations from the first of May until autumn. Dr 

 James Tilton, of Wilmington, Delaware, in an ar- 

 ticle on this subject, published in the American 

 editions of Willich's Domestic Encylopedia, observes 

 that " Our fruits, collectively estimated, must 

 thereby be depreciated more than half their 

 value ;" and adds, in his directions for destroying 

 the insect, » All the domestic animals, if well di- 

 rected, contribute to this purpose. Hogs, in a 

 special manner, are qualified for the work of ex- 

 termination. In large orchards, care should be 

 taken that the stock of hogs is suflScient to eat up 

 all the early fruit which falls from May till Au- 

 gust. This precaution will be more especially 

 necessary in largo peach orchards ; for, otherwise, 

 when the hogs become cloyed with the pulp of 

 the peach, they will let it fall out of their mouths, 



