ORIGINAl, COMMUNICATIONS. 



FOBfTHE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



JARD AGAINST THE CANKER WORM. 



'"Mr Fessendf.n — Among the many expoilieuUs 

 )l)te<i to (ii-event tlie ascent of the CiiiUer worm, 



±' 



Published by John B. Rcsseli., at ..Vi. 52 jVorth .Marktt Street, (at the A^cullwal M'arehousc) — Thomas G. Fessenden, Editor. 



VOL. VIII. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1830. 



No. 29. 



an odious and destructive insect. 



the trees he large, small strijis of lathes or shingles , inspected by any person who has a wish to view 

 may he placed across the ends, to keep the tins I iisimple, but we believe cffecf.ial safeguard against 

 more steady. The interval l)etween the tree and 

 the tins must now he carefully fdled with swing- 

 ling tow, on which some small stones may be 

 placed to keep the whole in its place. 



All that remains to be done, is, to fill the trough 



rcling the trees with tins so formed as to i |,a|f or.two thirds full of water, and to this add 

 ^tain a liquid through wliicli the insect must U siiiall quantity of common whale oil, of (he 

 ■el, is, without doubt, the most certain, and, at j ilihinest <|uality. It is not certain but water alone 

 same time, all things considered, the most eco- j \,i|| i,,. sufficient to so enfeeble (hem as to i)revent 

 deal. Mr Irish, of Rhode Island, it is believed,! tiLir „i„ic difficidt ascent after they have got 

 s the fust who made use of tins ; a notice of , ,|oiigli it, but it is certain that the least contact 

 ch may be seen by referring to the New Eng- \ of their bodies to oil, at once kills theui ; and in 

 1 Farmer, vol. v. page 409. I tie fall, in particular, it is fouiid always in a pro- 



It The tins of Mr Irish, it is nndersti od, wereH;i. state to impede their progress, when the teni- 

 ely adjusted or fitted to the sluipe of the tree, i |(,,.at,|,.c of tlie weather favors their ascent. It 

 nailed to it, and were cfiectual for the time, | j, yery probable that a decoction of tobacco leaves 

 irely preventing the ascent of the grub. Mr j q. s,gn,g ^v^uld answer the purpose, where whale 

 lghton's method, of Lynn, as detailed in the i „| cannot readily be obtained. Mr E. Gifford, 



of this town, was the first who adopted tliis plan, 

 ai<l it has been in operation two or three years, 

 aid such has been the success attending it, as to 



w England Farmer, vol. vii. page 94, is very 

 eniiuis, and agrees, it is conceived, in every 

 tirular, with that of Mr Irish, if we except 

 material of which it is constructed, Mr Hoijgh- 

 s being " made of strong pasteboard, painted, 



sience the most skeptical. One gentleman, ha- 

 ving a young erchaid in this town of 350 trees 



1 made imiiervious to the watei." It niust :/_.,^,yraging 7 inches in diameter) for a few year.s, 

 evident, from the form of their construction, i „ ^.^ i,tg,i,ig state, found . last spring, that they 

 y must both fail in a year, or two at most, on j „p,.g attacked with tlio Canker worm. In the 

 ount of the growth of the tree to wloich they ] „|„|,|, „f October la.st he had theui all tinned in 

 attached, and therefore be('ome ineffectual. I (|„ ,na„„ei- 1 have described. He informs me that 

 (t is a known fact, that the bodies of all trees | ,(,, ^y[,^,\Q expense for tlie 350 trees will not be 

 rease in size in a greater or less degree, as they j ,•,^. f|.,„n $75, a little exceedmg 21 cents each. I 

 more or less flourishing. Tins, pasteboard, or i^j,^ g^jjuiiuml s^j,l orchard since it was tinned, 

 oden belts, nicely adjusted to the tree, as sc.ne | a„,| was truly astonished at the destruction olCau- 



ker worms. Not one, it is confidently believed, 

 has jone up the trees since said operation. Now 

 shoud we reckon the cost of tar, the labor and 

 time spent in the fall, through the frequent thaws 

 of tic winter, in which they have been known to 

 go up, and until late in the spring, when they 

 have done running, I think the expense cannot be 

 less than above mentioned. And should we fur- 

 ther consider, that the most wary farmer may in- 

 adviMtently neglect to tar some time, or, as has 

 ;er every way than the tree to which "' is j i^eeii the case, when he was sure of success, he 

 )e attached. But to be a little more particidar, : y^.^^ foiuid in the spring that many, far too many, 

 11 may not see this moiiel. Four pieces of tm 1, ad deposited their eggs beneath the tar, under 

 te, 2i to 3 inches wide, of a desired length, are j jj,^ crevices of the bark, or on the grass or small 

 bled, so as to form a trough one and a quar- ] twigs or shoots near the tree, and their young pro- 

 to one and a half inches deep, and from one ,jjj,y ^^.^ seen, when too late, travelling up, and 

 a quarter to one and a half inches broad at ^ ji,,,;, g]i [jjj, hopes are blighted, and he has in the 

 top. The four ])ieces are to be soldered to- pngujnjr autumn, to go through his labor again, 

 at their extremities, except one corner, Now should the expense of tinning, oil, &c, be 

 is to be left open or slightly tacked. To thirtyseven and a half cents a tree, (the most, it is 

 :, four pieces of tin about two inches in width j||oi,gh,^ it vvould cost for tl.e largest,) still the 

 to be soldered, so as to form a cover set up farmer will be anqily compensated. Besides, after 

 11, and projecting over the trough an inch oi, the tins have remained on the trees say two or 



e recommended, (which in all cases cannot 

 II be done, on account of inequalitios or 

 lies,) will, in a short time, cease to be an effec- 



barri'.r to the ascent of the Canker worm. 

 e method I am about to propose is not liable to 

 se objections. I herewith send you one for 



c inspection. It is formed oftin,(tlie cheaper 

 poorer qualities of this article will a.nswer the 

 pose for its construction.) It is of a square 

 n, and ought to be made at least two inches 



re, the corresponding corner to be left open. 

 iVheii it is to be applied to the tree, the unfas 

 ed corner is to be sejiarated, one part raised 



three years, they may be taken off, and laid up in 



a dry place, against time of need, or n%ay become 



an article of traffic. Perhaps it would be well 



the other depressed, and thus put around the i ,0 p^im them in the first instance. The whole is 



y of the tree. The trough part, if not the 1 submitted to a candid public. 



■ " ■ LEMUEL VV. BRIGGS. 



Biistol, R. I. Jan. 15, 1830. 

 05='The model alluded to above, is left in the 

 and to be out of the way of swine, &c, th.ll Hall of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, 

 y be suffered to run in the orchard. Should | No. 52, North Market-street, where it may be 



er, is now to be soldered so as to be watet 

 It. Two narrow strips of board are to be ho- 

 ntally nailed to the tree, parallel to each other 

 Icr the tins, a sufficient distance from the 



FOR THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



POTATOES.— QUERY. 



Mr Fesse.nden — Will you, or some of your 

 correspondents, inform me at what time potatoes 

 were first introduced into any part of New Eng- 

 land ? In Gov. WiNTHROp's Journal, I tind men- 

 tion made of" potatoes," but these were undoubted- 

 ly siucef jiotatoes. Dr Belknap, in his //jsi(j»T/ of 

 JVew Hampshire, states, that tlie first potatoes ever 

 raised in New England, grew in the garden of Na- 

 thaniel Walker of Andover, in 1719. Tradi- 

 tion asserts that they were raised in Lynn as early 

 as 1717 or '18. It is certain that the Rev. JoH.v 

 Tufts of Newbury, cultivated them in 1723, and 

 it is said that a few were raise<l on the Indian Hill 

 farm in Newbury, in 1717. In 1735 they were 

 introduced from Salem into Chebacco parish, (now 

 Essex,) but at what time they were introduced 

 into Salem, I know not. Very few, however, 

 were raised in New England, till many years after. 

 In a letter written by Cajit. Corwin, who, with 

 his company, spent jlie winter at Louisburg, in 

 1745, after the siege and reduction of that place, 

 he expresses a wish among other articles, to 

 have one "peck of potatoes" sent to him. Being a 

 great lover of potatoes, I fully appreciate the idea 

 advanced in your New Year's Address, that 

 " good potatoes make good men," and should be 

 highly gr^fiieii lO know at how early a date it can 

 be satisfactorily proved that potatoes formed any 

 part of the diet of a Yankee. Wood, in hisJVetp 

 England's Prospect, mentions "Turnips, Parsnips, 

 Carrots, Radishes, Pompions, Muskmilhons, Squon- 

 terquoshes,* Couciimbers, and Onyons," as culti- 

 vated in New England before the year 1634. 



It is said jiotatoes were introduced into Ireland 

 by Sir Francis Drake, in 1610. Shakspeare, 

 who died 1616, has this expression in the .5th act 

 of the Merry Wivev of Windsor : — " Let the sky 

 rain Potatoes ; let it thunder to the tune of Green 

 Sleeves ; hail, kissing comfits and snow eringoes." 

 Yours, &c. INQUIRER. 



FOR THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



ANNUAL FLOWERS. 

 Cultivators of these plants, some of which are 

 very splendid, do not sufficiently regard the effect 

 which may be produced upon the size of the plant 

 and the beauty of its bloom by retarding the pro- 

 trusion of the flower stalk. This may be accom- 

 plished by sowing early in the season, as in March, 

 in pots of a very small size, filled with rich com- 

 post, shifting every week or ten days into pots a 

 size' larger every time, until at last the plants are 

 in pots of the largest size ; the object being, not 

 to compress the roots, as that has a tendency to 

 accellerate the flowering of all vegetables, but to 

 keep the plant in a vigorous growing state for the 

 longest period of time possible. The pots should 

 She kept all the time in a hot bed or pit, plunged, 

 th abundance of room and air, in a heat of 80 



[♦What, in the name of Heliogobalus, wcie these ?] 



