THE GENESEE FARMER. 



159 



CATERPrLLARS ON FKUTT TREES. 



Editoes Gekesek Farmer:— An inquiry is made 

 in the March number of the Farmsr, by P. T., of 

 aur county, asking for "the best means of destroy- 

 ing the caterpillar and other mischievous wonns 

 on our fruit and shade trees." This was to me a 

 welcome inquiry, which I hoped would receive a 

 prompt and able response for the April number. 

 In the absence of such an article, the following ex- 

 perience of mine is given, hoping it may lead to 

 further investigation of the habits and means of 

 exterminating injurious insects. 



The Clisiocampa Ainericana, or common Apple- 

 Ixee Caterpillar, is the first depredator in our 

 orchards. On a clear day in the fall or winter, if 

 the trees are carefully examined, a shining deposit, 

 containing tlie eggs of the worms for a future 

 colony, will be discovered, which can be easily de- 

 stroyed. Should this opportimity pass, no_ time 

 should be lost, when the small tents appear in the 

 forks of the trees, to make clean work in their de- 

 struction. Numerous ways recommend themselves 

 for their novelty, but we pass them by for a more 

 ready and eflicient method. The operator, who is 

 supposed to be equipped with a pair of stout hands 

 firmly mittened, and a ladder at his service, can, in 

 a few trials of his skill, exterminate this pest from 

 the farm. 



The Yellow Apple-tree AVorm is the larvfBof the 

 Handmaid Moth, Eumetoiyona ministra^ and is very 

 destructive. It makes its appearance the last 

 weeks of July or first in August, in small yellow 

 clumps near the extremity of the limb which it 

 occupies. This may be easily removed from the 

 tree and its contents destroyed. Should this^ be 

 omitted, he will soon arouse the owner to astonish- 

 ment, if not alarm, by his daily progress. 



The Apple-tree Borer, Spreda hlvittata, will 

 require the attention of tlie farmer about this tinie. 

 His location is easily found by the fresh chips 

 thrown out by him. Our practice has been to use 

 the point of the pocket knife. Whenever new 

 chips are discovered, we remove the bark with the 

 knife, and destroy the grub. Coal tar has been 

 applied to the trunk of the tree, near the roots, as 

 a preventive; but with what result, time will prove. 

 ' The only mode of destroying the Apple Worm, 

 Carpoca2)sa pomonella, which can be relied on, is 

 to shake the tree Avell about the first of August, 

 that all the apples already injured may fall off, and 

 then carefully gather them up and destroy them 

 by feeding to hogs or otherwise. b. 



Harpersville, N, 1'., Apnl, 185S. 



SHELTER FOR APPLE ORCHARDS ON THE PRAIRrE. 



Editors Gen'esse Farmer: — In the Editor's 

 Table of the April number of the Genesee Farmer^ 

 I notice an extract from a letter from your corres- 

 pondent, D. Edwards, in relation to fruit trees in 

 exposed situations. The facts set forth by your 

 friend so exactly coincide with my own experience 

 and observation, that I can not refrain from jotting 

 a few fruit items for the Farmer. I am an amateur 

 in tree culture. I have loved the science from my 

 boyhood, and it is with pleasure I can now ])oiut 

 to stately trees planted when I was but a boy. 

 Although others enjoy their fruits and shade, yet a 

 • consciousness of having added to the happiness of 



others, by my boyish eftbrts at tree planting, even 

 now sends the warm blood pattering to my finger 

 ends. But I am digressing. 



The planting of fruit trees on the south and east 

 of timber belts, or,* if the orchard is located in the 

 prairie, planting a belt of timber on the north and 

 west, for protection from the wintry blasts, has 

 always been with me a fixed idea— almost a hobby; 

 but since the May freeze in 1852, and the winter of 

 1856-7, which proved so destructive to orchards, a 

 complete change has come over the spirit of my 

 dream. When stern fects stare a person in the 

 face at every corner, he is bound to believe. I 

 make the assertion that a protection for orchards, 

 be it high board fence, stone wall, belt of timber, 

 or what not, should be placed upon the south and 

 west. The reason for this is obvious. In a prairie 

 region, the winds which prevail during March, 

 April, and May, are almost invariably south and 

 southwest. The soil being thoroughly soaked by 

 the spring rains, the tree is blown with \i^ head 

 inclining to the north and northeast, and in that 

 position, the stem being exposed to the scorching 

 sun, the sap is forced into an unhealthy action, and 

 that portion of the stem so exposed withers and 

 dies in a narrow strip fi-om the crown up until 

 shaded by the foliage. Nine out of every fifteen 

 are killed by the sun, while they are charged to 

 frost. The north and northwest winds blow only 

 when the gi-ound is frozen, or seldom does. I have 

 examined a number of orchards in Iowa, and find 

 almost invariably the decayed strip upon the south- 

 west side of the tree, the tree inclining north or 

 northeast. Numbers of trees were killed entirely 

 during the May freeze of 1852, a great majority of 

 which were on southern exposures, in warm, shel- 

 tered places, while upon the northern slopes and 

 cold hills they escaped. 



These remarks are intended exclusively for apple 

 orchards. All fruits do not require the same situa- 

 tions. If this is accepted, I have some practical 

 suggestions to make, in some future number, for 

 western tree planters. waeren c. J0^'E8. 



Viola Garden, Henry Co., Jowa. 



We shall be happy to receive the practical sug- 

 gestions. Ei^s. 



HORTICULTURAL NOTES FROM CANADA. 



Messrs. Editoes:— I will, if you think thera 

 worthy of insertion, send you from time to time 

 the results of my experience in horticulture for 

 seventeen years in Britain and twenty-three in 

 Canada. I was one of that peaceable and oft- 

 quizzed class of persons called amateurs, viz., per- 

 sons who, having an income suflicient for tlieir 

 wants, employ themselves in horticultural pursuits. 



Some of vonr correspondents are inquiring how 

 Pears succeed on Thorns. In England, although I 

 stocked my place with purchased trees, yet (ama- 

 teurs are proverbially restless) I was always trying 

 experiments, and, among other whims, grafted 

 Pears on the Service, Mountain Ash, and Haw- 

 thorn. The former took readily but made feeble 

 growth, but grafts on the latter grew as fast as on 

 the pear stock, and bore sooner. 



I arrived here in July, 1834, bringing a good 

 selection of trees grafted by myself, but, except a 

 grape and an apple, they all died. I grieved most 



