286 



THE GENESEE EARMEK. 



OKCHAEDS AND HOGS. 



Editors Genesee Farmer : — Your Niagara cor- 

 respondent, "B.," notices my article in the July 

 number of the Farmer^ and does not seem to agree 

 with me abont hogs being preferable to sheep run- 

 ning in orchards. All controversies become dry 

 after one or two articles have been written on each 

 side of a question, and indulge me in saying that I 

 have certainly had my share of newspaper contro- 

 versies, and consequently must be short in what I 

 have got to oifer. 



1. I have never known a hog to strip the bark 

 from an apple or other tree. Hogs do trees good 

 rather than injury by rubbing against them. Sheep 

 often gnaw trees. 



2. Hogs do help the growth of trees, and the 

 fruit is better, in consequence of their industry in 

 rooting among them, and destroying insects, bugs, 

 ant's nests, and all that sort of thing. They are 

 different from a plow ; that instrument tears and 

 injures the roots of trees, while the hog does his 

 work innocently, so far as the trees are concerned, 

 and does them (the trees) great good rather than 

 injury. As to encouraging weeds, &c., allow me 

 to say that putting manure on ground will also en- 

 courage the growth ot weeds; and we hoe corn, 

 &c., to keep down the weeds : so, therefore, cut the 

 weeds down in your orchard, if they are disagree- 

 able. I have no objections to letting calves run in 

 orchards; ours have "the run of the orchard." 

 "Weeds, I believe, sometimes grow where sheep run. 



3. It is not really taken for granted that orchards 

 are to be wholly used for cow and sheep pastures; 

 we want them for the fruit which we suppose they 

 will produce. 



4. Hogs will manure an orchard better than 

 almost any other animal, though sheep are very 

 good on wheat lands. I believe, and have the ex- 

 ample of numerous — yes, a large majority of the 

 farmers of tlie Union, to bear me out in the view 

 which I take, that sheep should not be allowed to 

 run in fruit gardens and orchards. My reasons for 

 this position have already been given, and I have 

 noticed for years that in those orchards where hogs 

 have had a run, the apples were universally the 

 best, the orchards the most productive, and the 

 trees in the most \flourishing condition. 



Baldwinsville, JV. Y., Azir/iistjISbS. T. 



PKEVENTION OF THE EOSEE. 



Tnis has been a very important point in peach 

 growing, in almost all sections of country, for many 

 years past. We have an account of it as early as 

 before the commencement of the present century, 

 and yet it is making its ravages without a prevent- 

 ive, even in the orchards of some of the better in- 

 formed and more enterprising fruit-growers, whicli 

 is very embarrassing to the cultivation of this deli- 

 cious fruit. The peach-worm or borer, {yEijeria 

 exitiosa) which naturalists have so repeatedly de- 

 scribed, is of two sexes, remarkably different. 

 '' This insect in its perfect state, is a slender, dark 

 blue, four winged moth, somewhat like a wasp. It 

 commences depositing its eggs in the soft and ten- 

 der bark at the base of the trunk, generally from 

 the middle of June to the first of October. The 

 egg hatches and becomes a small white borer or 

 grub, which soon grows to the length of three- 



fourths of an inch, penetrates and devours the bark 

 and sapwood, and after passing the winter in the 

 tree it spins itself in a cocoon, under or upon the 

 bark of the tree, and emerges again into a perfect 

 winged insect by the following June, ready to de- 

 posit its eggs for another generation." 



For protection against this insect no remedy has 

 yet been found infallible, though it can be protected 

 to a limited extent in different ways, of which I 

 will describe the one I have found the most benefi- 

 cial. After plowing and preparing the soil in the 

 early part or middle of May, clear away the earth 

 from the base of the trunk, examine the bark and 

 remove all insects ; prepare a whitewash of lime 

 and water, adding plenty of lime, so as to make it 

 almost a paste; apply it with a brush, so as to give 

 tlie exposed base of the trunk a good coating. 

 When this becomes perfectly dry, take a small 

 quantity of clay soil, such as Avill pack well, and 

 place it around the base of the trunk, to the height 

 of three or four inches above the level of the soil 

 first removed. This prevents the borer from de- 

 positing its eggs in the crown of the roots, and 

 even lower, which is diflicult to remove as well as 

 more injurious to the tree. This packing of cltiy 

 should be removed in the early part of November, 

 and if any worms are in, they will be easily found 

 by an exudation of glue ; remove them by means 

 of a sharp knife, which is decidedly the best instru- 

 ment. After this has been done, place good mellow 

 soil around the base of the trunk, so as to leave no 

 place for water to stand and freeze during winter. 

 This being annually repeated, is one of the best 

 preventives from the bores. 

 Sergeantaville, N. J. G. II. LAEISON, M. D. 



TEANSPLANTING EVEEGEEENS. 



The great difliculty to be met and overcome in 

 transplanting evergreens, is to counteract, if possi- 

 ble, the difference between the soil and situation of 

 the ]jlace where the trees are taken from and the 

 place of their future home. Another great requi- 

 site to success should not be lost sight of, viz., to 

 carefully preserve the roots as much as possible 

 from the light and heat of the sun. A damp, 

 cloudy day should always be taken for the removal 

 of evergreens. But perhaps an account of my own 

 success in this branch of horticulture would best 

 explain the best mode of transplanting evergreens. 



The present spring, being desirous of adoi'ning 

 my front yard with a few handsome evergreens, 

 and not wishing to pay the extravagant prices 

 cliarged by our nurserymen for the same, I deter- 

 mined to go to the backwoods not far distant and 

 select some hemlocks. Accordingly, on the 15th 

 of May, I went to the aforesaid woods, which was 

 in fact a muck swamp, and there I found some of 

 the finest hemlocks, of suitable size for transplant- 

 ing, that I ever saw. I pulled them up easily with 

 my hands, for the ground was very soft and wet. 

 Having secured half a dozen of the finest ones I 

 could find, I started for home. My assistant told 

 me that it would be of no use to set out such trees, 

 as tliere was no earth attached to the roots, and I 

 was moving them from a soil naturally very wet to 

 one of the opposite extreme. However, I resolved 

 not to falter now. I dug very deep, wide holes in 

 the yard where they were to be placed, mellowed 

 the earth well on the bottom, and then as 1 placed 



