56 



Meeting of the Farmers^ Club. — Dairyivg. 



Vol. IX. 



the potatoes seem to be affected, and he 

 considered the subject worthy of immediate 

 investigation, a measure strongly recom- 

 mended by the chairman. 



Graphs. — Mr. Fleet stated that Mr. Shon- 

 nai'd, of Westchester, has some very fine 

 grapes which have been shaded by locust 

 trees. They are far better than common. 

 He further remarked that the shade of lo- 

 cust trees was favourable to the growth of 

 grass, and that cattle had made this disco- 

 very. 



Insects. — Col. Clark said that he had a 

 lot of young locust trees, w-hich appeared 

 likely to be destroyed by the well known 

 and troublesome "apple borer." With a 

 view of exterminating them, he had, with a 

 stomach pump, injected into the holes made 

 by the borers, lime water, also caustic, pot- 

 ash and spirits of turpentine, since which 

 time he has had no further trouble with 

 them, and the trees so treated are now 

 grov/ing well. 



Mr. Wakeman remarked that while he 

 was in the State of Maine, he had gathered 

 some facts which appeared to be worth men- 

 tioning. It is estimated that on a peninsu- 

 la, about three miles long and one and a 

 half miles wide, there are two thousand 

 apple trees which have been generally at 

 tacked by the worms, and that their pros 

 pect of bearing fruit is hopeless. About 

 forty trees only, belonging to a Mr. Perkins, 

 appeared to be untouched. Tliese were 

 perfectly green and vigorous, and likely to 

 bear fruit. The trunks of these trees had 

 been whitewashed, and on inquiry of the 

 proprietor, I ascertained that in the latter 

 part of April he scraped all the dead bark 

 off these trees, so as to leave them perfectly 

 smooth. He then whitewashed them with 

 lime from the bottom to about eight or nine 

 feet high, and this was all that he had done 

 to them. On one tree about a dozen Avorms 

 bad been found and picked off, but not a sin 

 gle worm had been found on any other of 

 the trees that had been whitewashed, which 

 fact spoke well for the use of lime. 



With regard to poisonous plants being 

 avoided by animals, Mr. Allen said that the 

 goat eats stramonium freely. Mr. Browne 

 said that the goat eats hemlock, another 

 poisonous plant. Col. Clark said the ass 

 eats green tobacco very freely. Mr. Meigs 

 stated that the gazelle, the antelope, and 

 the camel, also oat tobacco with apparent 

 satisfaction. On this subject President Tall- 

 madge remarked that on offering tobacco to 

 an elephant, he would knock the person 

 down with his trunk. With regard to ver- 

 min on trees, he stated that whale oil might 

 be considered a specific. Dr. Gordon, in 



reply, remarked that whale oil soap had 

 been long recommended and employed for 

 this purpose by English orchardists, but that 

 the soap has a tendency to injure the flavor 

 of the fruit. In a letter to Dr. Mitchell, it 

 was stated that a peach which had been 

 sent to the Dr. was so impregnated with 

 salt, in consequence of a quantity having 

 been placed at the root of the tree, as to 

 render the fruit entirely valueless. 



Dairying. — The best dairying in New 

 England, is upon our roughest, highest gra- 

 nite hills. The quantity of butter turned 

 out from cows pastured upon them, is much 

 greater, and the quality much better than 

 that produced from the lowland pastures. 

 Fortunate is the farmer with the good house- 

 wife, who knows how to make the best but- 

 ter. Mr. Baker, who resides about four 

 miles out of this town on the Bow hills, 

 furnishes three large families in Concord, 

 with all their butter on the produce of five 

 cows, after commericlably serving up his own 

 family in butter, cream, and the best new 

 milk. These five ordinary cows, gave him 

 ill tlie month of June, as high as thirty-six 

 pounds of butter ia a week; and while 

 others were selling their butter for store 

 pny, at ten and twelve cents a pound, he 

 was regularly dealing out his butter for 

 cash, at fifteen cents a pound. The hard 

 flinty hills of New Hampshire, contain be- 

 neatii the earth's surface those elements of 

 fertility which make our soil really more 

 desirable, under a proper treatment and cul- 

 tivation, than the best prairie country of the 

 West and South. We have here no mala- 

 ria, producing agues and chills and conges- 

 tive fevers. We have no overflow upon 

 tlie hills, destroying the crops far and near: 

 from the dangers to which poor humanity is 

 the heir in nature's great convulsions, our 

 granite hills are at the liighest point of dis- 

 tance. — Farmers'' Monthly Visitor. 



To MAKE Water Cold for Summer. — 



The following is a simple mode of rendering 

 water almost as cold as ice : " Let the jar, 

 pitcher, or vessel used for water, be sur- 

 rounded by one or more folds of coarse cot- 

 ton, to be constantly wet. The evaporation 

 of the ;ivater will carry off the heat from 

 the inside, and reduce it to a freezing point. 

 In India and other tropical regions, where 

 ice cnnnot be produced, this is common. 

 Let every mechanic or labourer have at his 

 place of employment two pitchers thus pro- 

 vided, and with lids or covers. — the one to 

 contain water for drinking, the other for 

 evaporation— and he can always have a sup- 

 ply of cold water in warm weather." 



