342 



Preservation of Peach Trees. — Culture of Tobacco. Vol. IX. 



that for it. The tree and all plants must, 

 like animals, have good and proper food. The 

 grub worm does not mind ashes, or lime, or 

 salt, he will crawl out of it, and I have tried 

 by wrapping him in these substances to kill 

 him, and he don't mind it. I tried it on 

 bots taken alive from a dead horse — the bots 

 were not killed by it, nor by any of the ar- 

 ticles given to a horse as remedies for bots, 

 This animal does not die either in or out of 

 a horse, by being enveloped in the articles 

 As to the peach tree, I wrapped a bandage 

 and a mat over that, around the body of the 

 tree, just under the forking of the branches, 

 yet the worm eat down to the ground. All 

 the remedies applied at the roots of the trees 

 ■were I have no doubt useful to the soil — they 

 invigorated the tree, but they do not kill 

 worms. 



Mr. Wakeman — There may be some in- 

 gredient in certain soils, which mixed with 

 soot, ashes, or lime, may be disagreeable to 

 the worm. At all events, we are looking 

 for useful results in all our inquiries. Con- 

 tradiction is itself often highly useful, in 

 bringing out the truth which we desire. 



Chairman — I have adopted the following 

 plan for my peach trees, during the last four 

 or five years. I bound a piece of sheet lead, 

 about six or seven inches wide, around the 

 bottoms of the trees — putting the lower 

 edge of the lead about an inch in the ground. 

 I then filled the space between the tree and 

 the lead with antliracite or wood ashes — or 

 with sand. My trees so treated are healthy 

 and bear well. 



Col. Tr avers — Mr. Woolsey put wooden 

 boxes around the roots of his peach trees 

 and filled the space between the box and tree 

 with charcoal — these trees he says, lived 

 twenty years. 



Chairman — Mr. Vose takes tarred paper, 

 puts it around the tree, six, eight, or ten in- 

 ches above the ground — takes it ofl^ in the 

 autumn, he also gives his trees special atten- 

 tion, his peaches are excellent. I applied 

 the lead plan to at least 40 of my peach trees. 



Mr. Townsend of Astoria — Being on a 

 visit to a friend in Norfolk street in this city, 

 last summer, I was struck with the fine heal- 

 thy look of a peach tree in the yard; on en- 

 quiry, the lady of the house told me, that 

 every spring she poured a tea-kettle of hot 

 water upon the trunk of the tree, which ran 

 down to the ground. This had been done 

 for fifteen years, and the fruit was always 

 good. 



Col. Clark — I have no doubt that lime in 

 the boxes would have a good effect, when 

 moistened it is powerful enough to afl^ect the 

 hand, and will destroy insects. 



Elhan Campbell — Lime_ would prevent, 



the approach of insects, I apprehend, and 

 prevent them from depositing their eggs. I 

 recommend a sprinkling of lime once a week 

 around the roots of peach trees from the be- 

 ginning of April. 



Oliver Smith — Those insects which injure 

 fruit deposit their eggs in the fruit itself — 

 Lime does not reach or prevent that. When 

 the insect is hatched, it then descends the 

 tree and enters the ground. 



Col. Clark — The Curculio preys on pear, 

 plum and some others, but does not touch 

 the peach. The worm which destroys enters 

 at the bottom of the peach trees and bores 

 between the bark and the wood. — N. Y. 

 Farmer and Mechanic. 



From the American Agriculturist. 

 Culture of Tobacco. 



The growing of tobacco is becoming an 

 important business in the valley of the Con- 

 necticut, and yields a better return to the 

 farmer on rich land, than almost any other 

 crop. This crop was greatly increased the 

 last season, and I think 1 do not exaggerate, 

 when I estimate the amount grown in the 

 towns bordering on the Connecticut, between 

 Hartford and Northampton, from 1,500 to 

 2,000 tons. The price, the last season, for 

 large growth, and in good condition, was 

 eight cents per pound. We have two varie- 

 ties — the narrow, and the broad leaf The 

 latter is the most productive, and sells in 

 market much more readily than the former. 



Soil Preparation and Sowing. — We se- 

 lect for our tobacco plants a rich, moist (but 

 not wet) spot, and sow the seed as early in 

 April as the ground can be prepared for it. 

 Our beds are well manured, made mellow 

 and fine, and the seed should be sowed at 

 the rate of one table-spoonful to the square 

 rod, before the earth gets dry ; after this it 

 is raked so that the dirt may stick close to 

 the seed. It should not be covered, but let 

 a man go on and tread the surface of the 

 bed as hard a possible. The bed must be 

 kept free from weeds. The plants should 

 get leaves two or three inches long before 

 being transplanted. They grow faster in 

 the beds at first than in the field, and are 

 less exposed to the cut worm. 



Transplanting. — We commence trans- 

 planting the fore part of June, and often set 

 out the plants as late as the 20th or 25th. 

 The ground should be made mellow and 

 level. The broad leaf plants should be set 

 in the rows two and a half feet distant from 

 each other, and the rows be three feet four 

 inches apart. If it rains at the time of 

 setting, we take advantage of it, and get 

 out as many as possible. If not, we inako 



