J74 



NEW EN(,LA1ND FARMER, 



mm^ i3sr(aa>iisra) a-iissaiajSj 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JUNE 8, 1831. 



CANKER WORM. 



J. Winsliip, Esq. of Brighton, near Boston, a gen- 

 tleman, who is well known to possess much prac- 

 tical as well as scientific knowledge of the culture 

 of fruit trees has suggested to us a remedy against 

 the caukei'worni which he has himself made use 

 of with much success. After the worm, in the 

 latter part of spring and fore part of summer has 

 made its lodgement among the branches and com- 

 menced its ravages on the leaves of fruit trees, it 

 has generally been supposed that tlie owner of the 

 trees had nothing to do, but to submit to an evil 

 which it had been too late to remedy. But Mr 

 Winship applies tar to the body of the tree at that 

 time, according to the common mode of tarrin g 

 trees, to prevent the ascent of cankervvorms ; and 

 then by jarring or shaking the body and limbs of 

 the trees, the worms fall to the ground, or let them- 

 selves down by threads, so that they may be struck 

 off with a stick, and thus detached from the tree. 

 They then instinctively and immediately turn to. 

 wards the body of the tree, and attempt to ascend 

 to the high places from whence they have fallen. 

 But here the tar presents an insuperable obstacle 

 to their further progress, and they fall back and 

 perish for want of food. 



We doubt whether it would be safe to rely al- 

 together on this mode of destroying the insect 

 without the customary fall and sprijjg appliances 

 of tar. Perhaps, however, it may supersede those 

 troublesome and expensive processes ; and at any 

 rate, it must prove a powerful auxiliary to the old 

 mode of attacking these depredators. 



SMALL WORMS ON PEAR TREES. 

 A friend has entered a complaint at our office, 

 against a small worm, which, on its first appear- 

 ance resembles the maggots found in cheese, but 

 afterwards changes to a greeii color, and devours 

 the leaves of the pear tree. We submitted the 

 case to Mr Winship, the gentleman named in the 

 preceding article, who advises to sift or scatter 

 wood ashes, or quick lime, or dry dust over the 

 leaves infested when wet with dew or rain. If 

 the insects were accommodated, by means of a 

 syringe or garden engine, with now and then an 

 artificial shower of soap-suds, lime-water, decoc- 

 tion of walnut leaves, ditto of elder leaves or to- 

 bacco leaves or stems, we presume they would 

 lake such treatment in dudgeon, and disappear 

 without delay or ceremony. 



Junes, 183L 



Silk. — The New Haniiishire Statesman says tlial 

 the manufacture of Silk Ribbons was attempted at 

 Durham, N. H. about forty years ago by the late 

 Gen. .loHN Sullivan of revolutionary fame. — He 

 employed French weavers, and kept three or four 

 looms employed about a' year. The causes that 

 led to the relinquishment of the business are not 

 now known : probably the difficulty of procuring 

 raw silk at that early period. 



PROPERTIES OF MANURES, 6oC. 

 To the Editor of the New England Farmer. 



Sir— I wish to ask, through the medium of 

 your valuable paper, what chemical ingredients 

 contamod in manures enter into the composilion 

 of plants, and in wliat state manure.-3 contain the 

 most of them .' C. W. 



FARMERS AND GARDENERS WORK FOR JDNE. 



Melons and cucumbers, which have hitherto 

 been protected by glass, or by paper frames, may 

 now be exposed to the open air. If the season be 

 at all dry your vegetables will stand in need of wa- 

 ter. Loudon remarks that many kitchen crops are 

 lost, or produce a very inferior quality for want of 

 watering ; lettuces and cabbages are often hard 

 anil stringy; turnips and radishes do not swell; 

 onions decay, &c, copious waterings in the eve- 

 nings, during the dry season.s, would produce that 

 fulness and succulency wliicli we find in the veg- 

 etables produced in the Low Countries, and in 

 the Marsh Gardens at Paris, and in England at the 

 beginning and the latter end of the season. The 

 vegetables brought to the London market, from 

 the Neat's Houses and other adjoining gardens, 

 where the important article of watering is much 

 more attended to than in private country gardens 

 may be adduced as affording proofs of the advan- 

 tage of the practice. 



Vegetables that are newly transplanted, as they 

 have their roots more or less diminished, or other- 

 wise injtn-ed, often need watering, until they have 

 taken new roots. But this should be done with 

 caution. If a dry season follow the transplanting 

 let them be vvatered, if they appear to droop, only 

 at evenings and in cloudy weather, and with water 

 which has been exposed, one day at least to the 

 shining of the sun ; not with water ilircctly from 

 a well or a cold spring, as it will give a chill to the 

 plants. Only a siTiall quantity should be a|)plied 

 a' once ; that it may have an efi'ect similar to that 

 of a refreshing rain ; for water applied, plentifully 

 or forcibly, or falling from a considerable height, 

 is apt to wash away the finest of the mould from 

 the roots, or make little cavities about them, which 

 admit too much air. 



In a dry season, whole gardens sometimes need 

 watering ; and in doing it the above precautions 

 should be regarded. It is of very great conven- 

 ience to have a piece of standing water or a brook 

 or rivulet newr at hand by which water may be 

 furnished in suflicient abundance without a great 

 degree of labor. 



Weeding. Sir John Sinclair observed that ' the 

 importance of weeding is such, both to the in- 

 dividual and the public, that it ought to bo en- 

 forced by law. At any rate a regulation of police 

 for fining those who harbor weeds, the seeds 

 of which may be blown into their neighbor's 

 ground can have no injustice in principle. 



Hoeing. The ends to be answered by lioeing 

 are chiefly these: — To destroy weeds, which are 

 always ready to spring up in every soil, to exhaust 

 the land and starve the ])lants. For this purpose 

 when the weeds have attained any size, dee|) 

 hoeing becomes necessary. To prevent the soil's 

 becoming too hard and close, so that the roots can- 

 not extend ihem.selves freely in search of vegetable 

 food, nor feed on the fixed air and other fertilizing" 

 gases generated in loose and rich soils. In this 

 case deep hoeing is necessary. But hoeing should 

 cease entirely or be very shallow when the roots 

 are so much extended as to he injured by hoeing. 

 The deeper land is hoed, i>rovided the roots are not 

 disturljed, and too much cut in pieces, the greater 

 advantage it will be to the plants. The oftener 

 land is hoed the more moisture it retains, the 

 more the crops are nourished, and the better it 

 withstands drought. The earth about the stems 

 of young ()lants of corn, &c, should be removed 

 either with a hoe or the fingers, and fresh soil 



substituted, but not accumulated about the 

 lest the lower roots should be dei)rived 

 benefit of the sun and air. 



The land is in a good degree prepared for s 

 ceeding crops by hoeing ; and there is great 

 obvioits advantages in stirring the ground w 

 the dew is on in the morning, or soon after a li 

 rain. Where land is tolerably free from obstaci 

 the frequent use of the horse plough to a con; 

 erabic depth renders the labor much less sevi 

 and expensive, and more advantageous to 

 crop, than to depend on the hoe alone. The 

 time the plough is used, turn the furrow from tl 

 rows. At the next ploughing, and all after plough 

 ing?, the furrows are to be turned towards the rowB; 

 this prevents the plough from injuring the roots. 

 The depth should be about the same as for any 

 other ploughing or the intention will be in some 

 measure defeated. This may render it necessary 

 sometimes to go twice in the satne furrow. A 

 plough called a cultivator has been constructed, 

 with two mouldboards, which turns the inouW 

 both ways at once. 



The opinion entertained by some, that no 

 hoeing at all should be done in a dry time ig 

 irrational and ridiculous. They deprive their land 

 of the benefit of the dew, suffer it to be overrun 

 by weeds, and allow the ground to be so hard 

 that the rain when it comes will not penetrate it. 

 There is no soil perhaps except a thin sandy one 

 that will not be benefited in hot dry weather bj 

 frequent hoeing.' 



Salad herbs may be grown at sea by sowing th» 

 scedl on thick flannel well cleaned and moistened. 

 Put the flannel on aboard which can be hung up. 

 Place on the flaimel on which the seeds are sown 

 another piece of flannel fa.-teiied to a thick board. 

 Take off the upper board as soon as the seeds 

 liav? vegetated, say 24 hours. In six or seven 

 days, if good weather, the crop will be two inches 

 high. — It is then fit for use. Be careful to keep 

 the flannel always wet. 



RADISHES. 



To have a constant succession of radishes for 

 the table the seeds should be sowed once a fortnight 

 from April to August. As they are uncertain in 

 their growth, the best method is to put the seed 

 between rows of other plants ; and they are so 

 easily pulled that they need not incommode the 

 plants among which they grow. 



TURNIPS. 



Sow strong house or wood aslK?s over the ground 

 about the time the turnips are springing up. This 

 will cause the young [jlants to grow sooner out 

 of the way of insects, ]noduce a large crop and 

 make the turnips sweet and palatable. 



pLIX 



Hilling Corn. — Erastus Ware of Salem, Mass. 

 says of an excellent field of corn, which obtained 

 a premium, that it was hoed three times, but not 

 hilled as has been customary ; and upon comparison 

 of that not hilled, after a severe gale, he is satisfied 

 that no advantage is gained by hilling as is com- 

 mon. His opinion is that there is no benefit to be 

 derived from hilling corn — and corn raised on a 

 flat surface, when the weeds are destroyed and the 

 crround kept loose, is by no means so likely to 

 suffer by the drought, or to have its roots impeded 

 in their search af\er their proper nutriment, as 

 where the grotind is drawn up round the stalk in 

 a high steep hill. 



