NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



171 



PATENT SSLF-ACTING CHEESE PRESS 



This is a light, strong, portable press, affording 

 many conveniences to the dairy woman. It is in 

 reality a table on which to turn the cheese. There 

 is no forcing of screws, no lifting of weights; but 

 the cheese creates a constant and regular pressure 

 of twelve times its own weight, whether large or 

 small, and if a greater pressure is needed, one pound 

 laid on the cheese or table adds twelve pounds in- 

 creased pressure, and so on in the same proportion 

 The cheese is not removed from the press until the 

 pressing is completed. 



For the New Engtand Farmer. 



EFFECTS OF COAL TAR ON FRUIT 



TREES. 



Mr. Cole: — In the fall of 1848 I was desirous 

 of obtaining a preventive against the ravages of 

 the field mice, some of my fruit trees in a previous 

 season having been destroyed by them. I found 

 inDowning's "Fruit and Fruit Trees of America" 

 the following, to prevent mice or rabbits from 

 girdling trees. "The most effectual remedy is the 

 coal tar made at the city gas works. Before win- 

 ter commences, a coat of this is, with a common 

 painter's brush, laid on the lower part of the 

 trunk, from the ground to tlie height of two feet. 

 Experience has proved that it does no injury what- 

 ever to the tree, while it completely prevents, for 

 that season, the attacks of mice, rabbits and bark 

 devourers of every kind." 



He mentions also soot and milk as a preventive; 

 this I tried first, but finding it difficult to make a 

 satisfactory composition of such ingredients, I ob- 

 tained some coal tar from the "city gas works." — 

 This I applied to thirty or forty trees, principally 

 strong, healthy Baldwins, some six or eight years 

 old. In the following spring I examined the 

 trees, and certainly they were uninjured by the 

 mice. I next endeavored to remove the tar, but 

 here was the rub, and a hard rub it jiroved, for the 



strongest whale oil soap solution I could apply had 

 not the slightest effect in removing the tar. I then 

 endeavored to scrape it off, l)ut I found, to get the 

 tar off in this way, I should be obliged to take bark 

 and all. This not being exactly what was desira- 

 ble, I suffered the tiees to remain with their un- 

 sightly black coats. Since that period the greater 

 number of them are dead or dying, and I can ac- 

 count for the fact in no way, except from the influ- 

 ence of the coal tar, not only from its binding tiie 

 bark of the tree, but from its excluding from the 

 parts covered by it, air, light and moisture. — 

 These effects I am certain tliat it has. 



Most if not all of my trees were as strong and 

 healthy ones as I have ever seen; in most excel- 

 lent situations in all respects; the ground about 

 them kept open by ploughing, and free from grass 

 and weeds. Within a day or two [ have exam- 

 ined tiiose whicii were among the best; these, 

 some six or eight, look well everywhere but where 

 the tar was applied; there the old bark is peeling 

 off, and that beneath appears more like the bark of 

 the buttonwood than the Baldwin apple tree. — 

 The trees look, now that the tar is wearing off, as 

 if a strong caustic had been applied to their trunks. 

 I have no doubt tliat the coal tar has or will be the 

 destruction of three-quarters of them. Everywhere 

 that it has been applied, the bark looks unhealthy; 

 in some parts utterly dead, in others pale and 

 weak. In some fine green gage plums, the effects 

 are very obvious — all the way down the trunk 

 where the bark remains covered with the tar, it is 

 entirely dead; in spots and strips which were ac- 

 cidentally left untouched by the tar, the bark is 

 full of life — and these dead and living strips are 

 side by side. Now- this being the case, and such 

 being the effect of this vile stuff, I think it highly 

 improper for a man of Mr. Downing's reputation 

 to publish such advice, givinir it the sanction of his 

 name. By following it I shall lose forty trees, I 

 suppose, comprising some of the best kinds of ap- 

 ple and plum trees, which have had in my ground a 

 growth of seven years. Thus besides the original 

 expense and labor, I have lost, which is of vastly 

 more consequence, the seven years growth. If you 

 liave any experience in this matter, or can give 

 any information upon the subject, you will oblige 

 me. Yours respectfully, a. 



Cambridge, April 28, 1851. 



Remarks. — Soon after the publication of Mr. 

 Downing's work, experiments were made in the 

 use of coal tar, and several cases were published in 

 which it had the same destructive effects as nanicd 

 bv our correspondent. We published these cases 

 as a caution several years ago, and from the exten- 

 sive publication of these cases, we supposed that 

 its use was entirely discontinued; but in adlition to 

 the preceding case, a gentleinan infitrms us that he 

 has lost fifty apple trees this year by the use of 

 coal tar. 



A Mammoth Tree. — On the land of Mr. Rife, 

 three miles from Hagerstown, Md., near Salem 

 Church, stands the dilapidated trunk of a hollow 

 sycamore tree, the circumference of whicli is, at 

 the ground, tliirty-nine feet two inches. The Ha- 

 gerstown Herald says: 



"The cavity is entered by an aperture which ad- 



