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TEIE «ENESEE FARMER 



December 3, 1831. 



>tl»Ii T Vi(l V MO\ T 



FOR THE GEN'ESEE FARMER. 



QUINCE TREES. 



Last summer two of my quince trees died. ' I 

 discovered no insects, but suspecting that some 

 hidden depredator had occasioned my loss, I ha i 

 the trees taken up by the roots and burnt. Two 

 days ago, on digging round some small trees of 

 this kind, I saw a brownish powder on the bark 

 an I on probing with a knife, I found the trees ha I 

 suffered great damage from worms of an un- 

 known kind These larum resemble the peaci. 

 worm (jEgeria exitiosa) though rather larger than 

 that worm is commonly found at this season. — 

 They appear to commence near the surface of the 

 "round ; and in a great majority of cases, have 

 worked upward, sometimes to the height of one 

 foot, gradually slanting through the solid wood, 

 as if they were retiring inward on the approach 

 of winter. From one tree I took fifteen worms. 

 It is rare to find two within the same cavity ; but 

 I he holes are so contiguous that to cut them out. 

 would inevitably destroy the tree. I have there- 

 fore d»awn them out with a barbed wire made 

 iharp. 



In a fewcases,the worms had worked downward 

 slanting inward ; and in other cases, they re- 

 mainad under the bark without having penetrated 

 the wood. Instead of throwing out their filth like 

 the peach worm, they pack it behind them, com 

 jjletely closing the orifice. On breaking through 

 the bark into one of these tracks, the direction of 

 the worm may be determined by the color of the filth 

 ihe old part being brown and the more recent, or- 

 ange colored. 



I now suspect that the loss of an English 

 Mulberry which had been two years in a bearing 

 state La my fruit garden, ought to be ascribed to 

 these worms. 



Under a microscope they are found to differ 

 from the Peach worm in several external particu- 

 lars, and also in their internal structure. In their 

 manners, the difference is striking: for though 

 the peach worm is occasionally discovered two or 

 more feet from the ground, 1 have not observed it 

 to work upward from the surface ; neither does it 

 penetrate the solid wood. It is supposed not to 

 continue in the larva; state quite a year; but some 

 circumstinces rather indicate that the CAuince 

 worm may continue longer. 



The name of this pernicious insect; and the 

 best method of preventing its ravages, are want- 



SUGAR PROM POTATOES. 

 The conversion of starch into sugar has long 

 been known to chemists ; and hopes were enter 

 tmned that some new method of procuring the lat- 

 ter might render the cane, the beet, and the maple 

 of less importance ; but years have passed over 

 without any successful attempt in the large way, 

 unless that which is mentioned in the following 

 very interesting account from the las; number of 

 SUliman's Journal should prove to be such. It 

 was written by Samuel Guthrie of Sackets Har- 

 bor. 



" I have been for some time persuaded, taking 

 the data furnished by chemists as correct, that su- 

 night be advantageously made in towns re- 

 mote from the Atlantic coast, from the potato; and 

 one j >av ago, Capt E. G, Pa ter, at my instance, 

 -"ith great ingenuity devised and constructed ma' 



chinery, and apparatus for prosecuting the busi" 

 ness. As this is the first attempt within my 

 knowledge, to make sugar from that on any con- 

 siderable scale, I propose giving you a full ac- 

 count of the business as far as it lias proceede, I. 

 He has used in the manufacture three thousand 

 five hundred bushels of potatoes. A fair sampls 

 of the sugar, or rather molasses, for no chrystalli- 

 zed pure sugar could be obtained, is now sent to 

 you." 



To this account Professor Sillinian adds " The 

 molasses forwarded by Mr. Guthrie is very rich, 

 and apparently pure syrup, and has only a slighl 

 peculiarity of taste, a little like that of an oil, that 

 could enable one to distinguish it from the best 

 cane molasses. The syrup is nearly as rich as 

 that from the sugar maple : and not improbably 

 may yet afford a chrystallize I sugar." D. T. 



sentiments, as applied to us poor tar if men in the 

 north) would inform us of their ways and means 

 of managing the sweet potato, 1 guess he would 

 confer a favor on not a few. H. Y • 



FOR THE GENESEE FARMER. 



SWEET POTATOES. 

 Mr. Goodsell — As there is a good deal of in- 

 quiry as to the success of raising the Sweet potatoe 

 I venture to give through the medium of your 

 useful paper, my little experience on the subject. 

 Last fall, now a year ago, I selected from a 

 barrel of the white sweet potato from Virginia, a 

 quantity of the fairest and soundest ; a part was 

 buried in a dry place below the reach of frost, tiie 

 other haif put into a box with dry sand, stratum 

 super stratum, and put into a dry cellar ; they 

 both failed, and were completely rotten in the 

 spring. A friend who was in New- York in May, 

 succeeded in procuring a few fresh from the 

 south ; which were put into a hot bed on the 15th, 

 and on the first June were planted out; they 

 grew well, and made fine looking vines. 



The manner in which they form the tubers is, 

 by shooting out numerous roots, aoout the size of 

 a pipe stein, and less ; after which, they commence 

 swelling in the middle, and so on enlarging till 

 they are ripe. 



On digging my crop on the 1st Nov., after the 

 vines were killed by frost, I found 1 had from the 

 sprouts from the three that were planted, about 

 half a bushel of tolerably good sized ones, and a 

 great quantity of fibres just commenced swelling, 

 which with one month more summer would have 

 been of a medium size. The only trouble of ma- 

 king them a very tolerable crop for this climate, 

 is the difficulty of keeping them tlirough the win- 

 ter. I have put some of all my sizes into a box 

 with charcoal dust, and stowed them in an oven 

 which we omit to use after the putting up of 

 stoves. 



Some others I have passed a thread tlirough 

 and hung them up where they will neither dry, 

 entirely nor freeze; if these experiments foil, my 

 pipe is out, and 1 shall abandon the trade. Mr- 

 ! Miller, on the ridge road, who lias been a success, 

 ful cultivator of the article, and occasionally 

 brought them to market, informs me that he for- 

 merly kept them in a box of dry sand, standing 

 in the chimney corner; but latterly has had built 

 a recess in the jamb of his chimney, like the 

 slut hole under an oven ; where he has no trouble 

 in keeping them safe. 



One thing is quite certain, that they are pre- 

 served with ease in the Southern States, as it is 

 so common, and so important an article with them, 

 and if any gentleman in that region (whosi pa- 

 triotic feelings were paramount to his nullification 



FOR THE GEN'ESEE FARMER. 



ON PLANTING. 



Mr. Goodsell — There semis to be a great di 

 versity of opinion on the subject, wheth. 

 spring or fall is the best period for setting 

 trees: the advocates for fall setting, offer as one of 

 the principal benefits accruing for setting out at 

 that period, the firmness and compactness that the 

 arth takes about the roots by the fall and spring 

 rains, &c. ; a process which I humbly think is in 

 direct opposition to what it ought to be; for it' the 

 roots of any tree are so deep, and so hardly pack- 

 ed that they cannot obtain aid, they languish and 

 die. Another is that theToots expand them- 

 and carry on a slow and constant circulation of 

 the sap during winter, which to my mind is a ve- 

 ry doubtful assertion. 



Apples and pears do tolerably well set in the 

 fall ; but as far as my experience goes, the S] 

 does better, especially if done early, and they 

 have not to be carried a great distance. lis. : 

 out in the fall the buds are subject to be frozen 

 dried up, and killed, and the tree in its removed 

 and mutilated state, has not vigor enough to send 

 out new ones through the bark. A tree set late in 

 the fall has its roots frozen in the earth, and is in 

 but a very little better situation, than if dug up 

 and left lying on the ground exposed to tile weath- 

 er. Trees brought from New- York in the sprin"- 

 usually half d : e ; but the cause is, that the season 

 is forwarder than ours, and before the canal is o- 

 pen, and the trees reach this region, they are in 

 full leaf, and many of them in blossoms; on open- 

 ing the packages, exposing them to the sun, and 

 planting out, the leaves wither and die. and there 

 are no new buds for the feeble energies of the root 

 to develope, and they consequently fail. Many 

 trees are lost by planting too deep ; the best luck 

 I ever had with trees was in a situation where 1 

 intended to raise the surface ; I consequently set 

 the. trees on the top of the earth, and piled earth 

 on the roots; I did not lose one, and the growth 

 was truly surprising. I once knew a large re- 

 moved tiee to succeed weil, when the roots were 

 set on the grass of a natural green sward, and cov 

 ered with earth. 



1 received ten valuable peach trees last fall from 

 the east, and as my soil was rather light and 

 loose, trees during rains and winds were liable to 

 be blown over or badly leaned. I therefore set 

 them pretty deep; they mostly came out in tin 

 spring very tarddy, and four of them, althou 

 the bark was quite green and fresh, showed no 

 signs of vegetating at mid-summer; a friend sug- 

 gested that they might be planted too deep; I 

 consequently took them up, washed the roots, 

 shortened the tops, and re-set them much shal- 

 lower; the result was, three of them immediate!} 

 put forth, and grew well, while one has never 

 showed the least signs of life, except the bark is 

 green, and fresh .in every part, and has been 

 planted out now more than a year. By what pro- 

 cess m nature it can resist the heat of the sun, 

 and the drying nature of the winds, and the con- 

 stanl 1 vaporation of its fluids, is unaccountable to 

 me, except there is a process of circulation going 

 on, independent of leaves or buds 



