114 



GENESEE FARMER. 



April. 



A New Remedy for the Curculio. 



A " Subscriber" in the Horticulturist says : 



" This season wisliing to stimulate a couple of oiii jiluni 

 Trees, whicli stood among others in my fruit garden, 1 di- 

 rected my gardener to place around oacii tree a couple of 

 barrowsful of fresh horse manure from the stable. 'I'liis 

 was accordingly laid on the surface of the ground, and as 

 work was ratlier pressing at the lime, it was suffe-ed, tho' 

 rather strong in ammonia to lie tiius for a fortnight. 1 think 

 it was put about the trees just as the fruit began to swell, 

 and before it became as large as peas. The result is, that 

 these two trees are bearing a good crop of fruit, while 

 every otiier plum tree in my garden has, as usual, been 

 stung and dropped all its fruit. There were no punctures, 

 or scarcely any, to be found on the fruit of these two trees." 



Mr. Downing adds in noticing the above 

 " that upon a couple of large nectarine trees 

 growing directly against a fence which shuts in 

 our stable yard, not a single fruit wis putxtured 

 by the curculio, though other nectarine trees 60 

 or 80 feet distant did not escape." The infer- 

 ence naturally to be drawn from these facts is, 

 that fumes of the fresh stable manure repelled 

 the curculio. 



A very similar instance was related to us not 

 long ago by a gentleman of this city, an observ- 

 ing amateur fruit grower. It appeared that 

 some of his servants made a practice for a con- 

 siderable length of time of depositing humari 

 urine, daily, near an old plum tree that had lost 

 its entire crop from the punctures of the cur- 

 culio for many years past. Last season, how- 

 ever, it bore a full crop, suffering slightly, if at 

 all, from the curculio. The gentleman said he 

 could trace it to no other cause than to the am- 

 monia from the urine, that circulated in the at- 

 mosphere around the tree. 



Now here are three accidental cases confirm- 

 ing the supposition that the ammoniacal vapor as- 

 cending from the fresh stable manure and the 

 urine is really so offensive to the curculio as to 

 repel it entirely. This is a matter well deserv- 

 ing of further and full experitnent. Stable ma- 

 nure is easily obtained by every body, and urine 

 will answer the same if placed so near the tree 

 eis that the fumes will surround it. 



Wall Trellises. — In constructing trellises 

 on walls, for the support of Roses and other 

 climbing plants, public taste seems to favor wood- 

 en fixtures, painted white, and possessing very 

 little of the truly ornamental in their form and 

 character. There are othef designs far more 

 cheap, simple, elegant and appropriate. J. A. 

 Eastman, Esq., Secretary of the Horticultural 

 Society of the Valley of the Genesee, showed us 

 the other day, at his residence, a design of this 

 kind, consisting of iron bolts about a toot long 

 and half an inch in diameter, driven into the 

 wall in rows about 3 or 4 feet apart, and some 

 6 feet apart in the rows ; in the end of each bolt 

 is an eye a quarter of an inch or so, in diameter, 

 through which strong wire is passed. The whole 

 is to be painted a dark color, and will form a 

 convenient, cheap, and simple trellis, much pre- 

 ferable to the common board fixtures so prevalent. 



Rules of Pomology. 



This subject seems to attract a good deal of attention at 

 the present time. In the two previous numbers of this 

 p;ipcr we have .said as much in relation to it as may be in- 

 teresting or useful to our readers, and we only reier to it 

 now to notice very brielly the manner in which the s'jbject 

 is treated by Mr. IIovky. of l5o.ston, in the March number 

 of liis Magazine of Horticulture. 



fllr. HovEY says that no new rules were wanted, but 

 merely a " re-assertion of those already obtained." JN'ow, 

 we ask no oilier proof of the insufficienry of what has 

 " already obtained" than the universal cinUiiMon that has 

 arisen under them. How many fruit cultivators iu this 

 country knew what rules existed for the regulation of Po- 

 mology ? And how many have regarded or been governed 

 by these rules '? Very few we think, and the main reason 

 is, that no rules existed but those which are considered to 

 govern other sciences. 



Pomology as it has been and is, cannot justly claim to be 

 entitled a science : as it onglU to be, and we hope will be, 

 it will rank among the (irst and most interesting of ihe nat- 

 ural sciences. And as such we must be governed by clear 

 well defined rules. This we think every candid man must 

 acknowledee, and we cannot see why Mr. llovtv, himself 

 one of the first pomologists in ihe couniry, should not so 

 regard the matter. That a fruit should be described by a 

 competent person is not less reasonable than that ihe de- 

 scription of any other object of natural iiislory, to be 

 relied upon, sliould be made by a proper person. We 

 would rather rely on tho description of a fruit by Mr. 

 HovEY than that of some one who had not an opportunity 

 of knowing pre-existing varieties. 



Mr. HovKY also says in allusion to Horticultural Societies, 

 that their duties are to "encoiirage s/<ill in cullivation, 

 and to make latown new varieties of fruils, (lowers and veg- 

 etables, not to decide on whatfniUs shall have a name, wlio 

 shall give, or how names bhall be given." Now in this 

 mailer we beg to dill'er. We think the most reliable au- 

 thority respecting the fruils of every locality will be the 

 8ociciies and fruit committees of such localiiies. 



Mr. H. objects with some propriety to the term " Ameri- 

 can." We think as Pomology is nothing but I'omology, at 

 home or aljroid, that "American" is supcrikious. If used 

 at all, it should be Anieriran Rules of Fumoli'gy, as the 

 rules are American, and pomology not exclusively so, 



Mr. HovF.Y, although objecting to rules altogether, daima 

 properly, the credit for having^ through a correspondent 

 drawn attention to the necessity of such rules : and he 

 gives a code of his own which after all. contains the sub- 

 stance of those we have published, and nearly in the same 

 words, as adopted by the Slate Agricultural Society, and 

 by all the Horticultural Societies of this State, we believe. 



Answers to Correspondents. 



PEACH TRKES. 

 Mkssrs. Editors :— I should like to inquire of the cause 

 of the great loss of young Peach Trees in this vicinity last 

 spring. I'he manner of their death I will attempt io de- 

 scribe. My trees had been set one year, one year's growth 

 from the bud when set. They grew the year after setting 

 from 3 to 3^ feet, appeared healthy until the blossoms had 

 partly oyened, then remained in that situation several days, 

 when they very slowly began to wilt, and finally died. 

 On examination f found a ring around the dying irees vary- 

 ing from the surface of the ground to two feel in height. 

 The rings were from 'J to 5 inches up and down llie trees, 

 the bark dead and clinging to the wood, wliilc above and 

 below the ring it was green. The roots were good, and 

 some of them sprouted and are now alive. Some of the 

 trees were affected with the disease which extended but 

 part of the way around — these lived and grew, leavii.g a 

 piece of dead wood on one side of the tree. Six peach trees 

 from Ellwanger &, Barry's nursery, apparently ii years old 

 from the bud when set, were not alfecled. These trees 

 were planted at the same time and in the same soil. 'I'he 

 apricots I had from the same nursery were- affected by a 

 dead strip on one side of the tree, just above the bud, 

 2 or 3 inches long, but they grew well, and bi're fruit. 

 The soil is rather a stitV loam, the holes were dug from 3i 

 to 4 feet across, 18 inches deep, filled with light sandy 

 loam, rotten manure, and aonie coal dust. One nectatiae 



