224 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



stirring of the soil are necessary, let the orchard be ploughed 

 shallow, or mulched with leaves or cheap hay. 



On almost every farm there are more or less acres of rough, 

 rocky land, unfavorable to the production of the various hoed 

 crops, or for mowing fields. This land is often the most suitable 

 for the apple-orchard, and should be appropriated for that pur- 

 pose, rather than the smooth and more level lands of the farm, 

 which are better adapted to the other crops. 



Should not there be some moral or legal means applied to 

 prevent the extension, and to cause the destruction, of the com- 

 mon caterpillar ? The legislature of this State, by the sugges- 

 tion of the Board of Agriculture, very properly made a law 

 causing all dogs to be licensed, and all damage to sheep killed 

 by dogs to be paid for out of the fund accumulated from the 

 fees for the licenses. That is right. If a person has twenty-five 

 dollars' worth of sheep suddenly converted into mutton and 

 dog-meat by his neighbors' dogs, he gets his pay for it ; but if 

 he has a valuable orchard, in which he has spent time and 

 money to have all the caterpillars destroyed, and his lazy or 

 shiftless neighbor has an orchard near, the trees of which are 

 covered with caterpillars' nests, and by not being destroyed are 

 allowed to attain their perfect organization, and to fly over and 

 deposit their eggs on his trees, and thus do him a damage, by 

 causing him a large amount of extra work the next year to 

 exterminate them, he has no dog fund to go to, and gets 

 nothing for it. Should it be so ? We think not. Every per- 

 son's duty to his neighbors and to the public requires him at 

 least to extirpate, as far as he can, the insects on his own 

 trees ; and the future condition of the apple-crop, if the ravages 

 of the insects are not diminished in some way, must be seriously 

 Injured, both in quantity and quality. 



The cultivation of the pear increases quite rapidly, particu- 

 larly in the gardens near our large towns ; and this fruit? 

 although much more plenty than a few years ago, still com- 

 mands a fair and remunerating price in our principal markets, 

 and they are not glutted with this fruit, as many have heretofore 

 thought they would be ; and there are now almost as many 

 bushels sent to market as there were single pears twenty years 

 ago. And it indicates that the consumption of this delicious 



