ORCHARDS AND FRUITS. 123 



phospliatcs, lime or some other ingredient in the soil. They 

 say, and with much truth, that the apple-tree requires a new or 

 virgin soil, and that apple culture is being abandoned for that 

 of the pear, &c. It is our opinion that apples will again do 

 well ; that they are more valuable and more generally useful 

 than any other fruit in our climate, and as profitable as any 

 other farm crop. 



It will be remembered — at least in the northern part of the 

 county — that the canker-worms, in 1864 and 1865, were more 

 numerous and destructive than at any other period ; and the 

 long protracted droughts of those years, especially of 1865, 

 when the limbs, entirely stripped of leaves, remained through 

 the summer and fall exposed to the sun, and the ground so dry 

 that many of the surface-roots actually perished. This, we 

 think, will explain why tliere are so many dead and decaying 

 limbs upon the trees, and why the fruit failed to " set " tlie next 

 spring, although there was a good bloom. This season and the 

 last, having been favorable to the growtli and recovery of the 

 trees, we predict a good crop next year, where the trees are in 

 bearing order. 



We would advise then to cut down all trees that are past 

 recovery, thin out where they stand too thick, and gradually 

 cut off all dead and decaying branches. Shallow ploughing, 

 especially in the fall, is beneficial ; in fact, the soil in an orchard 

 should always be kept loose and broken. Above all, protect 

 your trees from the canker-worm. Our most intelligent farmers 

 now, having tried the various " patent protectors," use generally 

 the printers' ink, or the old-fashioned article, tar. One enter- 

 prising farmer, who has a large crop of apples the present 

 season, uses printers' ink reduced somewhat with rosin oil, put 

 on with a paint-brush, upon strips of tarred paper tacked around 

 the tree. He commences in the fall, and applies it as often as 

 necessary (in from three to six days,) during the " running 

 season," with one or two applications at the time the buds start, 

 to catch the worms tliat were hatched below the tarred paper. 

 Some of the ink that is manufactured on purpose, and sold as 

 " bug exterminator," is not worth applying, as it is poor and 

 dries sooner than tar. The greatest objection to the ink is, that 

 the surface dries or coats over so rapidly, especially during cool 

 nights, (and is again soft in the daytime,) that the grub walks 



