104 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The curculio is a great post, destroying not only the stone 

 fruits, but also the apple and pear to some extent. There is no 

 protection against them ; poultry will eat many, and if all the 

 fruit that falls prematurely is picked up and fed to the hogs, 

 many will be destroyed. The safest way is to jar them at early 

 morning from the trees on to a sheet spread underneath. 



The borer is a most destructive worm, not only in the apple 

 tree, but in other fruit trees, and also in the oak, locust, &c. 

 It is a very great waste to allow these in an orchard. Preven- 

 tion is impossible, but their presence will be shown by the 

 premature turning and falling off of the leaves, and a general 

 unhealthy appearance. They will be discovered in the tree 

 near the ground, and should be immediately dug out with a 

 sharp knife or chisel, or followed up with a pointed wire. Often 

 several will be found in the same tree. This is a nuisance which 

 requires the greatest vigilance in a young orchard. 



The scale louse, the aphis, the slug, and the plant louse, are 

 noxious vermin, wasting the trees of the farmer. "Washing 

 with whale oil soap, weak lye, soap suds, a solution of sub- 

 carbonate of soda, &c., will do much to destroy these. While 

 that is effectual to a certain extent, there is nothing so sure 

 against these wastes as a strong, vigorous, healthy growth, 

 induced by good manuring, and thorough cultivation. Destruc- 

 tion caused by the cut-worm, wire-worm, army-worm, weevil, 

 wheat-midge, corn-midge, turnip-fly, striped-bug, and numerous 

 other pests, can only be helped by the destruction of the vermin, 

 by early sowing, constant care, and other means suggested as 

 the emergency arises.* 



The waste from weeds, although not such as can be computed 

 or even guessed at, is undoubtedly very great and should not be 

 passed unnoticed. When one gives a careful survey of his 

 farm, and sees how many weeds are growing in different fields 

 and by the road-side, and that every one of these exhausts the 

 fertility of his soil and the strength of his manure as much as 

 any of his cultivated plants, without rendering him any return, 

 scattering its pestilent seeds in every direction, he realizes apart 

 of the curse imposed upon the original cultivator at his fall. 



* For the fullest and most valuable treatise on Insects Injurious to Vegetar 

 tion, the reader is referred to the splendid edition of Harris on Insects, just 

 published. No farmer's library is complete without it. 



