Protecting Trees from Canker-ivorms* 75 



Some six or seven years ago it was found that printers' ink was better 

 than tar, especially as it did not require to be applied as often, which, 

 with most people, was quite an item. But no sooner was there a 

 demand for the ink than various unprincipled dealers offered an article 

 so extremely mean that many abandoned it in disgust. We have for 

 three years used the ink from the factory of Messrs. W. C. Donald & 

 Co., 25 Milk Street, Boston, and believe it to be a good article. They 

 have recently made an improvement, in not putting in the usual dryiitg 

 material. We are not alone in this opinion, for some of the most intel- 

 ligent and practical farmers in this county have testified to the same 

 result. My neighbor (a candid and enterpnsing farmer) assures me 

 that he can protect his trees with ink for eight cents each, reckoning 

 time and material. He has four hundred trees (average about one foot 

 through) , costing thirty-two dollars per year. He last fall obtained three 

 hundred barrels of apples, and two years before, I think, about two hun- 

 dred and fifty barrels. He applies the ink only in spring, commencing 

 very early, which secures to him a good crop of fruit, and an annual 

 growth to his trees. We have this year applied the ink to about eight 

 hundred young trees, at a much less expense than the above. The grubs 

 have sometimes encroached upon our nursery-grounds, and have been 

 driven back o7ily by entirely abandoning the raising of apple trees. 

 Though I believe that the only way of exterminating them from the 

 orchard is to commence in the fall^ immediately after the first hard 

 frost, and also during any protracted warm weather in winter, still I 

 have seen very good results from protecting the trees only in spriiig^ 

 and have sometimes thought that perhaps our severe winter weather 

 might destroy the eggs, which, unquestionably, are laid in abundance 

 in the fall ; I have also noticed numerous small birds very actively peck- 

 ing among the branches late in autumn. 



Hoping that these few hints may be acted upon by my fellow-sufier- 

 ers promptly (for delay is dangerous), I will try and describe the method 

 which is most successfully practised in this vicinity. 



Procure common tarred paper by the roll (from three to four and a 

 half cents per pound), cut it oft' in sections five to eight inches long with 

 a wood-saw (a large tree requiring a wider piece than a small one), 

 proceed to the orchard with a roll of this paper, a hatchet, and a box 

 of small tacks ; take a turn of the paper around a tree, and tear it off 

 at the proper length ; apply it at a smooth place just below the branches, 

 making it as tight as possible, especially at the top, and secure with 

 about three tacks. Procure your ink in fifty or one hundred pound 

 kegs, at about ten cents per pound. Reduce with oil {rosin oil pre- 



