246 



Notes and Gleaninors. 



Cherries in Central Massachusetts. — Itappears that we, of late years, 

 in this section of the country, have been yielding too easily to discouragements. 

 The crop of cherries, — a fruit we have been almost tempted to abandon, — for 

 instance, has been this season, in all gardens of this city, most abundant and 

 fine. Many cultivators, indeed, are now beginning to regain faith in this refresh- 

 ing summer fruit, to the extent even of regarding it as profitable for market cul- 

 tivation. As a sort of triumph of hope over experience, there is a certain pecu- 

 liar gratification in this, that almost emboldens us to predict a return also of the 

 good old days when almost every farmer on our New England hills used to sit 

 under his own peach tree and eat the fruit thereof, with none to make him afraid 

 — - (of a scarce supply). G. J. 



Worcester, Mass, July 10, 1871. 



[We think the crop of cherries has been in this part of the country superior 

 to any since i860. In the spring of 1861 the trees were greatly injured, many 

 being nearly or quite killed, and they seem now to have fairly recovered. Many 

 cultivators who have neglected their trees will no doubt think it worth while to 

 give them some attention, and now is a good time to prune out the dead wood to 

 be found in most of them. — Ed.] 



Resignation of the Commissioner of Agriculture. — General Horace 

 Capron has resigned his position, the resignation to take effect August i, to 

 fulfil an engagement with the Japanese government, to introduce American in- 

 dustrial ideas, and the implements by which they are carried out, into Japan. 

 Few men could in the same time have brought up the Department of Agriculture 

 from the demoralized and disreputable condition into which it had fallen, when 

 General Capron was placed at its head ; and while his resignation is universally 

 regretted, his new mission is undoubtedly of the highest importance, not only 

 to Japan, but to civiHzation generally. We trust that his successor may be 

 equally fortunate in securing the esteem and confidence of the agricultural com- 

 munity. 



Tansy for Currant Worms. — E. Bonney, Jr., Syracuse, N. Y., makes a 

 strong decoction of tansy, and sprinkles it upon the bushes from a watering-pot. 

 He applies it when the dew is on, three mornings in succession, and then waits 

 until the worms reappear. The remedy is cheap, simple, and easily applied, 

 and in the hands of Mr. Bonney, has proved successful. 



Avierican Agriculiurist. 



The Pea-bug can be easily got rid of by following the plan we printed years 

 ago, taken from Landreth's Almanac, which was simply that after the seed was 

 ripe and dry to put it in bottles and cork up perfectly air-tight. The larvae, 

 though so minute as not to be seen by the naked eye, will die for want of air, 

 just like every other living thing. Germantoiun Telegraph. 



The Delaware Strawberry Crop. — Twenty-four car loads of strawber- 

 ries, comprising 256,000 quarts of the fruit, weighing 250 tons, passed through 

 Wilmington, Del., for the North, in a single day during the past season. 



