360 f Assembly 



that no piece of land, not even an old garden could have succeeded 

 better. The cauliflowers and Broccolis have all headed finely, and 

 I have been selling them for more than a month. Perhaps it is but 

 fair to say that the season being wet has helped me much, as some 

 failures in heading cauliflowers are naturally expected, but we had 

 Bone; they were all perfect. 



Your committee saw the rest of my crops, and therefore it will be 

 unnecessary to detail them. 



On the place are several hundred apple trees, which have been gen- 

 erally thought to be worn out. For these I adopted the plan of Mr. 

 R. L. Pell: scraped off the old bark or rather its roughness,|^and 

 with no tender hand, the green and white continually being exposed, 

 laid bare roots and cut off smoothly some of the larger ones, deem- 

 ed the upper roots, rubbed bark and roots with soft soap, ashes and 

 white sand, manured with decomposed muck, and replaced the soil; 

 on top of soil around each tree placed one peck of unslaked shell 

 lime, trimmed out cross branches, suckers and old wood, when the 

 caterpillars made their appearance this spring, attacked them imme- 

 diately. They do not leave their nests before 8 o'clock in the morn- 

 ing, and return at 5 1-2 P. M. ; had lamps constructed thus: 



Tube 13 inches long, 2 inches diameter, on the end of 12 feet pole 

 four small tubes projecting from the side near the end, a quarter inch 

 diameter, each with wicks; filled the lamps with camphene, lighted 

 and burned up the nests from daylight to 8 in the morning, and after 

 5 P. M. Mr. Pell's plan of using aqua ammonia will not do with 

 Jersey caterpillars. I poured triple F. ammonia over some caterpil- 

 lars in a saucer, and left them immersed two minutes. They seemed 

 dead. Poured off the ammonia, placed the saucer in the sun, and in 

 less than an hour they walked off apparently much obliged for the 

 cleansing. But thanks to Mr. Pell, he is nearer right in his mode 

 of treating trees, for all mine have fine crops of fair fruit, better I 

 think, than ever the favorable season would warrant, without the 

 treatment named. 



My success thus far with globe artichoke, sweet potatoes. Kohl 

 Rabe (Brassica rapa esculenta) &c. &c., seems to promise well. 



Am engaged making opium from Lettuce, but cannot as yet decide 

 if it will pay. 



