408 fAsSEMBLT 



PRESERVATION OF PEACH TREES. 



The following valualle suggestions, for preserving peach trees 

 from the ravages of insects, are communicated by a practical farmer 

 in New-Jersey : 



• 



I think it was about the year 1804 or '5, that the grub began to 

 destroy the peach trees in New-Jersey. My father had at that time 

 thirty or forty acres in fine condition and young trees. They began 

 to fail, and in two or three years were either dead or of no value. 

 "We found that in proportion as the worms progressed around the 

 trees, the same were more or less decayed, and such has been my 

 uniform observation ever since. I have failed in raising as many 

 trees as would even supply my family with fruit, until within six or 

 seven years, and of late have only grown enough to test the cer- 

 tainty of my remedy. Of the many trees which I have examined, I 

 may say thousands, with the exception of one, I have found their 

 failure to be from the worm. I do not believe in the yellows as a 

 serious cause of failure in this part of New-Jersey. While I was 

 on a farm, I tried very many plans for saving my trees, but they all 

 failed. My belief is, that an insect, in the course of the summer, 

 deposits its eggs in the body or limbs of the tree, and that before 

 winter the eggs are hatched, and the insects find their way to the 

 bark of the root, about an inch below the surface of the ground. I 

 have found plenty of them singly, or in clusters, in crevices of the 

 bark, in October and November, and often, (if late in the season,) 

 ■when they have pierced and entered the bark. About that locality, 

 and never above the surface of the ground, or far below, I have tried 

 many experiments, on scores of these worms, to find their bane, and 

 none have answered better than the corrosive sublimate. I have pre- 

 pared it as follows: common tar, two pounds; tallow, two pounds; 

 melt them together, and after they are cooled so much as to hold 

 suspended, add three ounces pulverised corrosive sublimate, and three 

 ounces pulverised common salts of nitre. Stir the preparation from 

 the time it begins to cool, until the powder is thoroughly diffused 

 through the entire mass. Then the earth must be removed from the 

 trees, down to the departure of the roots, and the surface well rubbed 

 with a cloth or brush, and all crevices and defects in the bark, freed 

 from the soil. The preparation must then be applied, a little warm- 

 ed, but not enough to allow the powder to separate from the mass. 

 Then with an old brush thoroughly cover every part and crevice of 

 the bark with the preparation, from the branching of the roots to 

 about two inches above the ground. Surround this surface with a 



