516 [AssEi^T 



limbs, and now I have not one-tenth of this mischief that I had be- 

 fore, and a neighbor who did not whitewash his quinces suffers now 

 as I have heretofore. 



Lime is used to destroy snails, which are very troublesome in Eng- 

 land and sometimes here in very damp weather, in low grounds. A 

 few years since they came on my quince trees, I sifted lime over 

 them and the snails were all dissolved by the lime, or nearly so. 

 This has been a wet season, but I have no more snails. The blight 

 in fruit trees has been ascribed to other causes than insects. Put I 

 am decidedly of opinion that blight in pear trees is due to msects. 

 This blight has been talked of these twenty years, and until very re- 

 cently, without any suspicion that it was caused by insects. The 

 plum tree is affected, especially the Damascene plum. I observe some 

 limbs are killed, similar to the pear and quince We have long suf- 

 fered from a class of insects that sting the apple, pear and cherry, 

 and destroying much of the fruit at an early period of their growth. 

 We have an insect among us which has been named the East Windy 

 for ten years past, supposed to have curled up the peach leaf and 

 caused it to drop; but a new leaf succeeds. I have this year exam- 

 ined the diseased peach leaf, with a glass, and found that these leaves 

 all had in them great numbers of insects. The nits may have been 

 deposited here by beetles which were exceedingly numerous at the 

 time the disease appeared. At evening the air about the orchard 

 was darkened by the immense number of these beetles on the wing. 

 The oak leaf is also attacked by them. All this is not the East 

 Wind. Formerly some few leaves used to be attacked, now scarce 

 a leaf escapes. This is working an evil in our fruit trees, for al- 

 though they have new leaves, yet are they enfeebled by it, and the 

 fruit loses its good character. The damage to the peach is not all 

 owing to the worm at its root. And our noble pippin is now assail- 

 ed by a similar insect, its leaves are all stung. Proper investigation 

 of this subject may lead us to very valuable results. Vineyards suf- 

 ftr least from insects. When catterpillars attack small vines in 

 your yards and eat off the clusters, the best way is to have a sponge 

 on the end of a pole, dipped in spirits of turpentine, the least touch 

 of which makes the catterpillar fall. My vineyard has not suffered 

 from them. 



The injury to the leaves of the pear trees from the sting of in- 

 sects appears to be commencing. I have heretofore stated my suc- 

 cess in destroying rose bugs in my vineyard, by plowing late in the 

 fall, in cold weather, thus turning out the larvae to be killed by cold. 



