November 



THE POMOLOGIST. 



149 



For the Western Pomologlst. 



The Cotton Caterpillar, Canker Wonn, 

 Etc. 



Mr. Editor — I have just read the Pomolo- 

 gint with much luterest. I thiak every tiller 

 of the soil should take aa interest in the 

 circulation aud reading of journals of its 

 character, and tliat each reader should con- 

 tribute some fiiets within hi.s knowledge for 

 the benefit of their readers. New begin- 

 ners in farming and fruit growing readily 

 take liold of whatever promises assistance in 

 their busin'jss. Many new experiments are 

 tried, and an opinion of the results pub- 

 lished without waiting for the development 

 of facts. I am a young beginner in farming 

 and liave taken particular notice of what 

 old planters were doing aud saying. 



In 18G7, the cotton crop started out finely 

 in this viciuitj' — all went on well until about 

 the 1st of August, when the caterpillar came 

 upon the cotton, aud within two weeks 

 there was not a green leaf left upon the 

 stalk. In many fields Jthe green hull of the 

 small balls were devoured aud the crop cut 

 off one-half Then comes out the advice (f 

 the karni.d (?) savaus of the agricultural 

 pns^, telling the cotton planter what was 

 bist to be done with the cotton stalks to 

 prevent the return of the atterpillar the 

 next season. There was considerable labor 

 in the burning and destroying of the cotton 

 stalks as proposed. Some labored hard to 

 djstroy every vestige of the stalk,while others 

 did nothing— went on as usual -plowed under 

 the old stalks and planted the same ground, 

 and no caterpillar yet. The true character 

 of that destroying pest is not fully under- 

 stood in this section yet. 



I well remember, while living in' the 

 North, that a worm, called the Canker Worm, 

 attacked my old "Boss's" apple orchard at 

 a time when the apples were about the size 

 of plums, and within a month there was not 

 a green leaf upon a tree in his orchard of 

 several hundreds of the best original seed- 

 ling-trees; the worms had devoured them 

 all, aud left nothing but the coarse net work 

 of the leaves. The apples withed,and dropped 

 ofl". Just as the worms had completed their 

 work of destruction, then came thousands 

 upon tliousands of small birds. The trees 

 were literally covered, aud they apparently 

 devoured the worms. Tlieir stay was short 

 — only a few days : they were called the 

 caiiker bird. The farmers were fearful that 

 the worms would return the next year, but 

 not so; fur I have been informed that they 

 make their appearance every seven years in 

 that section of country, but are not so des- 

 tructive as they were in 1823. Could the 

 farmer only know for certain when to look 

 for tliesc pests, then he might have a few 

 years of qniet breathing without fear and 

 trembling. 



I believe that fruit trees at the present 

 dav have manv more enemies— insects and 



disease — to attack and devaste them, than in 

 formeryears. The cause of all this may be, 

 that once the orchards were mainly seed- 

 lings; now they are grafted, or budded 

 which changes the nature of the tree. I have 

 a few seedling apple trees that bear full 

 every year, and they are large trees, while 

 those grafted are small, aud do not fruit 

 every j-car ; besides some of the grafted 

 trees die out every year. The pear 

 docs not thrive well in this vicinity. I 

 planted a lot of Dwarf pear trees in 1857, 

 and have grafted yearly on the natural stock, 

 hut after one or two seasons of bearing they 

 die. A few Bartletts matured this year ; they 

 were very large, and fine flavor. W. B. 

 MiU'dfjeciUe, Oa. 



Storing Winter Apples. 



A correspondent of Laws of Lif.; who 

 claims to have had extended experience, is 

 " decidedly of the opinion," that apples keep 

 far better when put into close boxes or bar- 

 rels, and secluded as much as possible from 

 the air. When thus stored, he sa3's they will 

 come out in the spring, full and plump as 

 when taken from the tree. Many varieties 

 as the Talman Siveet, Spitzenburg, and those 

 kinds that are not considered as long keepers 

 and shrivel badly, will do well treated in 

 this way. I have, he continues, found uni- 

 versally, that they keep better to let them lie 

 without picking over. It is much better to 

 pile them into a large bin across the cellar, 

 say six or seven feet high and four or five 

 feet wide, and cover them up tightly, than to 

 lay them on shelves. I oace saw such a bin 

 that a man had kept through the winter. 

 About the 1st of April he thought he would 

 open the windows on the side of the cellar 



next the bin to let in the air that they 

 might keep better. I was at his place and he 

 called my attention to the fact. Two win- 

 dows just over the bin were opened abimt 

 ten days or two weeks, and the ap: les ex- 

 actly opposite the windows about one-third 

 rotted for as mucli as a foot in depth, and 

 th-' remaining part on either side were not 

 rotted at all. Another instance : A neighbir 

 of mine had about .'iOO bushel? in a pile in a 

 cellar. As they bi'came a little specked he 

 commenced picking over; when about half 

 done, got tired and concluded to let thi'm go. 

 When marketed about six weeks after, found 

 that about one-third of those picked over 

 were not fit for market, while all but about 

 one-twentieth of the others were good. This 

 I have seen in numerous instances. If you 

 wi.»h to try the experiment, make a box as 

 tight as a carpenter can make it, and when 

 picking from the orchard fill it and nail it 

 fast. Let it lie in the orchard till it is in 

 danger of freezing; then put it in tlie cellar. 

 Put the same quantity on shelves for trial. I 

 am pretty sure one experiment will convince. 



S.\w Dust for Cut Worms. — A corres- 

 pondent of the Journal of Agriculiure wri- 

 ting from Tennessee, states that he has tried 

 on a jiretty extensive scale, an application of 

 saw dust around the roots of plants as a pro- 

 tection against cut worm. In no instance 

 has he failed. A hand-ful around each plant 

 it would seem to us of some sorts of wood, 

 miglit not only be effectual against the cut 

 worm, but endanger the life also of the plant. 



The Pecan Nut. 



A Texas correspondent of the Southern 

 H riicuUurist, says: 



"Of all the American nuts with which I 

 am acquainted I consider the Pecan to be 

 the best, and much superior to the rngli?h 

 Walnut. On the Colorado bottom EfarAus, 

 tin, I recenih' counted the annual lings on 

 a Pecan which had been cut down a few 

 hours previously. It was fifty-three }'ears 

 old, and thirty-two iuclies in diameter at 

 stump hight. I measured one ten years ago 

 on the Sautie river in South Carolina, which 

 was thirteen feet and ten inches in circum- 

 ference at three feet from the ground. This 

 and several others of a similar size growing 

 there had been |danted by the Hugenots 

 from nuts obtained in Louisiana. On the 

 Brazos near the town of Richmond in the 

 Southern part of Texas, I measured one 

 which was sixteen feet and five inches in 

 circumference at three feet from the ground 

 and about one hundred feet high, an unusual 

 hight for the Pecan which is seldom more 

 than twenty feet high. 



The Pecan is found native from Texas, 

 extending northward as far as Southern II 

 linois, being most abundant near the rivers 

 which are' tributary to the Mississippi. It 

 is not indigenous in the Atlantic Sea board 

 States, as it grows Nrirth a as far as the lati- 

 tude of St. Louis, and also bears fruit in its 

 northern localities; it can doubtless be cul- 

 tivated throughout a large portion of the 

 United States. 



A New Way to Dut Peaches. — Dr. 

 Joseph Treat, of Vineland, N. J., gives the 

 f dlowing, and as he says, new directions fur 

 preparing peaches for drying : " Never pure 

 peaches to dry. Let thi-m get mellow enough 

 io be in good eating condition, put them in 

 boiling water a immient or two, and the 

 skins will come off like a charm. L?t them 

 be ia the water long enough, but no longer. 

 The gain is at least sixfold — saving time in 

 removing the sk-n, great savingof the peach, 

 the iiart of the peach saved is the b,st part, 

 less time to dry them, and better when dried. 

 A whole bushel can be done in a boiler at 

 once, and then the water turned off. This 

 very morning we had over two bu-^hels skin- 

 ned, stoned, (halved) and on the boards, lo g 

 before a quarter of them cuuld even have 

 been peeled." 



♦-♦-♦ 



Celery for Nervousness. — Tiie Edu- 

 cational Gazttte claims for celery valuable 

 medicinal properties. Says many persons 

 bvcome so much affected with nervousness 

 that the least annoyance greatly agitates 

 them, and when they stretch out their hands 

 they shake like aspen leaves on windy d lys. 

 By a daily moderate u-^e of the blanched 

 stalks of celer}' as a salad, thev may become 

 as strong aud steady in limls as other per- 

 sons. Every one engaged in labor weaken- 

 ing to the nerves, or afflicted with palpitation 

 of the heart, should use celery daily in 

 season, and onions in its stead, when not ia 

 season. 



Profits of Horticulture. — At a recent 



meeting of the Montgomery County (Ohio) 

 Horticultural Society this subject was dis 

 cussed. The secrets of success were set 

 down to be finding out what does well ia 

 one's soil, giving every attention to culture 

 and marketing, with strict honesty in ones 

 dealings, and no humbug, not trying more 

 than could do well. One gentleman though, 

 that the continual striving after excellence 

 was the onoj thing needful. If a man has 

 this element in his nature, the others follow 

 mmediatelv after. 



