1871 



THE WESTERN POMOLOGIST. 



151 



Carbolic Soap for Borers. 



Mr. M. B. Bateham, an extensive peach grower 

 in Northern Ohio communicates to the Ohio Far)mr 

 his experience in destroying the peach borer by the 

 use of carbolic soap. Mr. B. believes the remedy 

 may be successfully used on the apple tree borer. 

 If so, it is much easier and more sure than hunting 

 out the larvae after it has entered the tree. Give it 

 a trial. 



" I have found a cheaper and better remedy than 

 the one mentioned in last week's Ohio FartMr, or 

 in any other publication that I have seen in my 

 thirty years of liorticultural reading. I have used 

 it the past two years on my three thousand bearing 

 peach trees, with complete success, and with great 

 saving of labor and loss of trees. I have no doubt 

 it will be equally effective for the apple tree borer, 

 and thus prove of immense value to orchardists 

 generally. It is as follows : 



Take a five pound can of carbolic soap (cost two 

 dollars) ; dissolve in ten or twelve gallons of hot 

 water, stirring it freely, if to be used immediately 

 or let stand over night ; then add about twenty gal- 

 lons of cold water, making a barrelful of the liquid 

 which is sufficient for one thousand trees. The 

 soap can be had in one pound cans, for those who 

 want small quantities. 



Now take a hoe and clear away the weeds or 

 rubbish close around the base of the trees, remov- 

 ing also a little of the loose earth just around the 

 bark, say for an inch in depth. Then take a buck- 

 et of the liquid and with a paint brush apply it 

 freely to the bark of the base of the trees for sis 

 to ten inches from the ground, taking care to have 

 it enter the crevices, (where the eggs are most like- 

 ly to be deposited), and let a little flow down so as 

 to moisten a little ring of soil just at the base. 



I make this applica'ion about the middle of July, 

 when the parent inst '^t {^-Effcria) has aboi-t fiKirihed, 

 depositing her eggs, and if any young worms are 

 hatched, they will not have penetrated beyond the 

 reach of the liquid. I am convinced that it 

 prevents any further depositing of the eggs for 

 the season, unless heavy rains speedily occur, in 

 which case a second application may be necessary 

 where the borers are very plenty. 



For young trees, where tender roots are liable to 

 be reached by the liquid, it will be safer to use it 

 weaker — say ten gallons of water to the pound of 

 soap. I am experimenting with this article for pre- 

 venting other insect ravages. 



Gronrtb of Forest Trees. 



The Maine Farmer speaks encouragingly of the 

 growth and re-production of forests in that State, 

 in the following statement : 



" The growth of forest trees in favorable situa- 

 tions is more rapid than people are generally aware 

 of In a recent conversation with a farmer in Som- 

 erset county, who is now over eighty years of age, 

 but whose mind is still unimpared, he stated that 

 in 1833, thirty-eight years ago, he cut all the hem- 

 lock and spruce timber upon a certain piece of 

 woodland, for a barn frame, adding that every tree 

 which was large enough for a girt was cut. "Now,'' 

 said he, " another barn frame, as large as the one I 

 then put up, can be cut from the same piece of 

 ground." 



A writer in a recent issue of the Daily Journal 

 mentions the following: In June, 1816, when a 

 small boy, he was harrowing in oats on some new 

 land in Franklin County. Thirty-five years after- 

 wards he was on the same ground, and found a 

 thick forest, where at the time men were hewing 

 timber eighteen inches square for a bridge. Twen- 

 ty years ago, upon the home farm of the writer 

 was a field of grass, the original forest growth of 

 which had been then recently destroyed by fire. 

 Now upon the same field is a splendid growth of 

 birch, spruce, hackmatack, poplar and other trees, 

 many of them forty feet in height, and a foot or 

 more in diameter." 



Every farmer not too far advanced in years, 

 ought by this time to understand that he plants 

 not for his children, but for himself, and not for 

 himself but for his children. This double motive 

 should result in such a growing of forest trees 

 among us, as we have not for years seen the 

 like of." 



Dried Fruit. In Lyndeborough, N. H. two 

 families last fall cut and dried 250 bushels of apples, 

 which when dried weighed 1,451 pounds. They 

 were sold in Boston at an average of 31 cents per 

 pound — amounting to about $300. 



. ,1 ATerage Gronrtb of Trees. 



Three or four years ago the Illinois Horticultu- 

 ral Society appointed a committee to prepare a re- 

 port on the cultivation and growth of forest trees. 

 The committee concluded an able report by saying: 



" As the results of our observations and from the 

 testimony of reliable men, we regard the following 

 as about the average growth in tcelve years, of the 

 leading desirable varieties, when planted in belts 

 or groves and cultivated as directed — 



White Maple, 1 foot in diameter, and 30 feet 

 high. 



Ash-Leaf Maple, 1 foot in diameter, and 30 feet 

 high. 



White Willow, \}4 feet in diameter, and 40 feet 

 high. 



Yellow Willow, IJ^ feet in diameter, and 35 feet 

 high. 



