1871 



THE POMOLOGIST AND GAEDENER. 



243 



ents to collect and impart information to the pub- 

 lic of importance to Horticultural interests from all 

 sources. Why, then, did he not, at his earliest op- 

 l)ortunity, avail liimself of the columns of his or- 

 gan, the Pruiru Farmer, to save the public from 

 the pernicious influeuces of his own errors as he 

 iKid labored to prevent those of Mr. Robson's ? 



C. V. Riley in a lengthy essay which recently 

 appeared in the Rural New Yorker, refers to us, iu 

 the WeMerii Rural as supporting his views in re- 

 gard to the u.selRssuess of lights to catch Codling 

 Moths, but says not one word about our narrow 

 cloth bands. lie does say : 



" Cloth of one kind or another, tacked to 

 the tree or fastened with strings, has ad- 

 vantages over the hay bands, as when taken 

 from the tree it can be passed through a wringer or 

 steeped in hot water, and the insects may thus be 

 more expeditiously destroyed and the cloths used 

 again. * * A good bandage, easily made, is 

 greatly needed in the country, and if some enter- 

 prising firm would manufacture canvass strips 

 about six inches wide, lined on one side with four 

 inches of tow, cotton wadding, or some other loose 

 material, and would put it ujjon the market at a 

 reasonable price per yard, there would be an un- 

 limited demand for it. Such strips would last for 

 years, and could be cut of any desirable length, 

 drawn around and tacked with little labor, to each 

 tree. During my travels this summer, I shall en- 

 deavor to get some person or persons to manu- 

 facture something of the sort, and I believe it will 

 do more than aught else to induce orchardists to 

 guard their fruit." 



Now this ideal band which Mr. Riley proposes to 

 get manufactured and place within the reach of all, 

 is as good a " parlor " production as we might ex- 

 pect ; but why use a band six inches wide, while 

 the worm is seldom more than half an inch long 

 and would be as likely to " spin up " under the first 

 inch of the cover as any other part of it ; and why 

 increase the expense of the article by the inner 

 coating of tow, cotton or other loose materials, 

 when if Mr. Riley will examine the first tree he 

 comes to that has no band, the worms will be found 

 under the hard scales of loose bark, and when hay 

 bands are used they usually get between the band 

 and the tree and excavate half cylindical cavities in 

 the bark on one side, to prepare places exactly to 

 their liking in which to spin their silken cocoons. 



Dr. Trimbles hay bands were recommended to be 

 put once or twice around the tree, and to be slip- 

 ped up the tree when examined, when the cocoons 

 would be found attached to the tree in the concavi- 

 ties excavated in the bark by the worms before 

 spinning up. Now this was the weak point in Dr. 

 Trimble's hay band system. If a cocoon was at- 

 tached more strongly to the band than to the tree, it 

 would slip up with the band, and if it was firmly 

 fastened to the band and to the tree, it would be 

 torn open and the worm or pupse would drop out ; 

 if a worm it would again spin up, and if a pupse 



it might still become a moth. If a double band was 

 used, a few might find lodgment between the bands, 

 but very few if any ever enter the band itself'; 

 though a " parlor " view of the subject might lead 

 us to suppose the little rascals could much more 

 easily cut a few straws and ensconse themselves 

 snugly in the band than to excavate a cravity in 

 the solid bark of the tree; but they are strongly 

 allied to old habits and we think it will take a long 

 time to educate them to duly appreciate Mr. Riley's 

 cotton or tow linings as a cozy nest. 



We do not believe Mr. Riley's six inch band could 

 be taken oflf the tree with one half the cocoons at- 

 tached to it, and this would be a large percentage of 

 loss if no other means of destroying the worms 

 and pupiB than the wringer or hot water are resort- 

 ed to. 



Did any one ever steep bands in hot water or put 

 through a wringer anywhere but in the " parlor ?" 

 Strips of old paper flour sacks have answered ap- 

 parently as well this season as cloth bands, and it is 

 probable that a lighter manilla paper would do. 

 White birch bark or the inner layers of the linden 

 or bass wood would probably make good bands. 

 Hay bands, if put on and examined in the same 

 manner as our cloth bands will answer a better 

 purpose than when " slipped up the tree." 



Standard Pears made of DTrarfs. 



At the Farmers' Club, N. Y., in answer to a ques- 

 tion whether " Dwarf Pears can be converted into 

 Standards by planting rather deep and hilling the 

 earth around the stem ? " Mr. A. S. Fuller remarked, 

 that they would nearly all become standards if the 

 junction of the pear stock upon the quince root be 

 put four inches below the surface. It is a good 

 practice to remove the earth and cut several gashes 

 at the swell of the graft, then replace the soil, and 

 new roots will come out upon all sides, and the tree 

 is therefore less liable to be upset by heavy winds. 



Mr. Quinn remarked, in answer to a question 

 about distances, " that twelve by sixteen feet is, I 

 find, by long experience, the best interval for pear 

 trees. Being thus near together, they protect 

 themselves to a certain extent. I adopt the plan of 

 having the fruit as near the ground as it can be well 

 induced to grow. I prune to a cone or Lombardy 

 poplar shape, so as to get a slim, tapering tree with 

 fruit near the stem and near the ground. The only 

 objection to this style of pruning is, that you can- 

 not use your pear orchard as a pasture. But that is 

 seldom desirable. If the trees are twelve by six- 

 teen, they will tax the ground heavily enough 

 without requiring it to grow grass. My success 

 has come from four practices — rich manuring, close 

 planting, open top pruning, and mulching." 



