New ENGLAND FARMER. 



379 



»irils of turpentine. The other did the same 

 .1 new plonghui ground. The untonked of both 



almost enlirebj cut off. The soaked of both 

 as come up untouched and vigorous. 



I have been ignor:irit of the iinantily of tur- 

 entine that may l)e used with safety. Here 

 sems to be a good demonstration. 



The bronn bug, or smaller beetle, appertreil 

 n tlie loth of May, and the air is literally 

 lied ivith them in the evening. They somc- 

 mes give you an uncivil knock in the face in 

 le evening, as if they had lost their wayi — 

 !'hey are now depositing their eggs lo rear the 

 lischievoiis grub worm, that cuts corn, cabbage 

 nd most vegetables at the surface. The young. 



is said, arrive at maturity in tour years, then 

 jrn to the bug again. C^itcre — Is not this the 

 eturning year of this plodding creature, that 

 eems wantonly to cut ofl" your plant, without 

 jaking use of it ? A. 



FOR THE NEW EiVCLJND FARMER. 



M. Farm, June 21, 1823. 

 Mr. Editor — I saw a request in your paper, 

 age 347, that some person would give a plar 

 fa Cow House, and as I have seen no aiftwei 

 'ill give you a plan of mine ; not that 1 think 

 : perfect, but that every subscriber is in duty 

 ound to see that all inquiries made through 

 our paper are answered in due time. It is 3(i 

 ;et long — stanchions are trom the centre ol 

 ach 3 feet apart — crib 3 feet wide — a rack on 

 le side of the crib next the mow one foot wide, 

 ■hich is one foot from the floor, that the mea 

 ags may be easily put under — the slats in tht 

 ick perpendicular — a board in the bottom o; 

 le rack slanting, that the seeds, &,c. may fall 

 est the cattle — width from stanchions to side 

 f the bam 10 feet — bed must be varied in' 

 idth as tlie cattle are long or short — trencU 

 ine inches lower than the bed, and nine inches 

 )wer than the walk back of the cattle ; or half 

 je depth will answer there, and is preferable, 

 articularly if the barn is low posted. Slan- 

 hions I think far preferable to bows for secn- 

 ity, but cattle lie easiest in bows. My cows 

 leads are all parted with a partition four or 

 iTe feet high, which prevents all quarrels anc" 

 eaching. Yours, &c. HERDSMAN. 



From the Mass. Agricultural Repository. 

 ON A. MODE OF DESTROYING INSECTS, 

 I take the liberty of indicating a methcd of 

 lestroying (ho rose-bug, and other wingeJ in- 

 ects, which are such nuisances in our garleis, 

 ind so destructive to the tender shrubs snd 

 jlants, which was suggested to me by the fol'.ov- 

 ng occurrence. Going into my garden onesim- 

 aier evening, with a lanthorn, to gather sdad, 

 I found, on my return to the house, tha: Ihe 

 lanthorn was covered with rose-bugs and )tier 

 insects, which had been attracted to it bylhe 

 ight. This simple circumstance led me to the 

 inference that the propensity of moths aidall 

 winged insects tojly at a tight, xvill furnish is 'ith 

 the means of at least diminishing their numb e^ by 

 suffering them to become SELF-nKSTROVERS. 



It is well known how troublesome they Ire 

 by thronging our rooms in the evenings, wfere 

 a candle or lamp is burning ; how they fly rand 

 it, and scathe their wings in its blaze ; and ow 

 they pelt against the windows, which weare 

 obliged to shut in order to exclude them, liw, 



I conceive, that availing ourselves of this lure, 

 we might kindle small lires in dilTerent parts of 

 our gardens, near the vines particularly which 

 are annoyed by these voracious depredators, 

 and they laoiild precipitate themselves into the blaze. 

 \ kilid of flambeau might be made, by winding 

 round one end of a stick about a foot and a half 

 long, old rags, or swingled low, dipped in tar 

 or melted brimstone. Let this be stuck into the 

 ground, and set on fire with a candle ; and it 

 will continue burning a considerable time, and 

 prove the funeral pyre to myriads. Tiiese lights 

 might be so placed as not to injure the adja- 

 cent plants, nor endanger surrounding buildings, 

 as no sparks would fly from them; and, if any 

 tears are entertained, they might be watched 

 till they were burnt out, and the effect would 

 be thus ascertained, in order to justify the rep- 

 etition of the experimenl. 



I have often found the difficulty of freeing 

 my plants from the ravages of insects, especial- 

 ly of the coleopterous class, because they have a 

 kind of coat of mail covering their wings that 

 sheds ofl whatever is sprinkled over them with 

 Ihe purpose of destroying them, and because 

 they occupy generally the under sides of the 

 leaves, or frequent high branches where they 

 are inaccessible : but they would be tempted to 

 fly down to a blaze. The various kinds of 

 moths, (parents of most destructive broods,) and 

 the winged aphides, those great destroyers of 

 the grape vine, would more certainly be lured 

 by a bright flame to inevitable destruction. 



Perhaps a flambeau, at the end of a long pole, 

 might be held up near to apple trees when in 

 bloom, and be the means of destroying many of 

 the small flics which deposit those eggs in the 

 opening blossom that form the worm generated 

 in the core of the fruit. 



In the early '=iimmer I have observed im- 

 nense swarms of minute black flies, just at eve- 

 niig, around the plum trees ; and suspect them 

 <f being the occasion of those galls, or excre- 

 scences which occasion such injury lo the tree. 

 f so, the expedient which I have suggested, 

 may be tried to advantage upon them. 



These remarks, are, perhaps, too trivial to be 

 communicated to the public in the Agricultural 

 Repository and Journal. If, however, you think 

 that they may serve to suggest expedients to 

 those who have leisure and opportunity to make 

 the trial, you will please make that use of them. 

 With affectionate regards, your friend, 

 THADDEUS MASON HARRIS. 



The following recipe is very important in- 

 deed if its eflficacy has not been over-rated. It 

 sometimes happens that a remedy is applied to 

 a disorder which is already yielding to the ope- 

 rations of nature, and the medicine has the cre- 

 dit of effecting a cure which would have taken 

 place if it had not been applied. And it may 

 happen that an appVication may he made to a 

 tree, vine, or other vegetable, for the destruc- 

 tion of insects, at the precise point of time when 

 they would have died or have ceased their rar- 

 ages without such application ; and in that case, 

 the thing applied is thought more useful than it 

 is. We hope that nothing of that kind has taken 

 place in the experiments related in the follow- 

 ing article ; and that a little sulphur introduced 



into the body of a fruit tree will preserve it 

 from caterpillars, canker worms, he. but we 

 shall entertain some doubts on the subject, for 

 the reasons above mentioned, till farther expe- 

 riments shall prove or disprove the efficacy ol 

 Ihe supposed specific. — Ed. Farmer. 



From tlic 9ecouci volume of Ihc Memoirs of the Bonii^ 

 ol Agriculluru of tlie State of New Yorlc. 



On preventing the des'ritttion of Trees by Cater- 

 pillars. 

 [By George WVl.ster, of Albany.] 



From my experience, I am fully satisfied oui" 

 fruit and forest frees tnay be preserved from 

 that dreadful insect, the caterpillar, in a very 

 sure and easy way. In the year 1805, Ihe large 

 elm at our corner was nearly stript of^ its leaves 

 by a small caterpillar. Various modes to de- 

 stroy them were made use of, such as covering 

 the body of the tree with tar, fish oil, and burn- 

 ing their nests, but without any good effect. — 

 Some day in the month of July, I was standing 

 at our door, when a gentleman froin Niskayuna 

 was passing by. He accosted me in words like 

 these: — "George, 'tis a pity to lose so fine a 

 tree." In answer — "We hare made use of va- 

 rious articles to destroy them, but without sue- 

 cess." — " Send," says he, " and get a little sul- 

 phur, and bore into the free about six inches, 

 and fill it with sulphur, and my word for it, not 

 a caterpillar shall be seen after forty-eight 

 hours." "Will you slay and see it done ?" — 

 " I will," said he. The hole was bored, the 

 sulphur put in, and a piece of wood the size of 

 a cork drove in very strongly, to prevent the 

 sap or sulphur oozing out. In a less time than 

 he mentioned, there was not the vestige of a 

 caterpillar on the tree. Soon after, a large ca- 

 terpillar appeared on our poplars, in front of 

 my hbuse : every tree was served in (be same 

 way as the elm "had been, and the result the 

 same— while my neighbors cut down those fine 

 trees, because they were very much alarmed 

 t+.at the insect was that very venomous reptile 

 called " the asp." A few days after I discov- 

 ered that a very beautiful plum-tree in my yard 

 was attacked by the caterpillar: the same course 

 was applied, and the result the same. I have 

 followed this practice every year since 1805, 

 when I discovered these insects on my trees, 

 and there has never been a caterpillar on my 

 trecs after forty-eight hours. It h:is been tried 

 in New York and Pennsylvania, wherelhavf: 

 been present, and in the western parts of this 

 state, in no case has it, to my knowledge or 

 belief. Failed. Two men are sulhcient to go 

 through an orchard or forest of 200 trees in a 

 day. 



A~ot\—h is possible that the mode in which 

 the sulpliur is put in the tree, might be easier 

 commuricaled by words than on paper. 



P- ^- '■ have strong presentiments in my mind, 

 that if Epplied to our peach, plum or cherry 

 trees, it would prevent the black rust. 



Rtist tf Wheat. — Mr. Isaac Young, of Georgia, 

 mixed lye amongst his seed wheat, and thus es- 

 caped tie blast of his wheat. It was repeatedly 

 tried, til he was convinced of its eflicacy ; and 

 then hesowed five acres with ishiat, surrounded 

 with a lit of 23 feet breadth of rye ; this also suc- 

 ceeded ; and being repeated, is found a certain 

 securityfo the wheat,— JSor(//f!/'s Husbandry. 



