NEW ENOLiANB FARMER. 



>..^/,,s/ifrfVj^N B. Rv^I^,at JVo. 5-2 .Vorth Market Street, (over the Agricull^nal /f aiWtoMSej.— T m.r.iAS G. Fessehden , AV/ior. 



VOL. VI. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, NOVEMBKH 28, 1827. 



No. 18. 



AGRICULTURE. 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE 1»EW ENGLAND FARMER. 



CANKER WORMS. 



Mr Fessendej-.— There are many, I believe, 

 who have their doubts as to the efficacy of tarricg, 

 in preventing the attacks of the canker worm.— 

 Their scepticism on thi^ subject ia, in all proba- 

 bility, derived from their own experience or ob 

 gervation. They have often applied this remedy, 

 «r seen it applied, to no purpose. 



I have a tew facts to present for the considera- 

 tion of your readers relative to this practice, whick 

 1 offer with the more readiness, since they are 

 from a respectable and intelligent cultivator— 

 He states that some ^earsago his apple trees were 

 attached by the canker worm, notwithstanding a 

 constant and regular application of tar. lie was 

 satisfied that they could have effected their ascent 

 neither before, nor during the operation of tarring, 

 for he comnienced as soon as thfi ground opened 

 in the spring, and continued it without intermis- 

 sion, until they " had done running." How then 

 did they accomplisii their ascent ? This was a 

 question to whicli he could give no satisfactory 

 answer; ii occasioned hiui a good deal of perplex- 

 ity, and finally put liim upon a thorough examina 

 tion. ThH examination resulted in the discovery, 

 that the female being foile I in her attempts to as- 

 cend the trees, had deposited her eggs in immense 

 numbers, in the crevices of the bark below the 

 tar ; whence the young brood as soon as they had 

 acquired the power of locomotion, were idling 

 and making their w:iy into the trees, the tar hav- 

 ino-, by this timp, become sufficiently hard to af 

 ford them a safe < ; easy fassage. 



Upon this disc overy 3II the difficulties which 

 had hitherto attended his speculations on this sub- 

 ject, vanished at once. He saw the evil in con- 

 ne^iion with its cause, and was happy in a convic- 

 tion that an adequate remedy could be easily ap- 

 plied; being sensible that the same means which 

 were successfully employed to baffle their at- 

 tempts to ascend in the first instance, would have 

 proved equally efficacious in the second. Those, 

 therefore, who would preserve their apple or- 

 chards from the lavages of the canker worm, in 

 •his way, would do well to continue the operation 

 of tarring long enough to prevent the ascent of 

 the young, or dislodge tlve old ones from their 

 hirking places in the crevices of the bark. 



.Voom6«r 19, 1827. H. 



rOK THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 

 VINES. 



Mr Fessenden — Every lover of the vine must 

 witness with pleasure. the many indications which 

 vour columns afford of the increasing attention at 

 present, paid tn its cultivation. I have always 

 oherished the idea that with judicious culture, the 

 vine might be made to yield its fruit among us ; 

 and the little experience which I have had for a 

 few years past, has strengthened my belief as to 

 its practicability ; and any one who will try the 

 experiment, will soon be convinced, not only that 

 it is possible to raise grapes, but that the chance 

 of a fuU eraf -when compared with peaches or 



pears, is as two to one; or in other words he will ] 

 realize two crops of grapes to every one of either 

 peaches or pears, yet no one seems to doubt of the 

 possibility of raising both of them. 



The " numerous ills" which the peach tree is 

 " heir to' prevent us -i times out of 4 from realiz- 

 inf any return for our labor, save a full crop of 

 vexation. Let the time of the cultivator which is 

 now spent in administering quackish remedies to 

 valetudinary peach trees, be spent in the cultiva- 

 tiiiii of grapes, and he will find his labour blest 

 with a plentiful reward. 



I would observe here, that I have found but one 

 effectual remedy for the worm in peach trees, and 

 that is oil applied near the roots ; but as I found 

 in the application of it in that way, the remedi/ 

 was as bad as the disease, I soaked strips of stiff 

 paper in old, strong smelling oil, and wound them 

 round the trunk as high up as was considered ne 

 cessary. The paper imbibes the oil so strongly a.s 

 to prevent it from penetrating into the body of the 

 trees ; where it would be very injurious, and ulti- 

 mately ruinous to the tree. 



I perused with much interest the translation 

 published in your paper, of the method of training 

 and pruning the vine, practised at Thomery, near 

 Paris ; and was disappointed on finding the plan 

 recommended was liable to the same objection as 

 those which have been described and recommend- 

 ed by Forsyth, Cobbett and others, i. e. the im- 

 practicability nf covering the vine in the winter. — 

 This point is but little attended to by French and 

 English gardeners, as their comparatively mild 

 winters seldom render covering necessary ; hut it 

 should be the Jirst point attended to, when devis- 

 ing a regular system of training, adapted to the 

 climate of tli" New England States. The best di 

 rections that I have seen were published original- 

 ly in the Massachusetts Agricultural Repositorv, 

 and was copied from thence into the pages of the 

 New England Farmer, but not having the paper 

 by me, I cannot name the number.* The plan re- 

 commended is very similar to that generally prac- 

 tised by the cultivators of the vine in the north of 

 France and (ilermany ; and the directions if strict- 

 ly followed, will insure success. The idea of Mr 

 Kenrick, of training the vines on the plan of the 

 Thomery gardeners, yet limiting the height to 9 

 inches, appears hardly practicable, if the vines are 

 to be planted only 20 inches apart as will be obvi- 

 ous to any one reflecting that in this space 9 inch- 

 es wide, there must be trained the 4 lateral 

 shoots, procfeding from the vines planted to tiie 

 right and left of the centre one, and thus reduc- 

 ing the space from 18 inches to a fraction less 

 than two. But probably his intention is to plant 

 8 feet apart in the rows; he can then bring the 

 horii^ontal shoots of each vine to an equal heijht 

 from the ground, without one interfering with the 

 other; if so the plan is a good one. The advan- 

 tages derived from close planting can be realized 

 here as well as in the other way, as the rows can 

 be planted very near together. 



If yon think the preceding remarks are worth 

 the room they will occupy in your paper, you may 

 insert them, as from an 



ADMIRER OF HORTICULTURAL PURSUfTS. 



.■See New England Farmer, vol. v. No. 13, page 97. 



■ AN ADDRESS, 

 Delivered at (he Jnniver.-rij of the Hartford 

 Covhty Agricultural Society, Oct. 4, 1827 ; 

 by Fkedkrsck Hall, Professor of Chemis- 

 try and Mineralogy in Washington College. 



Mr. President, 



and Gei'llemen of the Society, 



The subject on which I am requested to offei 

 you some remarks, is one of vast moment, and one 

 which is indissolubly connected with the vital in- 

 terests of our Siate and of our nation. But it is a 

 hacknied snbjpct — one which has called into ac- 

 tion a thousanii abler pens— one which has been 

 examined and rn-exauiined, times witliolit number; 

 and presented to the public eye in every conceiv- 

 able point of view. In the compass of a few brief, 

 scattered houio — and that is all, that could be al- 

 lotted for the preparation of th^ address — what 

 can be said, mat is new, or will be ii.ioful? 



You, gentlemen, do not need to be told, that 

 agriculture uad is oritrin in olden time — in a 

 golden age--that it was practised by the Grecians, 

 by the Egyptians, by the Chaldeans ; that it climbs 

 even to a hi,'her date, that it wa.s the first science 

 communicated from heaven to fallen man. He 

 who stood at the head of our siiocies, when remov- 

 ed from tlie ',rardcn of untainle-! purity, where 

 labor was 1 3e;e.=s, was couimissioned to be a farm- 

 er "to till tho ground, from whence he was 



taken." 



It is super iuous to remark, that practical agri 

 culture has, in all periods, been regarded, by the 

 tni'y great, as one of the' most honorable occupa 

 t;oJ>, thi't could engage the attention of man. 



Abrahiim, whose life was devoted to his flocks, 

 who was as the scripture informs us, "very rich 

 in cattle, in silver, and in gold ;" — was held in 

 higli estimation by the ditTerent nations with which 

 he sojourned, and by tl^eir princes and sovereigns. 

 The kings of Persia, o.'ire 3 mcntli, laid aside 

 their royal vestments, an! went forth into the 

 fields, to converse with husbandmen, and to dine 

 •vitri thsm. The modern emperors of China pass 

 ona day each year, we are told, in personally guid- 

 i.ig the plough. 



Will a farmer easily be inclined to believe, that 

 his employment is a degrading one, when he reads 

 tlie history of the Romans — when he learns, with 

 what rapturous delight, the most distinguished of 

 their generals, and dictators, and sovereigns pur- 

 sued it.' — how they panted for exemption from 

 the toils and butchery of war, that they might be- 

 take themselves to the peaceful business of culti- 

 vating their grounds ? 



Regiilus, when commandin.'^ the Roman legions 

 in Africa, earnestly besought the Senate to recai 

 him, on the ground that if he were longer absent, 

 his f rm nould suffer from neijlect. What answer 

 did the Senate transmit to him .' That so long as 

 he successfully commanded their armies, his farm 

 should be taken care of at the nation's expense. 



Do you imag'ne, gentlemen, that agriculture 

 was lightly estecaied, by the best friends of Rome, 

 at the period, v. hen Porcius Cato, a valiant war- 

 rior, and an implacable enemy to every thing that 

 did not tend, directly, to advance the welfare of 

 his country, wrote a treatise on it ? It could not 

 be. 



