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NEW ENGLAx\D FARMER, 



JIABCH 83, 1840. 



a«d horticultdral rkgister. 

 Boston, VVednksdav, March 25, 1810. 



THE TENTH AGRICULTURAL MEETING 



Was held at the Rrprpsentalives' CImmber on Thurs- 

 day evening last. Mr Brighain, of Woslboro', presided. 

 The subject allotted for the evening was Beet Sugar and 

 Vegetables (or Stock. 



The Commissioner presented a valuable variety ofcorn 

 irom Messrs Ellis & Bosson, called the Poniroy corn. It 

 is a short ear, eighUvovved, well filled out at the end, and 

 a good bearer. We have k;io.wn this corn a long time. 

 With good cultivation on good land, it has yielded .icven- 

 tyfive bushels to the acre, and ripens seasonably. 



He presented also some corn from the Messrs Hovey, 

 which was a small eight-rowed ear, long and sound. It 

 is cultivated in Worcester county, and greatly ccteenied. 

 The farmer who has planted it forseveral years, is accus- 

 tomed to allow but a single stalk in a hill ; but this stalk 

 produces four and five ears. W'c are jiromised more par- 

 ticulars in regard to thisco,-., which we shall give when 

 received. It is greatly estee^.ied by these who cultivate 

 it ; and its appearance is much in its favor. 



He exhibited, likewise, •some potatoes, produced by 

 Mr Pollard, of Maine, from the seed of the Chenango. _- 

 They were a large long potato, resembling in appearance 

 the Cow-horn ; and said by those who had cultivated 

 them, to be uncommonly excellent. They were distribu- 

 ted among several farmers, who will undoubtedly give a 

 good account of them. 



He exhibited, also, a model bee hive, of a cheap con- 

 struction, since it is made of a common flour barrel, and 

 suspended to a tree or any other convenient position. It 

 is the invention of Mr John Shell, of New York city, 

 apiarian. No. 557 Houston street We do not choose, 

 whatever our private opinion may be, to pi4nt3nce'it su- 

 perior to any other; because there is seldom right or pro- 

 priety in attempting to elevate one man by putting him 

 upon another man's shoulders; besic^i that, no man 

 likes to have his shoulders used for aT-.icstool ; but we 

 think it greatly to be commended for jts cjieapness ; and 

 the provision for extracting the surplus honey without 

 robbing or killing the bees. It is tho.ughl, too, from the 

 mode of entrance that it affords an efjicient protection 

 against the bee moth. This, however, remains to be 

 proved by the only perfect test, experience The hive is 

 well deserving attention. 



He stated, likewise, the merits of Weeks' Vermont 

 hive, which is greatly to he approved, and a sample of 

 which may be seen at Messrs Ellis & Bosson's. It is an 

 excellent hive, and he will soon have a model for exhi- 

 bition, 



Mr William Clark then made some explanation of some 

 remarks which had before fallen from him on the subject 

 of Indian corn, in respect to which he thought he had 

 been misunderstood. He did not wish to be understood 

 that corn might be planted .is closely as any one might 

 choose; and the more thickly planted the more produc- 

 tive. There was of course a reasonable limit; but un- 



I fertile soil which had been brought from the island of 

 Batavia, with plants for the Botanical Garden. This 

 gave upon analysis 24-1)00 of vegetable and animal mat- 

 ter. 



The subject of Beet .Sugar then coming up, Mr Teschc- 

 macher aflcr a few remarks, was followed by Mr D L. 

 Child, Mr Bosson, iVIr A. W. Dodge and others. The 

 reports of their remarks as well as of the preceding meet- 

 ing on the subject of silk, are in preparnlion, but of ne- 

 cessity deferred to ai. other occasion. 



The meeting voted unanimously that the thanks of the 

 meeting be given to the several publishers of newspapers 

 in Boston, who have kindly and gratuitously inserted 

 from week to week the notices of the agricultural meet- 



ings. 



This meeting closed the series of meetings for the sea- 

 son. They have been throughout most respectably at- 

 tended. They have drawn the attention of the public 

 strongly to the great subject ; they have been c<mducted 

 throughout in a courteous and agreeable manner, without 

 as we are aware, of the occurrence of a single unpleasant 

 feeling or remark ; they have elicited much information ; 

 and been attended with great interest and pleasure. We 

 conclude as i,vebcgan, "Speed the plough." II. C. 



We have no room to'extend our editorial ; and in.sert 

 a communication on the subject of the Worm in Locust 

 trees. This with another on the cultivation of the Yel- 

 low Locust, (which will be given in our next,) should 

 have accompanied the report of the committee of the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural Society on Mulberry Trees 

 and Live Hedges, published in the Farmer of llie llth- 

 There are other communications belonging to this report 

 which will be given in our next, and we shall hasten 

 the publication of the other papers conijected with the 

 reports of farm.s, with all practicable dispatch. H. C. 



OF THE WORM IN THE LOCUST TREE. 



To Peter C. Brooks, Wm. Prescott, E. H. Derby, Josiah 

 Quincy, jr., and Elias Phiiiney, Esqrs.- Committee of 

 the Massachusettts Society for Promoting .Agriculture. 



Gektlkmen — In your List of Premiums under "Expe- 

 riments, Discoveries and Inventions," is the following ; 

 " For an effectual and satisfactory nioile of extirpating the 

 Worm that alt.acks the Locust tree." 



You will ple.tse indulge me in a few remarks relating 

 to the locust tree, one of the most valuable' and durable 

 trees for fencing, posts, or ship's use ; being convinced 

 of its utility, and in consideration that the ch.arters of our 

 agricultural societie-s are based upon giving encourage- 

 ment for the growth of timber trees, each being required 

 to appropriate a portion of their funds to that special ob- 

 ject. The Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden Agricul- 

 tural Society very early took this subject into considera- 

 tion, and have annuallv offered premiums to encourage 

 the growth of the Yellow Locust, having other forest tim- 

 ber in abundance. 



Not knowing, however, where to procure the seed, as 

 secretary of the society, I wrote to various places in New 

 England and the middle States with no success, until the 

 editor of thoN E. Farmer advertised the wishes of this 

 derstanding it with proper qualifications, the more ihichly [society; and from that time to this, there has been plenty 

 planted;-whcre the condition of the ground admitted of i of seed in market, of which I have availed myself, and 

 il, the more corn would be grown upon an acre. Nor | tiansplanted from my nursery to a very poor soil, annual- 

 would lie be understood that the more thickly the corn ly. some ihousands of the locust trees from the seed, and 

 was planted the less likely was the land to siifTer from ; began setting them at the distance of about two rods, but 

 drought. In his opinion it was otherwise ; as (as we un- soon commenced setting them about six feet apart every 

 derstood him,) the more thickly the ground was covered w.iy,.tliat the branches might the sooner shade the soil 

 with vegetation, the greater would be the abstraction of! and cause the grass to grow wherescarcely any vegetable 

 moisture from the earth. ' grew before, .\notlier object for setting the trees so coni- 



Mr Tcschemacher then exhibited a specimen of a most ' pactly was, to partially exclude the light from the body of 



the tree and prevent the insect fiom attacking the tree 

 when protected by shade. 



Upon the same principle, the inhabitants on the bor- 

 ders of the Connecticut, on tide water, where there is 

 considerable shipbuilding, who are paying us, among 

 others, one dollar per cubic fool for locust limber, to pre- 

 vent the cffccta or injury of the borer or worm, are re- 

 moving young locust trees and liansplanting them inlo 

 the midst of other forest trees, for the benefit of its um- 

 brage, and to obtain more sound timber than could be 

 had from the open fields and fence borders. 



Between the years 1824 and 1830, I. had sparsely set 

 over several acres, with all the tops and branches, and 

 found that many trees perished for want of sufficient root 

 to support the tops; and was necessitated annually to re- 

 place thein with other trees: but within the last few 

 years, have sel out roots with only a few inches of stump 

 above the root, and have h.ad vigorous shoots in return; 

 and have now 1764 fine trees, more than three yesrs old, 

 standing compactly on about an acre and a half: although 

 some have been set 14 or 15 years, yet standing so close, 

 have not attained a great size : the largest may be 6 to 8 

 inches di:imcler and 20 feet high or more. 



In illustration of the effects of the rays of light, direct 

 or reflected, I would mention that a few years since two 

 locust trees for shade, were set in frontofthe court house, 

 in Northampton, at the distance of about 17 feet from the 

 east front wall : both of these were subsequently attacked 

 by the insect ; not so much on the sunny side of the trees 

 as the southerly and sides facing the court house ; the 

 brick walls of which are painted of a light straw color. 

 The tree set at the S. E. corner was so much injured by 

 the insect that it came over in about three years after set- 

 ting, both of which were sound and uninjured at the time 

 of setting out. One tree is now standing and about 12 

 years old, 8 inches diameter and about 30 feet high. It 

 was supposed that the reflection of the sun from the walls 

 of the court house, might have been congenial to the hab- 

 itJCPthe insect, and the occasiim of the greatest depreda- 

 tions, occurring not whore the rays of the sun were most 

 direct. 



The condition of these trees confirmed the opinion that 

 an umbrageous location for the locust tree was necessary, 

 to avoid the evil complained of One year, when the 

 perforations of the tree were more numerous than usual, 

 and appeared as if recently made, it was observed that 

 there were many very slender green lively bugs passing 

 in and out of the holes, and when approached, if they 

 could not scamper away, took to the wing, but immedi- 

 ately returned to the tree: some ofthese bugs were near- 

 ly half an inch long: the holes were frequently scraped, 

 p.ared smooth, and some of them grew over. On a more 

 critical examination, small eggs were found deposited in 

 crevices of the~bark. The body of the tree having been 

 thoroughly scraped, no additional injury has occurred 

 since, nor iiave i heard of or seen a similar insect. A 

 few oftliem were put into a vial for preservation, but 

 small ants took possession and became their executioners. 

 Having procured a tract of about twelve acres of the 

 most sterile soil, at a place in Northampton called Rocky 

 Hill, to experiment upon with the locust tree, have taken 

 great pains to eradicate and prevent the depredation of 

 the insect, and am pleased to find iny plantation of locust 

 on the interior secure, and even on the exterior so litUe 

 injured. The trees now growing produce abundance of 

 seed, and there is beneath the trees a plentiful crop of 

 luxuriant grass. Within the last 4 or 5 years, I have set 

 out many hundreds of trees, not counted among the 1764 ; 

 have more than 6000 seedlings of this year's growth, and 

 hope eventually to have eight or leu acres of the most 

 worthless soil covered with the locust tree ; and by esti- 

 mate, taking into consideration what has been done and 

 taken from soils, think I may be encouraged with the 



