OL. XXII. iro. 3. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER, 



21 



From the Mass. Ploughman. 



THK BLIGHT BEETLE. 

 Dtar Sir — The insects contained in tlio branch 

 the apple-treo whicli you submitted to my oxatn- 

 tion, are the same as those which produce the 

 Iden withering of the leaves and the death of 

 limbs of the pear tree, an affection commonly 

 led fire blight. The discovery of the blight 

 itic in the limbs of the apple-tree, is a new fact 

 natural history, but it is easily accounted fur, 

 ause this tree belongs not only to the same nat- 



1 group, but also to the same genus as the pear 



2 ; it is not, therefore, surprising that bolli llie 

 ir and the apple tree should, occasionally, be at- 

 ked by the same insects. 



riie piece of the apple tree branch, now before 

 , measures twentyeight inches in length, and is 

 ;e-quarter3 of an inch in diameter at the lower 

 Its surface bore the marks of twenty buds, 

 teen of which were perforated by the insects 

 ve named ; and from the burrows I took twelve 

 he blight beetles in a living state, the thirteenth 

 ing been previously cut out. This goes far to- 

 •ds confirming my remarks on these insects, 

 ilished in the fifth volume of the " New England 

 mer," page 171, where you will find the follow, 

 statement: "A whole limb may swarm with 

 m ; every bud may conceal the place of their 

 rations, without exciting a suspicion of their 

 scnce." For their history, I might have re- 

 ed you to the various published communications 

 kir Lowell and Professor Peck, who have de- 

 bed the agency of these insects in producing 

 disease in pear trees, or to my own remarks on 

 same subject, in the " New England Farmer," 

 in the "Treatise on Insects injurious to Vege- 

 on" — a book which has been more praised than 

 i ; but experience has taught me that line upon 

 I and precept upon precept are needed to keep 

 attention of the public directed to the depreda- 

 s of insects. Allow me, therefore, to extract 

 you the following passages from the last named 

 k: 



The grub or larva of the insect, eats its way 

 ard through the alburnum or sap-wood, into the 

 Jest part of the wood, beginning at the root of 

 id, behind which probably the egg was deposi 

 following the course of the eye of the bud to 

 ds the pith, around which it passes, and part of 

 ch it also consumes ; thus forming, after pene- 

 ing through the alburnum, a circular burrow or 

 3age in the heart-wood, contiguous to the ))ith 

 ch it surrounds. By this means the central 

 sels, or those which convey the ascending sap, 

 divided, and the circulation is cut off. This 

 ■s place when the increasing heat of the atmos- 

 re, producing a greater transpiration of the 

 'cs, renders a large and continued flow of sap 

 essary to supply the evaporation. For the 

 It of this, or for some other unexplained cause, 

 whole of the limb above the seat of the insect's 

 rations, suddenly withers, and perishes during 

 intense heat of midsummer. The Inrva is 

 ngcd to pupa, and subsequently to a little beetle, 

 he bottom of its burrow, makes its escape from 

 tree in the latter part of June or the beginning 

 uly, and probably deposits its eggs before Au- 

 t has passed. This little beetle is only one- 

 h of an inch in length ; it is of a deep brown 

 ir, with the antennae and legs rather paler, or 

 he color of iron rust. The thorax is short, very 

 iex, rounded and rough before ; the wing-cov- 



MEADOVV LANDS. 



Mowing. — It is an old and oft-repeated adage, 

 which has long passed current among our farmers, 

 that in cutting grass, " an inch at bottom is worth 

 two at the top;" and they practice accordingly, 

 and mow their meadows as close to the ground as 

 possible. Now so far as clover and herds-grass 

 are concerned, we deny the truth of the adage en- 

 tirely ; for near to the ground the stalks of these 

 grasses are coarse and dry, and the leaves decayed, 

 and they are consctiueutly divested of nearly all 

 their nutritive quality ; it is therefore adding noth- 

 ing to the value of the hay to to cut so close, and 

 it often does the meadows great injury. If dry 

 weather follows immediately after close mowing, 

 the stubs of grass left so short, and even the tops 

 of the roots get so scorched under the hot sun, that 

 vegetation will not start again during summer, and 

 the ground is left quite bare during the following 

 winter, which is injurious to the meadow, and an 

 early start of the grass the following spring. In 

 cutting herds-grass and clover, we would therefore 

 be cautious about mowing too close. Red-top and 

 some of the natural grasses, especially those in 

 water meadows, may be cut nearer the ground. 



Ji/ier Management. — No sooner is the hay taken 

 off the meadows, than many are in the habit of 

 turning their cattle on to them for pasturage, which 

 we conceive to be nearly as injurious as dose 

 mowing; for any grass which may have escaped 

 the scythe, is sure to be gnawed down by a hungry 

 herd of animals. Our practice has been, as soon 

 after mowing as possible, to give the meadows a 

 slight top-dressing of con)p08t, and a small quanti- 

 ty of plaster of Paris, or leached asho.s, and to shut 

 off all stock till the 



ers arc minutely punctured in rows, and slope off 

 very suddenly and obliquely behind ; the shanks 

 arc widened and iluttened towards the end, beset 

 witli a few little teeth externally, and end with 

 a short hook ; and the joints of the feet are slender 

 and entire. 



"The minuteness of the insect, the difficulty at- 

 tending the discovery of the precise seat of its 

 operations before it has left the tree, and the small 

 size of the aperture through which it makes its es- 

 cape from the Imib, are probably the reasons why 

 it has eluded the researches of those persons who 

 disbelieve in its existence as the cause of the blast- 

 ing of the limbs of the pear-tree. It is to be 

 sought for at or near the lowest part of the dis- 

 eased limbs, and in the immediate vicinity of the 

 buds situated about that part. 



" The remedy suggested by Mr Lowell and 

 Professor Peck, to prevent other limbs and trees 

 from being subsequently attacked in the same 

 way, consists in cutting off the blasted limb betotv 

 tlie seat of injury, and burning it before the per- 

 fect insect has made its escape. It will therefore 

 be necessary carefully to examine our pear trees 

 daily during the month of June, and watch for the 

 first indication of disease, or the remedy may be 

 applied too late to prevent the dispersion of the in- 

 sects among other trees." 



We are now to look for the disease and its 

 cause, in the apple as well as in the pear tree, and 

 should not delay to cut off and burn the infected 

 limbs, as soon as the leaves begin to wither. 

 Yours, respectfully, 



T. W. HARRIS. 



Cambridge, June I, 1843. 



then turn into pasture, taking care to keep the cat- 

 tle out during wet or frosty weather, so that they 

 miglit not endanger poaching the land. In this 

 way, on lands of only n moderate degree of fertili- 

 ty, we have been able to cut an average product of 

 one and a half ton of hay annually per acre, 

 besides getting a considerable amount of pasture 

 from them ; and at the same tiiiie, we think that 

 we have rather increased the fertility of the mead- 

 ows than otherwise, and improved the herbage. 

 We are careful to beat tlie manure fine early in the 

 spring, which has been dropped by the cattle pas- 

 turing on the meadows the preceding fall. 



Titne of Cutting Hay and Grain We think 



our farmers err frequently by cutting their grass 

 loo early, and their grain too lale. If the former 

 be cut too early, the saccharine matter is not fully 

 matured, and it is consequently not so nutritious. 

 We usually allow the grass to be just going out 

 of flower at the time of cutting. 



When the straw of grain begins to turn yellow, 

 and the berry is full but not hard, is the best time 

 for cutting. Scarcely any loss will then take 

 place from shelling, and the straw is much more 

 valuable for fodder. — ^mtr. Jtgricult. 



THE CULTIVATOR vs. PLOW. 



Some of my agricultural brethren, I perceive, 

 are recommending the plow in preference to the 

 cultivator, as an assistant in weeding and hoeing 

 corn. This may be well enough for theorists, but 

 no one, I feel confident, who has for years been 

 practically familiar with the operations of the two 

 instruments, and who has studied the laws of na- 

 ture and the physiology of plants, as connected 

 with the subject under consideration, will thus con- 

 tend. In the first place it is asserted that the cul- 

 tivator " buries no weeds," and that it does not go 

 deep enough. No one who has managed a culti- 

 vator on old lands, can be ignorant of the fact, 

 that unless the soil be remarkably stony, the culti- 

 vator will bury ten weeds where a common horse- 

 plow will bury one. It will also stir the ground to 

 as great a depth, and instead of loosening only a 

 strip of a foot in width, it will thoroughly lighten 

 the entire soil from row to row. I have used both 

 instruments on the same piece, in the same season. 

 Again it is said by those who prefer the plow, that 

 the objection to it that it breaks and scarifies the 

 roots of the corn, is of no consequence whatever, 

 as they are speedily reproduced, and after the ra- 

 tio of ten to one ; and that plowing within an inch 

 of the corn is advisable. When any one will de- 

 monstrate, logically, that a horse-plow, running up- 

 on an average, probably, to the depth of five inches, 

 may be run within one inch of a corn-hill without 

 great and irreparable injury to the tender plants, 

 then shall I be prepared to believe that trees may 

 be grown as rapidly and successfully without a 

 system of roots as they can with, and not till then. 



To every one who has the two instruments, I 

 say, unhesitatingly, make use of your cultivator in 

 preference to the plow. No matter how much you 

 stir the surface of your corn-fields, but beware of 

 plowing off the roots. Let the surface also be 

 kept as level as possible : all hilling up, though 

 long sanctioned as one of the time-honored and 

 venerated usages of our sires, is unquestionably an 

 injury to the crop. — Maine Cult. M. 



Vines and pods of beans are much relished by 

 grass has got well up, and | sheep in winter. Save them. 



