

AND HORTICULTURAL REGIS T E R . 



^PUnUSHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Aa,.c...TU,A. Wa,c»o.b,.) 



...XMI.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, OCTODER^ H. J843. 



[NO. 15. 



N. E. FARMER, 



THINGS IN VIRGINIA. 



'■irginia ia a State full of interest to a traveller, 

 ;lher he loves agriculture, mule teams, coal re- 

 ns, horse racing, or neither of them. God, in 

 benevolence, has made it a prolific land, from 

 deep valleys to the highest elevation of the 

 egh.inies. Man is more indolent than sinful in 

 Old Dominion. He knows nothing of the far- 

 r's ceaseless toil at the North ; hence many 

 is of the soil sleep away life in a log-hut, in the 

 utiful valley of the Shenandoah, whilst his cat- 

 horses, hogs and wheat, are increasing in fat- 

 a for an autumnal troop of purchasers, 

 rhe ambition of a genuine Virginia planter in 

 grain-growing regions, is more land, although 



fact 13 acknowledged by men of good judg- 

 nt that they have too much already. " A little 

 m'well tilled, and a little barn well filled," 

 uld be productive of quite as much thrift there, 

 in the variable climate and hard-coaxed soil of 

 • w England. 



Eastern Virginia, like a fast driven horse, is 

 nting for breath : it has been taxed to its utmost 

 pacity, since the settlement on James River, 

 ■cause'ithas been poorly managed, (he land is 

 eap. Very excellent tracts, called old fitldi, 

 ght be purchased for less than half their real 

 lue. A very small amount of labar, assisted by 

 udern discoveries in the science of agriculuire, 

 5uld convert many poverty-stricken places into 

 •lighlful abodes of plenty. Instead of going 

 rough fire and water to get a little terra firma in 

 e benighted, half-explored territories of the west, 

 t expending one-third of the money it costs to 

 ach (he boundaries of civilization, a grand farm 

 ight be obtained in Virginia, near the great ave- 

 jes, railroads, &c., which, in ten years, under the 

 gilant superintendence of a Massachusetts far- 

 ler, would make him rich. 



The old slock of Virginians are an unchanging 

 eople ; they seem not to have deviated in the 

 lightest measure from the customs of their ances- 

 ars.' Fences are still made high enough to keep 

 ut mastadons, and teamsters still ride the near 

 orse, although harnessed to a great mammoth 

 ragon that reminds one of the ponderous car of 

 uggernaut. Nothing so provokes a Yankee as 

 he odd way of doing things on a Virginia farm, 

 lorses are enveloped in harness that almost con- 

 leals their backs as they tug under its weight. 

 ?nt all the ridicule in Christendom will never alter 

 he condition of the unlucky right wheel horse, 

 loomed to carry the driver over hill and dale to the 

 ind of life. 



Virginia is the only State in the Union where 

 ■ural architecture has been reduced to a system, 

 ind pertinaciously adhered to throughout its whole 

 length and breadth. Log-houses are universal, 

 even where saw. mills are within hailing distance. 

 Mud and clay is used for filling the interstices, 

 and in consequence of fresh air and daylight, the 

 cultivators are a noble race in physical organiza- 



tion—enjoying uncommon health from the cradle 

 to the grave. In character, they are hospitable, 

 eenerous, untiringly kind, and the best of masters. 

 Even the great and lofty ridges of the Allegha- 

 nics, are cultivated in patches, yielding wheat in 

 abundance, and afiording pasturage for immense 

 herdsofcattle, and rich pickings for hogs, which 

 no man could number. The wild, unsubdued for- 

 est glens and the peaks of mountains, alike con- 

 tribute towards the support of a prodigious multi- 

 tude of semi-domesticated animals. They rove 

 throu'^h the summer ad libitum, but are brought in 

 on the approach of winter, to be brushed up for 

 market. It is a fault, also, in the character of the 

 Western Virginia farmers, that they are continu- 

 ually hankering for more land. Farms vary in 

 size from four hundred to two thousand and even 

 five thousand acres. Cornfields of an hundred 

 acres are by no means uncommon in the valley of 

 the Kanhawa river. One individual in the writer s 

 mind, owns twelve miles of pasturage, in knf;th. 



Every thing in Virginia is conducted after the 

 fashion of a by-gone age— with the farmers. Me- 

 chanics ore scarce out of the large towns. Black- 

 smith's are seen at the bellows-pole here and there, 

 but they are almost invariably negroes. All the 

 necessaries of life are cheap, even in times of scar- 

 city, compared with northern prices. The riches 

 of the country are continually gushing out at every 

 pore on the western side ; yet there is a certain 

 indffnabU something wanting to give a cheerful 

 aspect to one of the first sections of country in the 

 world. — Bost. Trans. 



BORERS NOT KILLED. 

 .Mr Editor— Ben]. Hobart, Esq., of Abington, 

 has an orchard, about twenty years old, which he 

 has spared no paina to cultivate and improve; but 

 he finds that the borer has laid siege to it; and 

 now it is his determined purpose to get rid of this 

 most destructive insect in the surest way. He has 

 followed your directions, as he thinks, Mr Editor, 

 and given his trees a thorough washing with very 

 strong potash water, having them previously scrap- 

 ed &c. The washing was done about the middle 

 of July last. On the 13th of September, instant, 

 being at his home on a visit, 1 went out with him 

 to examine hie trees, and we found, that the wash- 

 in" had not been effectual, however plentifully it 

 mfght have been put on. The little depredator 

 was there, and had commenced operations. More 

 or less of these mischievous trespassers we drew 

 out from their hiding places in almost every tree 

 which we examined. We found the young borer, 

 generally, advanced but a little ways beyond the 

 bark, and from a quarter to half an inch in length ; 

 but now and then we encountered an old settler, 

 to dislodge which required something more than a 

 sharp-pointed knife. A slim, iron probe, (being 

 the trimming cut from a tack-plate,) answered a 

 much better purpose than a wire, to search out and 

 destroy this old rogue. This instrument is very 

 tough, and bo bendable, that there was no difficul- 

 ty in following the track to the necessary length. 



It is certainly to be preferred to a wire probe, and 

 cartloads may be had at the tacic factories for a 

 mere trifle. 



Now, sir, here is one case in which the washing 

 recommended did not answer thu purpose. Per- 

 haps you will say that it was done too late in the 

 season. It may be so ; hut Mr H. thinks, as to 

 this point, that ho has followed the directions laid 

 down in the agricultural papers. He seems to 

 have lost all confidence in the effect from washing, 

 and thinks that the knife and probe only will an- 

 swer the purpose ; though it may be said that a 

 single cnsa proves nothing. This case is reported 

 for general benefit. If it stands alone, and all 

 other similar trials have been successful, then, per- 

 haps, some cause may be assigned for its failure. 

 As your business leads you to an investigation of 

 these subjects, you may have no difficulty about it, 

 but be ready to give your readers the why, the 

 wherefore, and the requisite satisfaction. 



Yours, &c. B. BROWN. 



E. Bridgewater, Sept. 18, 1843. 

 iJ5=If "strong lye" will not kill the young mag- 

 "ots, we are wrong in our recommendation of the 

 article. Many farmers fear to apply such lye to 

 the bark for fear of killing tlieir trees! Will it 

 not kill young maggots just hatched? We know- 

 it will if it comes in contact with them ; we have 

 abundant evidence that strong lye will clear a nur- 

 sery of these borers : we will name one. The 

 Messrs. Winship, who have a celebrated nursery 

 at Brighton, were much troubled, some years ago, 

 with borers in their trees, but since they have 

 practiced washing with lye, they have not the least 

 trouble with them. 



The fly usually lays her eggs about the first of 

 July, and they hatch in about eight days— some, 

 however, begin earlier and some hatch later. 

 Whether Mr Hobart's wash ever touched a worm, 

 we have no cvidenge. It would not cost a great 

 deal of time or money to dip one of the little worms 

 into a spoonful of lye and see how long he would 

 live in it. How easy to try this rather than to 

 presume that a wash which will kill every thing 

 else, will not destroy a borer. Let us have some 

 evidence that the wash came in contact with the 

 worms, before we condemn it. 



We suspect that some boy was sent to wash 

 Mr Hobart's trees, and that he did not perform the 

 work faithfully. Else why does he not say that 

 he saw the eggs or the maggots on the tree when 

 the wash was used, and that it would not kill them ? 

 It seems odd that such numbers are now found 

 just under the bark, and yet that not a worm waa 

 seen in July ! 



Leached ashes, placed about a tree, will destroy 

 the young borers, and these arc surely not so 

 strong as lye that will bear an egg. The Hon. 

 Will. Jackson, of Newton, has now no trouble with 

 borers, though his trees were once full of them. 

 He dug out the old settlers many years ago. and 

 he now hauls away the sprouts and rubbish around 

 his trees and applies leached ashes, and he finds 

 them effectual. — Mass. Ploughman. 



