1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



165 



early settlers, I observed many very small bugs 

 slowly crawling upon the inner sides of the bar- 

 rel. They were of a dark chestnut color, and 

 about an eighth of an inch in length. The thought 

 occurred tc me that perhaps these were the little 

 grubs in their perfect form ; but if so, where and 

 when did they go into the pupa state, and how 

 long did they remain in it ? Several of the ap- 

 ples in which the gi-ubs had been at work were 

 examined and no worms could be found. 



There is no mention made of this insect in 

 Cole's American Fruit Book, nor in any work on 

 Entomology which I have at hand, so I have ven- 

 tured to inquire, through the columns of the Far- 

 mer, for information of any kind concerning this 

 little marauder, the destructive habits of which 

 thi'eaten, at least in this region, to be a formida- 

 ble barrier to the most important branch of fruit- 

 raising. 



In reading the report of the third meeting of 

 the present series of the Legislative Agricultural 

 Society, I saw that the question was asked, "What 

 should be done to prevent so many of our apples 

 becoming so wormy ;" and the statement made, 

 "that nearly three-fourths of the crop in Worces- 

 ter county had been spoiled the past season by 

 this trouble," but no description was given of the 

 worm, or any of its habits. It would be interest- 

 ing to. know if it is identical with the insect I have 

 partially described. S. L. White. 



Groton, Feb. 7, 1860. 



For the New England Farmer. 



CULTtmE OF PnSTE TREES. 



Dear Sir : — In accordance with my promise 

 made to you, I will now give you some account of 

 the "Culture of Pines" on our Island. I think it 

 was in the spring of 1840 that Mr. JosiAH Stur- 

 GIS, (now of California,) planted a lot of five acres, 

 after taking off a crop of corn the year previous, 

 with the seed of the common hard pine of Cape 

 Cod. The seeds Avere put in with a common seed 

 planter, in rows about six feet apart, and came up 

 in the rows from one to four feet apart. Two 

 years afterwards he planted five acres more adjoin- 

 ing, sowing broadcast, and harrowing in a mix- 

 ture of the hard pine seed with that of the "Pimis 

 MonH))w," of France, both of Avhich came up 

 well and grew finely. In 1851, Mr. Sturgis called 

 on me to look at thetn, and also proposed to me 

 to buy several hundred acres of land in company 

 with him, and plant it. I found his trees looking 

 healthy and vigorous ; some of those of the first 

 planting were five feet high, and about five inches 

 thick near the ground. We purchased about four 

 hundred acres of light sandy land, for about two 

 dollars per acre, and expended about one thous- 

 and dollars in procuring seed from Barnstable 

 county, and in the spring of 1852, planted the 

 whole tract, using a planter with a sharp cutter to 

 cut the sward, and a common cast iron broad har- 

 row or cultivator tooth following, and the seed 

 dropped behind. This method planted the seed 

 too deeply, but enough came up, had they not 

 been killed by a severe drought, and by the 

 ground moles which ran along the rows, leaving a 

 hollow space beneath the young trees. The fol- 

 lowing year we put in three spike harrow teeth, 

 wliich ' --♦■ '•"arihod the surface;, and the trees 



came up abundantly, and neither drought nor 

 moles disturbed them, and now the largest of 

 them are six feet high, and tlu-ce to four inches 

 thick near the ground. This last method of plant- 

 ing is not the best. I think the better way is to 

 plow the ground and cultivate it one year, and 

 then plant it with a common seed planter. Un- 

 til 1852, the common and French pines had 

 grown alike, but in this year, the French grew 

 about twice as much as the others, and in some 

 instances the centre spike grew tkree and a half 

 feet in length and near an inch thick. 



I now gave my whole attention to the Piniis 

 Montimo, and imported over fifty bushels of seeds, 

 and several hundred aci'es have been planted 

 with them. In the fall of 1855, many of the first 

 trees of the French kind, which were planted by 

 Mr. Sturgis, were fifteen feet high, and six inches 

 at the trunk, but the following winter when the 

 thermometer stood for several days at or near 12° 

 below zero, many of the finest trees were killed. 

 Those of mine which were only a few inches high, 

 and covered with snow, survived, and arc now do- 

 ing well. ^ 



The last tract which I planted was planted in 

 summer, sowed to rye in the fall, and planted 

 with the seed planter in the following spring with 

 the Piniis Montimo seeds, and the trees are now 

 growing well. The cost of the land was about two 

 dollars per acre, the plowing three dollars, the 

 seed rye one dollar, the pine seed two dollars, the 

 planting one dollar, making nine dollars, and it 

 produced twelve bushels of rye, which sold at one 

 dollar per bushel ; the straw was worth more than 

 the cost of harvesting, thus making a profit, after 

 allowing another dollar per acre for harrowing, 

 of two dollars per acre, and the land all planted to 

 pines, beside. 



Many persons think oiu- waste, barren lands can 

 be used more profitably by stocking them with 

 sheep, than in any other way, but let us make 

 some figures and see what they will say, for they 

 always tell the truth when properly used. An acre 

 of land will cost about two dollars, and it will 

 take about two acres of it to feed one sheep dur- 

 ing the summer. It will cost about one and one- 

 half dollars per acre to stock it with sheep, and 

 about the same to plant it with pines, supposing 

 the crop of rye only pays for its own cost. There 

 is no doubt but the land will, in thirty years, pro- 

 duce twenty cords of wood per acre, which is now 

 worth here, six dollars per cord, and deducting for 

 cutting and carting two dollars per cord, will leave 

 four dollars, which is equal to eighty dollars, for 

 the thirty years, or two dollars and sixty-six and 

 one-half cents per acre per annum, or three dol- 

 lars grown to eighty-three in thirty years. If any 

 sheep husbandman can make up the other side of 

 the account to match this, I shall be pleased to 

 hear from him. E. W. Gardner. 



Nantucket, Feb., 18G0. 



Soaking Seed Wheat. — Mr. Walter R. Neal, 

 of Maysville, Ky., writes to the Rural American, 

 that in the fall of 1858 he prepared 20 acres of 

 land for wheat, and at the same time his brother, 

 whose farm adjoined his, prepared ten acres. The 

 land, seed and mode of preparation, and time of 

 sowing, were the same. The only difference waa. 



