188 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



I 1 iJ 



States. Their principal food is the leaves of 

 plants, and consequently their injuries to vegeta- 

 tion are immense. 



If their nests are attacked early in the morn- 

 ing, — or at any time when most of them are in 

 the nest, — and ^hey are young and the nest is not 

 very firmly attached to the tree, it is not a dis- 

 couraging labor to pass over an orchard of two or 

 three acres. But if left until they are strong and 

 the nest is well woven and tough, the labor will 

 be one requiring much time and patience. 



There are various ways of destroying them. A 

 good mode is to take one of the spiral brushes 

 made for the purpose, fix it to a light pole ten or 

 twelve feet in length, dip the brush into a bucket 

 of strong soap suds and twist it about in the nest. 

 This will detach it from the tree, and wherever 

 the suds fairly wets one of the caterpillars it will 

 die. This is the cheapest, easiest and best way 

 of destroying them, in our knowledge. 



Some persons blow them off with gunpowder, 

 others burn them, — but these modes are objection- 

 able, as they more or less injure the tree. We 

 hope that a general attack will be made upon the 

 whole race, and that we may see cleaner fruit trees 

 throughout the coming summer. 



SHKEP HUSBANDEY. 

 .Upon another page, we have commenced a se- 

 ries of articles on Blieep Husbandry, which will 

 be worth the attention of all persons engaged in 

 the culture of sheep, and which will, perhaps, be 

 equally as important to the purchaser and manu- 

 facturer of wool. They have been prepared 'by a 

 gentleman of large and critical observation, who 

 has been familiar for many years with the prices 

 and qualities of wools, and the kinds best adapt- 

 ed to the wants of woollen manufacturers in this 

 country. Some portions of them were formerly 

 published in the Southbridge Journal, but they 

 have been re-written by the author and enlarged 

 at our request, expressly for the columns of. the 

 Farmer. We shall present them from week to 

 week until the series is completed. 



In the meantime, if any of our readers desire 

 more full information on any special point under 

 discussion, we have no doubt that our obliging 

 correspondent will give it as far as it lies in his 

 power, as his object is to assist in promoting this 

 important branch of our national industry. It 

 will be observed that, in the course of the series, 

 the writer has touched upon nearly every conceiv- 

 able point relating to breeds and breeding, to the 

 modes of tending and feeding, to climatic influ- 

 ences, to the effect of food upon the quality of 

 the wool, change of pasturage, prices of wool and 

 mutton, comparisons of profit in raising wool and 

 corn, differences in the cost of transportation, &c, 



&c. Indeed, he seems to have a most intimate 

 and accurate knowledge of the whoje subject, m 

 its various bearings of producing the staple, the 

 prices which it has borne for many years, and the 

 qualities demanded in our varied manufactures. 



None interested in this important branch of in- 

 dustry can fail to be gratified with the lucid and 

 valuable facts which he will from time to time 

 present. 



For the New England Fa rrner. 



THE APPLICATION OP IDEAS TO PKAC- 

 . TICAL USE. 



Emerson says, "Some men are better than they 

 know." On the other hand, there are many who 

 know better than they are. The difference be- 

 tween the man who adds to the uses and embel- 

 lishments of life, and the man who leaves the world 

 as he found it, does not consist in knowledge, but 

 in the reproduction of knowledge — in appropriat- 

 ing, testing and applying the ideas and waifs of 

 ideas, which pass from one mind to another. 

 Have those who ridiculed what they are pleased 

 to call "Book Farming," ever tested in good faith, 

 the ideas and suggestions which they read with 

 so much contempt, because they do not come to 

 them from some practical men ? Have they ever 

 seriously inquired what practical use may be made 

 a principle or a fact stated in a book ? For the 

 sake of the moral lesson, as well as the practical 

 benefit to be derived from it, I have taken the 

 pains to copy for the readers of the Farmer, the 

 following story contained in the essays of Sir E. 

 Bulwer Lytton. 



A certain nobleman, very proud of the extent 

 and beauty of his pleasure grounds, chancing 

 one day to call on a small squire, whose garden 

 might cover about half an acre, was greatly struck 

 with the brilliant colors of his neighbor's flowers. 

 "Aye, my lord, the flowers are well enough," said 

 the squire, "but permit me to show you my 

 grapes." Conducted into a little, old-fashioned 

 greenhouse, which served as a vinery, my lord 

 gazed with mortification and envy on grapes twice 

 as fine as his own. "My dear friend, you have 

 a jewel of a gardener ; let me see him." The 

 gardener was called — the single gardener, a sim- 

 ple looking young man under thirty : "Accept 

 my compliments on your flower beds and your 

 grapes," said my lord, "and tell me if you can why 

 your flowers are so much brighter, and your grapes 

 so much finer than mine ?" "Please, your lord- 

 ship," said the man, "I have not had the advan- 

 tage of much education ; I ben't n» scholar, but 

 as to the flowers and the vines, the secret as to 

 treating them just came to me, you see, by chance." 



"By chance ? explain," said the peer. 



"Well, my lord, three years ago master sent me 

 to Lunnon on business of his'n, and it came on to 

 rain and I took shelter in a mews, you see." 



"Yes, you took shelter in a mews, what then ?" 



"And "there were two gentlemen taking shelter, 

 too; and they were talking to each other about 

 charcoal." 



"About charcoal ? Go on." 



"And one said that it had done a deal of good 

 in many cases of sickness, and specially in the first 

 stage of the cholera, and I took note on my mind 

 of that, because we'd had the cholera in our vil- 



