1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



873 



are found on a luxuriant sprout or sucker of a 

 mature tree ; which sprout or sucker we are 

 very wilUng to see checked, but are rarely on 

 the mature and bearing branches. 



Even where they are unwelcome, they are 

 sometimes of some service in checking a too 

 rapid growth late in the season, and in causing 

 the young twigs to harden before the approach 

 of winter. 



Fumigation with tobacco is a common and 

 effectual method of removing lice from house- 

 Dlants ; and a decoction of tobacco or solution 

 of whale oil soap is frequently used in nurse- 

 ries and fruit yards. Strong soap-suds, made 

 from common soft soap is death to lice. The 

 only' difficulty in regard to these last reme- 

 dies is in the application. If a syringe or 

 garden engine is used, too much of the 

 liquid will be wasted. When the twigs and small 

 branches can be safely bent over and dipped 

 in a dish of the louse-killing liquid, the work is 

 effectually and cheaply accomplished. When 

 this method cannot be used with safety, a sat- 

 urated sponge or soft rag carefully applied, 

 so as not to break the foliage, will do good ser- 

 vice. 



Some eight or nine years ago, the quince- 

 trees in this vicinity, previously healthy and 

 fruitful, were attacked with a blight, causing 

 the foliage to appear, at first, somewhat hoary, 

 or as if mouldy. This appearance was soon 

 succeeded by the brown and sere leaf, and 

 eventually, Ijy the death of the shrub, — so 

 that quince bushes only exist now with us, his- 

 torically. Some hasty and partial examinations 

 of this blight disclosed numerous but minute 

 plant-lice : — a discovery which at the time, led 

 me to the conclusion that they were the sole 

 cause of the blight. But having since heard 

 other causes of the destruction of the shrub 

 assigned by intelligent cultivators, I have 

 doubted the correctness of my first conclu- 

 sions, and regret that a more thorough exam- 

 ination was not then made. 



The Aphis Brassicce, cabbage-louse, found 

 also on mustard, turnips, and other plants of 

 this order, is of a greenish color, partially cov- 

 ered, as is the plant which it infests, with an 

 excretion in the form of a whitish powder. 

 These lice are sometimes quite troublesome to 

 the market gardener. I am informed by one 

 of my neighbors, Mr. Whittemore, who has 

 been an extensive and successful cultivator of 

 cabbages, that these lice begin to appear about 

 the time of the first setting out of the plants 

 from the hot-bed, and continue till the latest 

 harvest, in early winter ; that he has never no- 

 ticed a winged-insect, though he has never 

 scrutinized the infested plants with a view to 

 such discovery ; and that they are accompa- 

 nied by the same ant that visits the apple-tree 

 lice ; — from which we conclude that they are in 

 the sugar manufacturing business. 



His remedies were ashes, lime, and plaster 

 in powder, applied separately or mixed, by 

 dashing the same on to the infested parts, by 



hand. Several applications were necessary in 

 some seasons to suppress the vermin. 



I. B. Hartwell. 



Wilkinsonville, Mass., 1867. 



EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. 



THE SEASOX IX WIXCSOR COUNTY, VT. 



We have had the same subject to talk about here 

 that they have in other places, viz. ; "A cold, back- 

 ward spring." Tlic supplies of hay and grain for 

 feeding stock was sliort, while the grass was still 

 shorter ; so that a good many farmers were plagued 

 to keep their stock along decently till the gi'ass 

 grew. But the crisis is past; the pleasant sum- 

 mer is at hand, laden with blessings, and the far- 

 mers have abundant reason for anticipating good 

 crops for the coming harvest. The hay crop in 

 particular bids fair to be far better than that of 

 last year. 



Blight Summer has come with her heauties again, 

 Her warm breath Is noticed on mountain and plain ; 

 With sweet scented blossoms she's crowning the bowers 

 And nursing them kindly with sunshine and showers. 



She's welcomed by all, both the young and the old, 

 She brings for them jewels far brighter than gold; 

 Whether low ly or humble, wealthy or poor, 

 With a smile of afiection she enters their door. 

 Royalton, Vt., June 1, 1867. J. Gr. Bennett. 



SPAVIN OF A TEARS STANDING. 



Please inform me through the columns of the 

 Farmer, if a horse which has a bone spavin of 

 about a year's standing can be cured, and what 

 remedy you would apply, and oblige 



An Old Subscriber. 



Rijegate, Vt., May, 1867. 



Remarks. — Wo have so often "delivered our- 

 selves" on this subject, that wc are glad to repro- 

 duce the following remarks by Dr. Paaren, Vetei*- 

 inary Editor of the Prairie Farmer, who says, "the 

 application every second day, of a liniment, com- 

 posed of two parts of olive oil, and one part each 

 of creosote and oil of tni-pentine, will to some ex- 

 tent relieve pain, if not lameness. Blistering and 

 firing are frequently employed, but with no better 

 success than milder remedies, and at all events 

 the cure only goes so far as to prevent the horse 

 from going lame ; but in this case even, we only 

 call the failing mended, for it certainly is not cured, 

 though the lameness may be so. We say 'mended 

 only,' because the cure is somewhat similar in 

 effect to the mending a broken or splintered lance- 

 wood gig-shaft by splicing to it a stiff piece of 

 wood or iron. The shaft is certainly mended, ren- 

 dered safe, useable, and as strong as ever, but its 

 elasticity, on which depends its chief merit, is for- 

 ever gone ; and this, in a minor degree, is the 

 effect th.at mending a spavin hock has on its mo- 

 tion ; though if spavin is taken in hand as soon as it 

 is perceived, and before stiffness of the hock takes 

 place, the horse may then be nearly or quite as 

 well as he ever was. But the severest of operations 

 will not restore elasticity if it has once been de- 

 stroyed. 'Bone Spavin' is a term applied to a tumor 

 on the inside of the hock joint, proceeding from 

 an ossiflc or bonj^ deposit, which forms a junction of 

 the small bones of the joint ; of course preventing 



