1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FAK:MER. 



383 



EXTKACTS A2!«T) KEPLIES. 



THE SEASON IX WESTERN MASSACHL'SETTS. 



The wet, lowry weather of late has been favor- ^ 

 We for grass, and the prospects for a fair crop of; 

 hay are more flittering. Corn has come up well, ! 

 but its growth and perfection will depend very 

 much on the wearher during the summer months. 

 Not the usual quantity planted in this section. 

 Broom corn looks finely for this season of the 

 year. Onions have come forward rapidly, but the 

 maggots are destroying them to some extent. 

 Strawberries are being gathered for market. Ap- 

 ple trees are fruiting well and making a vigorous 

 growth. Shall we mulch them ? Early peas will 

 soon be ready to pick. Can they be packed for 

 market in anything better than barrels ? Rasp- 

 berries are loo-king firstrate, and with favorable 

 weather will ripen "about the first of July. Shall 

 we send them to market in boxes or bankets ? Far- 

 mers here are amusiEg themselves by hoeing corn 

 and weeding onions — being tirm believers in thor- 

 ough culture. "W. 



Sunderland, Mass., June 13, 1870. 



Remabks.— Mr. Pierce of Arlington, Mass., who 

 has raised good crops of apples yearly dur- 

 ing all the many past poor fruit seasons, ascribes 

 great virtue to mulch. On another page of this 

 number you will find an article on the subject by 

 an experienced fruit cultivator. 



Most of the small fruit raised in the vicinity of 

 Boston comes to market in boxes ; that from the 

 south in baskets. We think the baskets are grad- 

 ually taking the place of boxes. 



the CrRRANT VTORM. 



The currant worm attacked my bushes last fall 

 and damaged them badly, and this spring they 

 began early. I met them with a determination to 

 conquer and have finished the war. Of the vari- 

 ous remedies I used it is useless to speak, but they 

 were many. At last I tried the poke and that 

 finished them. I had about thirty rods of bushes, 

 and I boiled a bushel of the roots and applied it 

 with a force pump, and I found it to be a specific, 

 though more than one application may be re- 

 quired, and now the foliage begins to look healthy. 

 It it is not too lare you can give the remedy and 

 warrant a cure to all that will apply it faiihtully. 

 E. W. Ormsbee. 



Montpelier, Vt., June 14, 1870. 



Remarks.— We regard this as a very valuable 

 communication. White Hellebore, Carbolic acid 

 preparations, &c., which have been used and re- 

 commended by "book farmers" and chemical 

 men are somewhat costly, some of them rather 

 dangerous poisons, and on many farms cannot al- 

 ways be immediately obtained. Poke roots are a 

 home-grown material and can be had at any time 

 on most farms for the digging. And if a decoc- 

 tion of them proves destructive to these insects, 

 the public will thank Mr. Ormsbee for his perse- 

 verance in the experiments which resulted in his 

 discovery. 



Mr. Ormsbee says his bushes were injured last 

 fall. This is an important fact, as the currant 

 worm appears in the spring, and then again later 

 in the season. We wish he had stated at what 

 time they commenced their fall operations. Mr. 

 Riley, editor of the American Entomologist, pub- 



lished in St. Louis, Mo., says in that section the 

 second brood bursts from the cocoons of the first 

 brood about the last week in June or the first part 

 of July, or occasionally not until the beginning of 

 August. Probably they appear later further 

 north. A correspondent of the same paper, living 

 in Canada, says that after a brief absence he vis- 

 ited his garden on the 19th of August, and found 

 the worms were again stripping his bushes. This 

 second brood must therefore he fought as well as 

 the first. 



The E7itomologist says the first brood appears 

 in the spring. The fly deposits its eggs along the 

 principal veins on the underside of the leaf. From 

 these eggs worms with eighteen, twenty or twenty- 

 two legs soon hatch, with black heads and many 

 black dots on their bodies, but after moulting for 

 the last time they are entirely of a grass green or 

 yellow color, except large eye-spots on each side 

 of the head. After attaining their full growth of 

 full three-quarters of an inch, they burrow in the 

 ground or elsewhere, spin a thin oval cocoon of 

 brown silk and assume the pupa state, from which 

 the perfect saw-fly again come forth, as before 

 stated, in July or August. These go through a 

 similar process and furnish the army which ap- 

 pears in the spring. Hence it is not yet too late to 

 publish Mr. Ormsbee's remedy, as the second bat- 

 talion will need a dose of poke. 



Currant worms of other kinds have always been 

 known in this country. But the one that is now 

 making such sad havoc is a foreigner, that landed 

 on our shores only about a dozen years ago. 



TURNING farmer. — BrYING AND HIRING FARMS. 



As you are always ready to answer all reasona- 

 ble inquiries, I take the liberty to a;k your ad- 

 vice. I am a journeyman mechanic, and a con- 

 stant reader of your valuable paper, and as close 

 confinement indoors injures my health, I desire to 

 go into the country and own a few acres of land 

 near some good reliable market. Now I have not 

 capital to amount to more than six or seven hun- 

 dred dollars, which I want to invest to the best 

 advantage. If I buy I shall be obliged to pay my 

 small capital down, and then have nothing to 

 commence farming with. Would it be possible 

 for me to lease a small place for from three to five 

 years, with the privilege of b-uying at the expira- 

 tion of said time, or before, and what had been 

 paid as rent be added as so much toward the pur- 

 chase ? What do you think of the suggestion, 

 and how shall I proceed to find such a place, pro- 

 viding such terms can be had. A Maijve Boy. 



Boston Highlands, Mass., June 12, 1870. 



Remarks. — You are a journeyman mechanic, 

 but on proposing to change your present business 

 for that of farming you think of assuming at once 

 the cnaracter and responsibilities of "boss." We 

 are entirely ignorant of your qualifications for 

 that position. When landsmen turn sailors, they 

 seldom make their first voyage as Captain, how- 

 ever small the vessel. When farmers turn me- 

 chanics, they seldom buy a shop to begin with. 

 And the same is true of men generally who en- 

 gage in a new business. Why farming should be 

 an exception to the general rule, we do not know, 



