506 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER. 



Sept. 



vicinity, for there was a very small proportion of 

 the trees that had any blossoms. I have discov- 

 ered by exiiiiiiiiin<r my trees that the canker worm 

 has cuimiienLTil its work; thutiLrh I had not seen 

 any in tliis section Ijcfore. Is there anything I can 

 do to destroy tliese pests ? 



I have lieen much interested the past winter and 

 spriiij; in reatlinij in the F.vumek the various com- 

 munications on stock, and on tlie diU'erent methods 

 of making butter and clieese, from the dirt'erent 

 l)reeders of cattle and dair^'men, and have come to 

 the conclusion that there are some good cows from 

 all breeds. Some fanners have a preference for 

 one breed and some for another; but which par- 

 ticular l)reed is best (ov our farmers to raise is yet 

 open to discussion. More has Ijeen said recently 

 aljout the Jerseys, perhaps, than any others, Imt I 

 wish to speak a word for the Dutch,' and to com- 

 pare notes with tiie owners of other breeds. 



I have a Dutch heifer that dropped her first calf 

 May '22, 1870, being then two years old. I raised 

 her calf, giving I't, at night, the milk the heifer 

 gave in the morning; and, in the mornimj, what 

 she gave at night. So you will see at once that I 

 did not get all the cream from the milk, but I have 

 got a good yearling. We made all the butter we 

 have wanted in a family of two, and a part of the 

 time three persons, and have butter enough now to 

 use for six weeks. 



The heifer dropped her second calf the 13th daj^ 

 of June, 1871. I milked her twice every day from 

 the day she dropped her tirst call until she dropped 

 her second one, and there was no day on which 

 she gave less than four quarts and a pint of milk, 

 which was of a superior quality. We did not use 

 the milk nor sell it for the last two weeks before 

 she dropped her second calf, but in addition to 

 raising the calf and making butter I sold twenty- 

 five dollars worth of milk the last winter. Her 

 feed was one quart of meal and one quart of 

 shorts with what hay she would eat. Averaging 

 her milk at six quarts a day, which is a low esti- 

 mate, she gave over twenty-three hundred quarts 

 of milk. T. 



Mount Vernon, N. H., June 16, 1871. 



CANKEE AVOKMS. 



We have a fine orchard of one hundred trees, 

 and this season the canker worms have commenced 

 their work in this region. They have not done 

 much damage yet, but we expect them in count- 

 less millions next year. Thinking the Faumeu 

 the best authority I could refer to, 1 would in(iuire 

 for the best and cheapest way to protect our trees. 



I am only twelve years old, but am bound to be 

 a farmer, and want to raise api)les. 



John H. Elkins. 



Kingston, N. II., Aug., 1871. 



Remarks. — You cannot destroy the canker 

 worms that have done their work this season. 

 They probably disappeared soon after the date of the 

 first letter. After a pretty hard frost this fall, say 

 in October, a few of them may appear, and in the 

 spring a whole army of them, but in a dirterent 

 form from that in which they ate the leaves and 

 spun down from the trees ; and the female, espe- 

 cially, will appear in a different form from that 

 represented in most of our book's on fruit, includ- 

 ing Mr. Thomas' "American Fruit Culturist" and 

 the recently published "Apple Culturist" by that 

 excessively practical writer Sereno Edwards Todd ; 

 both of which books represent the female of the 

 canker worm with short wings, a mistake which 

 both authors probably copied from the first edition 

 of Mr. Cole's Fruit Book. Mr. Cole was probably 



led into the error by copying an illustration in 

 a foreign work, of a nearly related insect ; an error 

 which he corrected in the later editions of his book. 

 The following are fair illustrations of the canker 

 worm in its different stages, except that of the 

 moth, which is not well made. 



^ 



Eyga. 



Worm. 



Pupa. 



Incorrect drawing of Male. Female. 



The male canker worm moth, of which our illus- 

 tration is faulty, has four wings ; but the female 

 is wingless, as seen above, and hence is obliged to 

 crawl up the trunk of the tree in order to lay her 

 eggs on its branches. Consequently her ascent 

 can be prevented by putting tar around the trunk 

 of the tree. This is usually done by fastening with 

 strings or otherwise, a strip of canvass or strong 

 paper, eight to twelve inches wide, snugly around 

 the trunk of the tree, and applying the tar to this. 

 Of late, cheap printer's ink has been much used 

 instead of tar, as the latter does not dry as soon as 

 the tar does. By the faithful use of this preventive 

 many have preseiwed their trees in the vicinity of 

 Boston, — among others, Mr. Joseph Breck, of 

 Brighton, whose orchard is in a neighborhood 

 badly infested by the canker worm. 



Another preventive which can be made by any 

 farmer or farmer's boy, with a little lumber, and 

 some gutter stuff, oil, &c., consists of board boxes 

 around the trees. The boards for the boxes should 

 be about ten inches wide, and ot a length corres- 

 ponding with size of the tree, — four strips to a tree. 

 Leave about three inches space between the trunk 

 and box, which should be filled with tan or earth 

 and tamped in solid, after pressing the lower edges 

 of the box into the ground. About three inches 

 from the top edge of the box, and on the outside, 

 a wooden gutter, fitted neatly at the corners, is 

 nailed on, and the corners made tight with roofing 

 cement. Then four strips of clapboard are nailed 

 on in such a manner as to form a roof over the 

 gutter. The gutter is then filled with coal or bug 

 oil, over which the grub cannot pass. Leaves, &c., 

 may be blown in upon the oil, which must be re- 

 moved or the creatures will make use of them for 

 bridges. With proper attention these boxes have 

 proved ctt'ectnal, and not expensive. One man 

 used chain pump tubing, sawed into two parts, at 



