No. 129j 541 



ed enough to see the insect, and intellect equally sharp so as to 

 describe it minutely even to the white spots upon it, and the 

 number of these. The professor stated he could never find one, 

 although he had often tried, and that he would willingly give $5 

 for half a dozen to put in a bottle as a curiosity. Perhaps some 

 of the gentlemen above named would w-illingly accommodate him 

 with a few gross at that rate. As to poultry and some other ani- 

 mals, I believe they are a more effectual remedy for the evil than 

 any thing else ; every farmer can see poultry on his premises if 

 he chooses, catching insects, and some of these quite small, and 

 this in his fields and fruit yards. I further believe poultry, pigs, 

 &c., not only a surer but a cheaper remedy than paving with stone 

 or brick, or putting a thin coat of clay mortar under every fruit 

 tree to prevent the insect from going down into the earth, or as- 

 cending from it on account of its hardness. Thepavinghas been 

 tried and found not to answer, and I thinli it would be found so 

 with the mortar. As to the proof assigned that the bed of mor- 

 tar would have this effect, viz., that in clay soils like Columbia 

 county, and near and about Albany, the plum still grows fine, 

 very little disturbed by insects, it is some though, and unless, I 

 am greatly misinformed for the last year or two, the insect has 

 increased much in these districts; the evil began south and tra- 

 veled north ; three or four years ago it was hardly known above 

 the Highlands, now it is as bad there as any where else, and it is 

 to be feared as it travels on north and west it will destroy this 

 fruit there too, and this wiiether it is grown upon a sandy or clay 

 loam. 



Mr. Meigs observed that the perfect apricot and nectarine 

 ought to be greatly cultivated, not only for their most acceptable 

 qualities to the eye and taste ol all men, but because they com- 

 mand a very high price ; as much as twelve and a half cents each, 

 is a very common price. 



Judge Van Wyck stated the success attending the culture of the 

 plum, by confining hens with broods of chickens under the trees. 



Professor Mapes doubted the hen case very much, in conse- 

 quence of his own .experiments, yet that case has gone the rounds 

 of the papers. I kept an hundred fowls in an enclosure of my 



