526 Transactions of the A^ierican Institute, 



for Ins soil and climate. As the work of settincr out the orchard 

 belongs to the season of spring, specific dh'cctions as to the minutiae 

 of transplanting -will be more timely a few weeks hence. 



Tree CuRRi\j^Ts — DESTKOYmo Insects. 



Ebenezer Akin, Fairhaven, Mass. — I will answer some inquiries 

 made by the Farmers' Club at one of their meetings lately. First, 

 as to raising cnrrants like trees. I have a nnml)er that are over an 

 inch in diameter. In the spring I take shoots of the previons year's 

 growth, and cut off the buds that wonld come nnder the ground 

 when the shoots are set. I cut them so that they will not sprout. I 

 then sharpen the ends of the shoots and stick them in the ground. 

 Where the buds were cut off they will send out roots without 

 sprouts. I keep the growing shrubs well pruned. Upon the whole, 

 however, I think the old bush way, with judicious pruning out of the 

 oldest and some of the youngest wood, is preferable. There is a fly 

 that deposits its eggs near the top of the stalk, which eats in and 

 destroj^s the pith for the whole length of the stalk ; but I don't see 

 that it hurts its bearing, only that the stem commonly breaks off 

 where the worm eats out. I see that some one of the club recommended 

 searching trees, in the fall and winter, for the eggs of the caterpillar. 

 I have only two apple trees, and when the caterpiller forms a nest on 

 them I take a pole and sharpen the end and wind a rag around it, 

 and wet it well with whale oil or petroleum, and with this I destroy 

 the nest, and it is never rebuilt. I have seen the caterpillars several 

 rods from the trees, crawling on the ground, after being dispossessed 

 by this treatment. These caterpillars are very injurious on cultivated 

 fruit trees, but the wild cherry and beach plum are their favorites. 

 Some time ago I sowed a little tobacco seed close around tlie trunk 

 of an apple tree, and since then no borer has touched the tree. I 

 have bored into the heart of a tree when I knew a borer was at work 

 and filled it with tobacco. I would ask if a pipeful of tobacco in a 

 tree will injure the fruit. The favorite trees of the borer are the 

 locust and the quince, the latter of which it has almost annihilated in 

 this section. I will state another item. A few years ago a bunch of 

 peach plums, within a stone's throw of my garden, was covered with 

 caterpillar's nests, I poured a little whale oil from a lamp trimmet 

 on a large number of nests and they were soon all deserted. 



Mr. S. Edwards Todd. — Where quantity and quality of fruit are 

 the main considerations, the old or common method of growing 



