144 transactions op the american institute. 



Apple Trees for the West. 



Mr. L. L. Fairchild, Dodge county, Wis., wants a list of "very early 

 bearing apple trees adapted to the West. And tell us about how long 

 after three or four year grown nursery trees are planted out before they 

 may be expected to boar?" We hope some Western correspondent will 

 answer this question for the benefit of Mr. F. and many others. 



Tomato Worms. 



Mrs. C. A. Cassilt writes as follows from New-Castle, Penn.: "Excuse 

 me for troubling you, but I will stand in some little corner and wait very 

 patiently indeed, if you will only tell me in your own time, if the tomato 

 worm bites, if it is poisonous, what is its origin, &c.? Now don't please 

 laugh or scold. I have such a horror of the ugly thing that I fear that 

 the tomatoes would not be gathered, if it depended upon me to gather 

 them. We have had an unusual large number of worms on our vines this 

 Summer, and I have been tempted to wish tomatoes were called ' Jerusalem, 

 ajyples' still, and naughty chilpren whipped for eating them. Notwith- 

 standing, I have made seven gallons of superior catsup, and put up I don't 

 know how many cans ' air tight.' " We have often handled these worms, 

 and never heard that they would bite, or were poisonous. Its origin is 

 like that of all similar worms — from the eggs of a large moth. 



Southern Illinois Described — State of Agriculture, by a 



Resident. 



"In writing to you some weeks ago about the clover hay worm, I inti- 

 mated that I would furnish the Club with some items pertaining to the 

 state of agriculture here, and to my own experience in that branch of in- 

 dustry. In order that you may better appreciate what I have to say, I 

 shall venture to introduce myself with rather more egotism than is con- 

 sistent with the rules laid down by Chesterfield. 



"Equality, from which I date, is a village of some 500 inhabitants. Its 

 principal attraction consists in its coal mines and salt works. I live six 

 miles to the northward of that place, at which is my nearest post-office. I 

 came here seven years ago and settled in the woods. Upon my little tract 

 of one hundred acres there was not then a tree missing, except here and 

 there one that had been fallen by the hunters of bees or coons. I have now 

 an improvement of about forty acres, chiefly the work of my own hands. 

 This is still enclosed on three sides and half of the fourth by a dense forest. 

 Within the last three years I have constructed nearly a thousand yards of 

 under drains, which is, b}' the way, a thing entirely new to this region. 

 These introductory statements will enable you to understand that I am less 

 familiar with the pen than with the axe or spade. 



"Southern Illinois is probably less frequented by Northern and Eastern 

 people than any other portion of the free States. I have never seen more 

 than two or three persons here that were originally* from New England or 

 New York, snd not one that was engaged in farming. English and Ger- 

 mans are also rarely met with. There are a few Irish, but the farming 

 population is made up almost exclusively of emigrants from the slave 



