Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 367 



deep cultivation with the celebrated steam plows. 'Tis very plain to 

 me that the soil of this vast country could be improved in like man- 

 ner, if the steam plow or smasher was introduced and used freely. 



Trouble with Fruit Trees. 



Mr. Albert Brewster, Sterling, Conn., stated that his apple orchard 

 bears knotty fruit, and his pears this season were wormy and unfit 

 for market. " What is the matter, and what can be done ? " 



Dr. Isaac P. Trimble — This is the same old story. The worm 

 spoken of is either the grub of the curculio or the caterpillar of the 

 apple moth. These, if let alone, will become beetles and moths, and 

 continue the trouble the next year, and probably forever. Now, let 

 these be destroyed in their larva stage ; and as nearly all the fruit 

 containing them falls prematurely from the trees, your domestic 

 animals,- especially the hogs, will do the work for you — they 

 will eat this young fruit, and there is an end of those enemies. 

 The great farmers I so frequently visit in eastern Pennsylvania and 

 south Jersey understand this matter perfectly. They have small 

 orchards of fruit trees closely connected with their farm buildings, 

 and there the hogs run from spring to fall — sometimes, cattle, sheep 

 and horses run there also ; but the hogs alone will do it if not too 

 well fed. Another thing, never mutilate the hogs' noses either by 

 cutting or putting rings in them — let them root — generally they 

 are searching for the larvae of insects, and their loosening the ground 

 is good for the trees. 



Mr. Curtis — The crop of apples varies with different years. The 

 season of 1870 brought a bountiful harvest of smooth, large fruit, but 

 the crop of 1871 was very poor, although the trees were just as thrifty 

 as the year before. This is owing to adverse winds and untimely 

 frosts. Doctoring the trees will not, in such seasons, make good 

 fruit ; and when there is a scarcity of fruit the worms make it worse, 

 for they have fewer subjects to forage upon, and hence make a greater 

 show. 



Mr. Quinn — Pears were more afflicted with worms this year than 

 usual on account of the dearth of other fruit. The same curculio and 

 apple moth, to which Dr. Trimble alluded, do the business in the 

 pear orchard, and the same treatment must be adopted. In my own 

 practice I gather up and feed to pigs not only the fruit that falls, but 

 I pick from the trees all that look defective. This work should be 

 done every two or three days. 



