THE 



feml 



VOL. 2. 



ST. LOUIS, MO., SEPT.— OCT., 1869. 



NO. 1. 



CIjc g^mcritaii ^iTt0molfl0ist. 



PUBLISHED MOXTIILY BY 



H. r. STXJI^LE-X- Sc CO., 



104 OLIVE STBEET. ST. LOUIS. 



TERMS Two dollars iwr anmira in advance. 



EDITORS : 



BEXJ. D. WALSH 



CIIAS. V. UlLEY, Wl N. Jlaiu Street 



.Rock Island. III. 

 ...St Lonis, Mo. 



WHY NOXIOUS INSECTS INCREASE UPON US. 



It is an old and a very true remark, that the 

 various insects tliat afflict the Gardener and the 

 Fruit-grower are jear by year becoming more nu- 

 merous and more destructive. One principal rea- 

 son for this result is sufficiently obvious. The con- 

 tinual tendency ol' modern improvement is to con- 

 centrate vegetable gardens and fruit farms in 

 certain peculiarly fiivorable localities, instead of 

 scattering them evenly and uniformly over the 

 whole country. Hence every injurious insect 

 that troubles the Gardener and the Fruit-grower 

 has an abundant supply of such vegetation, as 

 forms a suitable nidus for its future offspring, 

 close at hand, instead of having to search for it 

 with much labor over an extensive surface of 

 country. Such insects are therefore enabled by 

 this means to increase and multiply with greater 

 case and greater rapidity. Upon precisely the 

 same i)rinciple, if you scatter over the surface 

 of a whole county the amount of shelled corn 

 that is just sufficient to feed a certain gang of 

 hogs, and compel them to seek it out and pick 

 it up every day of the year, they will not thrive 

 so well nor multiply so fast, as if you feed out 

 the very same amount of corn to them in a ten- 

 acre lot, day after day for a whole year. 



To a gentleman in Arkansas, who had ex- 

 pressed the opinion that that State was the 

 best iu the Union for the peach and the grape, 

 and that Illinois was not naturally adapted to 

 the culture of fruit. Dr. E. S. Hull recently re- 

 plied in the following masterly manner. We 

 copy from the Journal of Agriculture for Au- 

 gust 14, 18G9 : 



Siu — Your confidence in the superior adapta- 



bility of your soil and climate will probably not 

 be maintained after a few years' experience. 

 Just iu proportion as you increase improved 

 fruits, just in that proportion will fruit insects 

 and fruit and fruit tree diseases increase with 

 you. A recognition of this fact will each year, 

 as you multiply your orchards, hncnmc more 

 and more apparent. Your Hale's l':.irl\ inadios, 

 at first, will be free from rot. your |ic:n- Ireos 

 measurably exempt from pear tree liliiilit. your 

 vines free from vine hoppers, the grapes free 

 from grape codlings and rot, etc., etc. From 

 .some cause, not yet well undei'stood, all or 

 nearly all young vineyards are for the first few 

 years of fruitage, free from rot, and then ever 

 afterwards subject to it. The same is true of 

 cherry, peach, and plum rot. Therefore to 

 those engaging in hoiticiiliiual pursuits, a 

 knowledge of the several ditliruKics likely to 

 be encountered should lie iiMdnniziMl, and so 

 far as knowu the remedies for cacli difficulty 

 must be pi-ompth' applied. 



In this State, "or in certain portions of it, 

 many persons believe that horlicullnre is un- 

 dergoing a great revolution, and ultimately 

 that the business will be mainly in the hands 

 only of the well-informed — those who under- 

 stand and promptly apply the proper means. 

 In view of known facts and observations, made 

 during the past twenty-three years in this part 

 of the West, and further South, I am convinced 

 that all sections alike must recognize as facts 

 these statements. 



Here the matter seems to have dropped. No- 

 body has thought of accusing Dr. Hull of being 

 an atheist and a blasphemer, because he has said 

 that the more you multiply your orchards, and 

 the more you increase improved fruits, the more 

 will bugs and other kinds of destructive organ- 

 isms multiply and increase upon you. Nobody, 

 in fact, has even gone so far as to insinuate that, 

 simply because he has written tiie letter which 

 we have printed above, he leans towards Socini- 

 anism, or Arianism, or Erastianism, or any o( 

 the other fine sbedes of isvi, whereby hetero- 

 doxy Cwhatever that inav be) differs from 

 orthodoxy. 



Now, mark how one man is allowed to steal 

 a horse with impunity, and another man may 

 not even look over the hedge without being 

 thrown into jail for it. Henry Ward Beecher, 

 in one of his contributions to the Ledger, re- 

 cently expressed the following sentiments ; and 

 turn them which way you will, they merely 



