7 o 



Garden and Forest. 



[February 5, 1890. 



The tree is quite vigorous, and shows no signs of declining 

 strength. There is near by another, probably larger, speci- 

 men on lower but quite dry soil. 



University o£ Pennsylvania. J- *• RothrOCk. 



Abraham's Oak. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir. — Allow me to add the following to your account of 

 Abraham's Oak (vol. ii., page 602), which I find in Hones' 

 " Early Day Book," vol. i., p. 507, published in London in 

 1866: 



•' We are told that this Oak was standing in the fourth cen- 

 tury. Isidore affirms that when he was a child in the reign of 

 the Emperor Constantine he was shown a Turpentine-tree, 

 very old, which declared its age by its bulk, as the tree under 

 which Abraham dwelt; that the heathen had a surprising ven- 

 eration for it, and distinguished it by an honorable appella- 

 tion. Some affirm that it existed within the last four centuries. 



"At the dispersion of the Jews under Adrian, about the 

 year 34, an incredible number of all ages and sexes were sold 

 at the same price as horses in a very famous fair called 'the 

 fair of the Turpentine-tree,' whereupon the Jews had an ab- 

 horrence for that fair. St. Jerome mentions the place where 

 the Jews were sold as 'Abraham's Tent,' where, he says, 'is 

 kept an annual fair very much frequented.' This place, on 

 Mamre's fertile plain, is alleged to have been the spot where 

 Abraham entertained the angels." 



The allusion to the Turpentine-tree indicates, perhaps, some 

 other tree rather than the Oak now known as Abraham's Oak, 

 possibly some leguminous tree, or perhaps the Lotus, iarbre 

 des Lotopliages [Zizyphus Spina-Christi). 



Boston, Mass. Francis Skinner. 



The Western New York Horticultural 



Society. 



The Annual Meeting at Rochester. — II. 



TO our report of the meeting in last week's issue we 

 add abstracts of a few more of the papers read. 

 Besides these papers there were reports from each county, 

 which contained practical hints of great value to fruit- 

 growers. The exhibition of fruit was smaller than that of 

 last year, but it contained a remarkably fine collection of 

 Pears from Ellwanger & Barry, among them a group of 

 Cox's Seedlings, which have rarely been seen. These were 

 all fine looking Pears and they promise to keep later than 

 any of the varieties now cultivated. 



LATE EXPERIENCE WITH INSECTS INJURIOUS TO ORCHARD AND 



GARDEN. 



Dr. J. A. Lintner, State Entomologist, in treating this 

 subject, said that a great impetus had been given to the 

 study of economic entomology by the experimental stations, 

 thirty of which have enrolled an entomologist among their 

 faculty, some of them the most distinguished in the country, 

 so that there is every prospect that within a few years the 

 most injurious insects will be brought under control. The 

 stations give opportunity to test the preventions and remedies 

 under varied conditions of soil, climate, season, etc. This 

 increase in the number of working entomologists and the en- 

 larged fields for their research has led to the organization, 

 during the year, of the Association of Economic Entomolo- 

 gists, whose aim is to co-operate, so that duplication may be 

 avoided. 



The force pump now plays a most prominent part in opera- 

 tions against insects in orchard and garden. The ease with 

 which the codling moth can be controlled, and apples grown 

 of full size, perfect form, rich in color and of highest flavor, 

 and resistance to early decay, is sufficient proof of its value; 

 and by its aid we hope to defy the Plum curculio, and check 

 the ravages of almost every insect feeding upon the foliage 

 of trees, and a large number of those which attack the pro- 

 ducts of our gardens. No orchardist or gardener can 

 afford to do without a force pump. It. is costly neglect. The 

 cheap and fatal spray, compared with old methods of fighting, 

 is as a gatling gun compared with a flint-lock musket. 



Experiments have shown that stronger mixtures of arsenical 

 poison have been used than necessary, and that in no case 

 need they exceed the strength of one pound of the arsenite to 

 200 gallons of water. The foliage of fruit-trees has at times 

 been injured by insecticides, so that the minimum amount of 



arsenite should be used that will suffice for its purpose. Ex- 

 periments for determining this will be a portion of the work 

 for the ensuing year. It would seem that the arsenites are 

 more liable to injure foliage which is advanced than when it 

 first appears. If this fact is established, the mixture for later 

 spraying should be weaker. Different fruit-trees are sus- 

 ceptible to the poison in different degrees. Apple and Cherry 

 are least affected, Plum-trees are more susceptible, and Peach 

 is most easily injured. For Plums one pound of the 

 arsenite to 250 or 300 gallons of water should be used, and for 

 Peaches the latter dilution is recommended. 



Water as an insecticide has been used by Mr. L. C. Howard, 

 of the Entomological Division at Washington, effectively 

 against the Rose-slug. Rose-bushes covered with slugs were 

 treated with tobacco soap, which killed them, but stained the 

 petals ; pyrethrum mixed with flour also killed, but it was ex- 

 pensive ; sifted coal ashes were effective, but destroyed the 

 looks of the bushes ; then the garden-hose was turned on and 

 a strong stream of water directed to the foliage each evening, 

 and the bushes remained green and beautiful. The stream 

 of water was also used against plant-lice on Currant-bushes, 

 web-worms on shade-trees, and ants which built little 

 mounds on the lawn and in the cracks of a brick walk ; and 

 best of all, it broke up the nests of the English sparrows in 

 the Ivy and over the windows. Dr. Lintner has confidence 

 that a coarse spray of water thrown with force will destroy 

 many pests besides these. It will be efficient against the little 

 white Rose-leaf-hopper ; against the several species of the 

 small leaf-hopper which infests the Grape-vine ; as well as all 

 plant-lice which can be directly reached. Rain-storms arrest 

 attacks of the Apple-tree aphis and the Hop-vine aphis. If 

 these insects can be knocked by a jet of water from their food 

 plant while their beak is inserted into it they will die if the 

 smallest portion of the tip of the beak is left behind in the plant. 



The recent working out of the life-history of the Rose- 

 bug at Washington may, when published, aid in the opera- 

 tions againste it ; but Dr. Lintner has long thought that 

 the most successful means of contending with this pest 

 is to be found in the study of its breeding-grounds. It is a 

 local insect, appearing suddenly in immense numbers and in 

 particular localities, and there is therefore reason to believe 

 that it has its particular breeding-grounds. A lady in 

 Virginia states that year after year the Rose-bugs come in 

 myriads from a brush-covered swampy bit of sand that is 

 always wet and was once in a bed of a river now flowing in 

 another channel. They are true to their date of appearance 

 each year, true also to their line of flight, which she has 

 mapped out. They move in a body five. hundred feet broad 

 up the old river bed as far as a point indicated on the map. 

 The second day they rise higher in continued flight, spreading 

 somewhat and reaching certain points beyond, and their pro- 

 gress for two or three days thereafter can be almost certainly 

 predicted. If more data of this sort could be gathered we 

 might learn something of the breeding grounds of this insect. 



In June, 1888, Mr. Barry's newly set Pear-trees were attacked 

 by an enemy which was found with one end inserted 

 into the fruit. The depredator was the larva of a small 

 tineid moth of the group known as case-bearers, from the 

 small case which they construct for their covering while 

 in the caterpillar stage. The case is never deserted by the 

 larva, but is carried about upon its body, and from it the 

 head is thrust out to feed, and in this instance the head and 

 front segments are buried into the fruit, the case projecting 

 and appearing as if a bit of small twig had been stuck into the 

 pear. Specimens of the fruit show that the caterpillar bores 

 a hole of about the diameter of its body, that of an ordinary 

 pin, to theidepth that it can protrude from its case ; withdraw- 

 ing, it removes a space, and again burrows until many holes 

 were drilled into each pear. One pear of half an inch in diam- 

 eter showed forty-four borings. Of course this means destruc- 

 tion to the fruit, which becomes as it grows gnarled and unfit 

 for use. Detection of this attack explains the cause of much 

 unsightliness and deformity in apples and pears which, from 

 the different character presented at a later stage, had been a 

 perplexing mystery, and no one had been able to refer it to 

 any known insect. A month later some Duchess pears from 

 another part of the state showed a defect which Dr. Lintner at 

 once recognized as caused by this insect. It is probable that 

 this attack will be widespread and the cause of injury can now 

 be traced. If the insect appears in injurious numbers it can 

 be destroyed by spraying with an arsenite soon after the set- 

 ting of the young fruit. 



Dr. Lintner gave some interesting facts relating to the pear- 

 blight beetle, a new enemy of Quince-blossoms, the Peach- 

 bark burrower, the Cherry-tree slug and many other pests 



