432 



THE SO ITT HE 



RN PLANTER. 



[July 



palace. Great profits depend on great im- 

 provements of the soil, and great improve- 

 ments can never be made by penurious 

 efforts. The discrimination between useful 

 and productive, and useless and barren ex- 

 penses, contains the agricultural secret for 

 acquiring happiness and wealth. A good 

 farmer will sow the first with an open hand^ 

 and eradicate every seed of the other. 



Liberality constitutes the econon}y of agri- 

 culture, and perhaps it is the solitary hu- 

 man occupation, to which the adage, "the 

 more we give, the more we shall receive," 

 can be justly applied. Liberality to the 

 earth in manuring and culture is the fountain 

 of its bounty to us. Liberality to labourers 

 and working animals is the fountain of 

 their profit. Liberality to domestic brutes 

 is the fountain of manure. The good work 

 of a strong team causes a profit beyond the 

 bad work of a weak one, after deducting the 

 additional expense of feeding itj and it 

 saves moreover half the labour of a driver, 

 sunk in following a bad one. Liberality in 

 warm houses, produces health, strength and 

 comfort ; preserves the lives of a multitude 

 of domestic animals; causes all animals to 

 thrive on less food, and secures from damage 

 all kinds of crops. And liberality in the 

 utensils of husbandry, saves labour to a 

 vast extent, by providing the proper tools 

 for doing the work both well and expedi- 

 tiously. — F'armcrs Journal. 



From the Working Farmer. 



Fruit Culture. 



Messrs. Editors : — Plant-lice, in some 

 sections of the country, have caused an in- 

 mense destruction of apple trees ; especially 

 in Michigan; also within the past twenty 

 years the orange trees of Florida have suf- 

 fered immensely by their ravages. If they 

 are not the vsame that infest the apple trees, 

 they are very similar in all respects. — 

 Where thes^ insects abound, the smooth 

 portions of the bark of the body and limbs 

 of the trees are more or less covered with 

 small, muscle-shaped shells. Those formed 

 last year, now contain from 30 to 40 eggs, 

 each of a white color, and when examined 

 by the aid of a microscope, they are found to 

 be in shape nearly like those of snakes. 

 The insects usually hatch from the 25th of 

 May to the 10th of June, varying perhaps, 

 a fev/ days from the above dates, according 

 to the lateness or earliness of the season. 



They soon disperse, fixing themselves upon 

 the smooth bark, appearing as 'very minute 

 white specks, scarcely perceptible to the 

 naked eye. While the insects are in this 

 tender state, is the proper time to destroy 

 them, for if left for a week, each insect 

 forms a new shell under wdiich it deposits 

 its eggs for the next year's crop, and it is 

 hard removing these shells, when thus glued 

 to the trees. Thoroughly washing and 

 scrubbing the branches of the trees with 

 soap-suds, applied with a stiff brush or 

 woolen rag, will pretty effectually destroy all 

 young and tender bark-lice. The injury 

 done to the trees by these minute insects, is 

 caused by their sucking the sap from the 

 trees. ^' Various remedies have been tried 

 in Florida, to arrest their progress, and les- 

 sen the injury done to the orange trees, such 

 as fumigating the trees with tobacco smoke, 

 covering them with soap, lime, potash, sul- 

 phur, shellac, glue and other viscid and ten- 

 acious substances, mixed with clay, quick- 

 lime, salt, &c.; but all have failed, partially or 

 entirely, and it appears not to be in the 

 power of man to prevent the ravages of 

 these insignificant and insidious destroyers.'^ 

 Another destructive scourge of the apple, 

 cherry, and s6me other trees, is the common 

 caterpillar; but it is unnecessary here to 

 describe to the farmer, or orchardist, this 

 caterpillar, his color or habits, because they 

 have been too long and too welf known to 

 every observing person to need particular 

 description. As is generally known, the 

 eggs for this year's crop were fastened about 

 the ends of many of the limbs of the tree 

 by a kind of water-proof varnish, for which 

 the caterpillars have an excellent recipe. 

 By carefully examining the ends of the 

 limbs of the apple and cherry trees, between 

 this and the bursting of the leaves many, of 

 these deposits of eggs can be found and 

 readily destroyed. Each of these "var- 

 nished bracelets" contains from three to 

 four hundred eggs, which hatch out about 

 the time of the unfolding of the leaf. 

 They immediately commence the formation 

 of a little angular web or tent, between the 

 forks of the branches, a little below the 

 cluster of eggs. The sooner the nests and 

 their occupants are destroyed, after this, the 

 better. Various methods are practiced to 

 rid the trees of these " useless intruders," 

 sueh as burning the nests with lighted 

 torches, scrubbing them with soap suds, 

 &c., &c. The best thing I have used in 



