ssouthern cttlttvator. 
37 
Now fir ihe glass sa h workover Ihe bed— the sash 
made long and not too wide. Some do, and some do n<>t 
use them They should be placed over the bed, and the 
sun soon produces its good effects through the glass upon 
the surfai'e of the soil, warming it into activity, and thus 
Starting the little plants into active vegetable li'e I The 
glass also protects the plants from frost; but mind you 
when the sun shines wartniy, be careful that by reason of 
its effects through the glass, it does not burn up your 
plants. After the plants have got up reasonably large — 
as large as a dime, for instance — the glass fixiures may 
be removed ; and then you can dash on your liquid ma- 
nure evenly with a tin watering sprinkler You will be 
•urprised to see the raptd growth of the plants, raised and 
managed in the above manner 
The bed should be thoroughly weeded, and judgment 
should be used in selecting a plat of ground as free as pos- 
sible from foul seeds Sandy sod is, on the whole, the 
best for the plants. Fine horse or hog manure is the best 
to incorporate with the soil of the bed. 
In a fiw days after the plants get a start, they will he 
fit to set in the field in rows three feet and a half apart 
cme way, and two feet the other. 
I believe I am right in saying that, to be a successful to- 
bacco raiser is also to be a successful plant raiser. Rais 
ing tobacco is a trade; and in o.ur Northern States, where 
a good deal ofit is raised just now, the plants should be 
set eaily, and thus you will secure your crops early, and 
»o fear need be apprehended that it will not cure. 
Hereabout, a large quantity of tobacco is raised annu 
ally. Much patience is required to raise it, as in the cul- 
Uvaiion of all other plants. T. 
\in Genesee Parmer 
PROTECTION OF PLANTS FROM INSECTS. 
Upon looking over the "Revue ComplemenLaire des 
Science Apliquees a la M^decine et Pkarmacie, a V /Ig- 
Hculture, ,par F. V Raspail. Bruxelles, lfl54, I8ii.5,” 
my atteniion has been called to an article by the author, 
on the ‘‘U-^e of Aloes as a Preventive of the Attacks of 
Insects upon Vegetables ” 
I consider the subject a highly important one. As T 
have never seen it in print in this country,! take the 
liberty of furni hing you with a translation, (rusting that 
it may prove of sufficient value to merit a place in your 
Journal. 
1 would say, in advance that Mons Raspail ranks 
among the very first chemists of Europe As an agncul 
tural chemist, and as a close and a-mrate oh'^erver, no 
man is more worthy of attention. He is emphatically 
the Chemist of Gardeners; em 'ellishing his science by a 
life of practi( al usefulness and rendering hims» lf dear to 
all who know him, by an urbanity which nrver fails His 
article may, perhaps, give us a clue to a method of rid- 
ding the Plum tree of its pest, the curculio. 1 shall cer- 
tainly make the experiment the coming season, upon my 
own trees, with a reagonaf^le hope of success 
In the number for September, 1854, Mons. Raspail 
“ Some months since, I published in the journals, and 
more recently the ^ Fermmr V terinaire,' a metho of pre 
serving and freeing plants of their pirasites, by means of 
a simple infusion of aloes. Thus the trunk and branches 
of an apple tree, covered with the wooly-coa'ed filant 
louse {fucerons lanisera) were rid of these vermin by a 
Btngle washing with a sidmion of aloes ; and the year fnl 
lowing, the new brood made their appearance but for a 
few days, as the washing had not been repeated. Upon 
Peach trees, the leaves of which were efFecied by that 
form of diseased swelling, culkd by garden- rs ‘curl,’ we 
have seen these injured leaves giving place in a short 
luwi to a new and luxuriant vegetation, simply from the 
applicatnm to their cracked trunks of a coating of clay, 
tempered with a solution of aloes. With regard to these 
trees, the disease did not come from the attacks of the 
wooly-coated plant louse, as I did not observe a single in- 
dividual upon them at the time of the diseased limbs. I 
had hereretofore imagined the disease due to the pre- 
sence and attack of these insects in the cracks of the 
trunks, 
“This year, the storm of May 5th having blighted twe 
of these trees throughout, and another near them, in part, 
all ihe leaves being blackened or carbonized, so to speak, 
in a single, day, I applied to their trunks the remedy 
which had preserved other trees, and enveloped them in a 
strong coat of clay, tempered with a solution of aloes. Th« 
success surpassed my hopes; one of the three was is- 
jured in the core, and we had reduced it almost to tha 
bark in order to withdraw the dead portion. Bu' new 
branches covered with foliage, put forth upon the old ones 
long before the flow of sap in August, and not a single 
Aphis was found upon the lower surface of the leaves ; not 
an ant roamed over the branches in search of them ; and 
the ant is very fond of their eggs. 
‘b 'bseive, that I do not wash the branches ; and conse- 
quently the leaves, in putting out, could not have coated 
themselves with the aloes from the effVets of rain. NeveP- 
iheless, parasitic insects refused to feed upon the leaves^ 
as though they had been coated with gall. 
“Is it not, therefore, certain that the trees were imbued 
with aloes through the sap 1 Did not the trunk and roots 
kbsorb this substance in order to transmit it to the leaves 
through the circulation 1 And why not, since roots 
can convey to the sap arsenic, mercury, and many other 
metals 1 
“All this leads me to believe that we will be able to 
preserve certain vegetable from their parasites, by 
watering their roots with a solution of aloes. We may 
thus communicate to them a dose of bitterness sufficient 
to disgust the insects, although inappreciable to our 
palates ”, 
In the number for February, 18.55, in speaking of the 
dangers of preparing seed with arsenic to protect it from 
the attacks of birds and insects, Mons. Raspail says: 
“Why, then, use poison alike injurious to man and to 
para-iiic animals, when we have at hand a substance 
which dri es away insects, and cannot possibly injure 
him who uses itl 1 speak of aloes. 
“Dissolve three ounces of aloes in one hundred and 
fifty four gallons of water This quantity of liquid will 
serve to prepare the seed for eight or ten acres of land, at 
least, if you do not waste it; and 1 can assure you, this 
preparation will protect from the attack of insects, not only 
the seed, but also the future plant. My experience this 
year with trees which formerly were devoured every yeat 
uy insect.s, leaves me no doubt upon the subject: this 
preparation with al.»es will produce certainly the eflfect 
on the crops which a single watering with this substance 
pro'iucea on the growth of fruit trees ” J 
Mons Raspail has given the result of some experimenls 
made upon the same subject since the above papers were 
written by him. 1 have, as yet, not had an opportunity 
of seeing these papers When I do, if agrec.-.ble to yoa^ 
I will make them the subject of a future communicatioiL 
I urn very truly yours, W. M. Uhlkb, M.D. 
Falls of Schuylkill, Phila.. 
[The only notice we have ever seen of M. Raspail’s ex- 
periments was, we believe, in the London GardenePi 
Chronicle, atiout the time of their first publication m 
France. The subject has since been overlooked, bttt is 
well worthy of further experiment Dr Uhler has ottt 
thanks for intro-iucing it, and our readers will share vritk 
us the hope that he will again fevor us, as promised. — Jli^. 
Gardener's Monthly.} 
