REMEDY FOR DISEASED PEACH TREES.-SOUTHERN GRASS, FRUIT, STOCK, ETC. 155 
REMEDY FOR DISEASED PEACH TREES. 
Accident sometimes suggests a lucky thought, 
leading to useful experiments. A gentleman of ob¬ 
serving mind in my neighborhood, Mr. Robert P. 
Mills, was examining some young peach trees at a 
time when the brine in which walnuts for pickles 
had been soaked was brought out of the house to be 
thrown away. He directed this to be poured on 
the body of a tree very much diseased and gummy, 
where the stem entered the ground below the 
surface. He scraped away the earth around the 
body, forming a cup-like cavity, and without remov¬ 
ing the exuded gum or the worms, poured the re¬ 
mainder of the brine, impregnated with the walnuts, 
into it, so as to immerse the wounded part of the 
stem. The wounds on the tree have healed, and it 
is now in a healthy state, while others of the same 
age and near it which were similarly affected still 
remain diseased. 
Whether the effect of the above experiment is to be 
attributed to the saturated solution of salt, or to the 
qualities imparted to it by the white walnuts soaked 
in it, or to both, can only be determined by experi¬ 
ments. But one thing I know, that while certain 
vegetables are fed upon, and even inhabited by cer¬ 
tain worms, insects, flies, and bugs, other vegetables 
are never disturbed, approached, or inhabited by those 
same creatures. Each race of animals seems to be con¬ 
fined to certain genera of plants, while other plants 
may not only be offensive but actually poisonous to 
them. The green leaves of both the black and white 
walnut are, I know, extremely offensive to fleas, and 
to the flies of the woods and prairies, so annoying to 
cattle and horses in the warm weather of our sum 
mer months; and the outer rind of the young fruit 
possesses the same qualities as the green leaves and 
bark of the tree. If the odor or taste of plants, to 
which certain creatures have an instinctive antipathy , 
are artificially imparted to those on which they live 
or feed, it is rational to conclude a priori [reasoning 
from this], that they would leave the individual 
plants, thus treated, unmolested, mistaking them for 
plants to which they have a natural aversion. 
Now, many experiments made by the most distin¬ 
guished botanists, and persons skilled in vegetable 
physiology, have established the fact, that the spon - 
gioles of plants have no elective power of rejecting 
substances held in solution, and presented to them. 
The most active poisons, narcotics and acids, are ab¬ 
sorbed by them, and enter the circulation. Vegetables 
as well as animals may be poisoned. The desidera¬ 
tum seems to be the discovery of substances for solu¬ 
tion and absorption offensive to the creatures that in¬ 
jure the plant, and which will not be deleterious to 
the plant itself. Whether these conditions can be 
united, time and experiments must determine. All 
such problems are worthy of attempts to solve them. 
No doubt the creatures that infest plants may be de¬ 
stroyed by outward applications which may not en¬ 
ter the vegetable circulation. But in this case the 
remedy is more temporary, and besides may not reach 
or come in contact with the intended victims. 
John Lewis. 
Llangollen , Ky., Feb. 5, 1845. 
The suggestions of our correspondent we deem 
highly valuable, and on showing his manuscript to 
some experiments with a view of testing the possi¬ 
bility of giving a series of plants and shrubs, sub¬ 
stances inimical to the creatures injuring them but 
not injurious to the plants and shrubs themselves. 
This has been frequently done by English farmers in 
one instance, namely, soaking turnip seed in oil and 
sulphur. The first leaves of the turnip partake of 
this compound, and the smell or taste being inimical 
to the fly, it shoots up unmolested. Black and white 
walnut trees being disagreeable to flies, should induce 
the farmers to cultivate them as shade trees in their 
pastures. The hint is well worth adopting on the 
prairies of the West; and growing the soft shell-bark 
hickory nuts would be a profitable business. We 
have seen highly productive orchards of these trees 
in Connecticut which were cultivated expressly for 
their fruit. We have been told by observing farmers, 
that the whortleberry, sweet fern, and some other 
kinds of shrubs, would not grow under the shade of 
the butternut tree; and we well recollect often seeing 
this confirmed, particularly in pasture land, where, 
out of the shade, and in the immediate vicinity of the 
butternut trees, these shrubs grew thick and rank. 
SOUTHERN GRASS,"FRUIT, STOCK, AND 
COTTON CONVENTION. 
Grass .—-At your request, made some twelve months 
since, I now say a few words on the domestic grasses 
in the Tennessee valley. By reference to No. I., 
Vol. 3, of your paper, you will see a general descrip¬ 
tion of the soil and productions of this country ; one 
additional word about the country. Originally it was 
covered with a strong coat of barren grass, common 
to all the Southwest. This grass afforded fine pas¬ 
ture from early in the spring till July; it then be¬ 
came dry and tough, and was not relished by stock 
So soon as the valley was well peopled it disappeared, 
though now plentiful in the adjacent range of moun¬ 
tains, because they are not much settled. Stock can 
now be sustained there to considerable extent, and 
that region will ere long be filled with sheep. 
From my practice and observations, I am not in¬ 
clined to think that any of the domestic grasses will 
do first rate here. Blue grass will live, when pro¬ 
tected by some shade, but makes no growth from 
May till October; hence it is worth little for grazing. 
Herds grass does tolerably well on high and low 
land, and affords more grazing the year through 
than any grass I have noticed. Meadow oat is a 
larger, bolder grass, but grows in bunches. It is not so 
nutritive in my opinion. Orchard grass does not do 
well; and in truth I have never seen a full stand of 
it anywhere. I have never seen a lot of timothy in 
this country. Red clover produces one good crop a 
year. It blooms the first of May, is in perfection in 
June, dries up in July, and is of no further use till 
next spring. It grows strong and luxuriantly, and 
affords more pasture while it is in season than any 
other grass. It will maintain a good stand for four 
or five years without plowing the ground, and pas¬ 
tured every year. It is the best fertilizer we have 
of the grass family, though not to compare with the 
stock pea sown broad-cast. We have an English 
blue grass, that does not spread from the root, four 
times as large as the common blue grass. It litters 
or grows in bunches, and resembles the orchard grass 
in size and character. It is sown in August or Sep- 
one of our friends, he determined at once on making | tember, and makes good pasture the following win 
