72 
THE PEACH-TREE. 
THE PEACH-TREE. 
(Concluded from Page 45.) 
If a farmer neglects his orchards and his gar¬ 
den, and raises weeds, caterpillars, and vermin, 
which are either blown, or creep, or fly into his 
neighbor’s grounds and destroy his crops, his fruit, 
or his trees, he should be looked upon as a bad 
citizen. In fact, the old law of Connecticut, which 
allowed the selectmen to warn any bad citizen to 
leave the town, could with propriety be made ap¬ 
plicable to him. He should go where he could 
not hear his neighbor’s dog bark, and then he 
might keep his garden as he pleased. 
The toads and frogs should be domesticated, and 
convenient places left for their domicils, flat stones 
raised above the ground for instance, will be good 
places for their retirement. The toad is probably 
the most valuable of all bug-destroyers, for he does 
not, like the frog, require water, and will soon 
come to be fed. The toad has a large progeny, 
and the frog still larger, called tad-poles, which 
grow without care or protection from the mother. 
They are both great devourers of insects, and the 
latter particularly of beetle-bugs, one variety of 
which is the curculio, which produces the peach- 
grub. Some people recommend swine to eat up 
the fruit to destroy the grub; the toad does more, 
he not only eats up the grub, but also eats up the 
beetle which produces him, and thus he wars on 
both. The toad is the gardener’s friend and as¬ 
sistant, and unlike birds and poultry, he does not 
eat up or scratch up what the gardener values. 
He will be a hard-worker in a good cause, and 
should be valued for the good he does. One or 
two hundred of these valuable quadrupeds in a 
garden of an acre, would do much to keep your 
grounds clear, and most gardens are so fenced 
that you could keep them in, but good shelter and 
kind treatment would make them value your 
grounds, and indispose them to stray, even if they 
could. Crumbs of bread after getting wet are a 
favorite food, and by giving them these, they will 
appreciate your kindness. You can assist their 
camiverous appetite by shaking the rose-bugs from 
your grape-vines, rose-bushes, and trees. If you 
will spend the time (which if you are a gardener 
you now spend, destroying the bugs in your mel¬ 
ons, cucumbers, cabbage, and caulliflower plants,) 
cutting out grubs from your trees, and in introdu¬ 
cing the different preventives to the growth and 
existence of insects, I think your grounds may be 
cleared. 
Poultry is a destroyer of insects. A hen with 
her dozen chickens, does immense destruction 
to all flying and creeping insects of the garden, 
and if you break up your grounds near your poul¬ 
try, you immediately have them all leave their 
other food, and follow the plow to pick up the 
grubs and worms. Who can estimate the advan¬ 
tage the poultry has done him ? Did you ever 
see an orchard lost ? Yes. Did you ever see one 
saved? Yes. If you conclude the plowing and the 
destruction of the grubs, saved or greatly helped to 
save your orchard, you will not be far from right. 
But you object to let the hen and her chickens 
go into"the garden. So, Madam Hen, how did you 
dare go into the garden ? You must be tried. 
You and your chicks are charged with maliciously 
entering the garden, and when there, with malice 
aforethought, scratching up, and in several instan¬ 
ces, actually destroying divers valuable vines and 
plants—you must be tried—what say you, Madam 
Hen ? 
“ Not guilty, and ready for trial. Now may it 
please your honor, I am rearing like a slave, a 
brood of chickens for my master to eat; he ha& 
no fences to keep us out, and withal, leaves us 
very hungry, and I went there for food—fences- 
are the only laws we understand. Your maxim, 
ignorantia legis exc.usat nemenen (ignorance of 
the law excuses no one) is no law for hens. But 
I scorn to take advantage of such plea, and shall 
show that instead of destroying plants I save them. 
I admit that early one morning in May I entered 
the garden with my chicks ; the first bed we pass¬ 
ed over was a strawberry bed. We did not even 
stop to eat the berries, we found no insects there.. 
The next was an onion-bed, we found no insects 
there, and I clucked my chickens on. The next 
bed was early York cabbage and cauliflowers. 
Before getting there, I saw a dozen plants full of 
maggots half an inch long,, pulled and thrown 
away in the walk. Said I to myself, what a pity 
I had not been in the garden sooner.. I called my 
brood, we soon devoured these maggots, for they 
could not get into the hard ground of the walk. I 
clucked and entered the cabbage and cauliflower 
bed; here was a sorry sight. Half of the plants 
kept over all winter had dropped their heads. I 
saw the grubs had crawled under ground, their 
holes were quite perceptible close to the root of 
the plants. I got ready, gave three clucks, and 
every chicken was at its post. I then committed 
the heinous offence charged. I scratched, I ex¬ 
posed the grubs, each chicken took one and ran, 
they were soon back fpr more; the largest and 
the worms, I ate myself. I saw an angle-worm 
too, very large, but my two biggest chickens got 
hold of him, and each pulled so hard, they broke 
him, and each swallowed the half. I looked on 
with silent satisfaction, but just at this time the 
gardener let fly a stone. What a pity thought I, 
but clucked a retreat, on the principle of “ obeying 
orders though you break owners.’’ I passed sev¬ 
eral beds, finding no worms or bugs. I stopped 
at the melon-beds; at the first hill I saw the 
rose and flea bug, I clucked, the chicks made 
short work of them. The black fleas were so nim¬ 
ble that some got into the crevices of the ground, 
and I admit I here gave a scratch or two, while 
the chicks picked up the bugs and worms. Here 
the gardener, to be more sure, sent a stick which 
hit me and came near killing two of my chicks; 
but I screamed and ran out of the garden, and my 
chickens in part after me, and part dodging all 
over the garden. I called for an hour before I 
could collect them. While running out, I passed 
under the Isabella grape-vine, saw any quantity 
of the rose-bug on the ground, ready to be devour¬ 
ed ; then we passed a cherry-tree, the ground cov¬ 
ered with decayed cherries, and the worms crawl¬ 
ing out to go into the ground for another year. 
With the best intentions I thought it my duty to 
