THE PEACH-TREE. 
73 
submit; but I frequently looked through the fence 
and saw the early York cabbage and cauliflowers 
(the grubs are dainty folks,) all destroyed. I saw 
the melon-beds three times planted, nor did a hill 
grow until the bug and fly season had passed—the 
frost came and destroyed the vines before the mel¬ 
ons were ripe.” 
Madam Hen alleges that at the time complain¬ 
ed of, the crop of each chick had a thimble-full of 
grubs and bugs, and that her own had a half pint; 
that they would have produced millions of insects 
the next year. With these remarks she submits 
her cause. 
We must not pass by the quacking flat-footed 
.birds, and against the duck the surly gardener can 
make no complaint of scratching up the ground; 
they, the young ducks especially devour insects 
most greedily. 
The carnivorous birds are also great destroyers 
of all grubs, worms, and flying insects. In fact, 
Providence has created them apparently only for 
such purposes ; but men and boys have determined 
they can kill them for their amusement, and can 
flo without them, as their flesh is not esteemed 
good, and is seldom eaten. On our eastern Atlan¬ 
tic border, and for some extent in the interior, the 
birds have been fast disappearing, while the in¬ 
sects have been rapidly multiplying. The last 
season we hear of the destruction of the potato 
crop in whole counties; grubs or insects will be 
found in some manner to have produced the rot in 
the potatoes, perhaps by poisoning the sap of the 
stalk as the sap of the peach-tree is poisoned, by 
boring the bark. 
The charge against the garden birds is, mainly, 
that they eat cherries, and for this offence a boy 
is praised for shooting poor robin, whose nest is 
perhaps filled with young. The destruction which 
the robin and cat-bird make of worms, beetles, 
.and insects, should, if not for their song, make 
them sacred birds. They help themselves mostly 
from the extreme ends of the twigs, perhaps be¬ 
cause they know the owner of the tree can not 
reach them. All the wrens and chipping-birds, 
swallows, martens, black-birds, &c., do great de¬ 
struction, and most of them live entirely on in¬ 
sects. To retain these birds, no shooting of them 
should be allowed, they do a hundred-fold more 
good than mischief. There should be a law against 
capital punishment, as applying to them, and every 
convenience for their nests should be supplied, and 
children encouraged to feed and domesticate them. 
The crow, too, is a great destroyer of worms 
and insects. It is said that estimating that their 
food is only one half of the above kind, that then 
a hundred crows devour in one season one and a 
half tons of worms and insects ! 
Certain manures engender insects more than 
others. Ashes, alkalies, hones, salt, plaster, and 
lime, poudrette and the artificial chemical manures, 
the least; horse-dung probably the most. But 
with all our preventives we shall have insects, 
and war must be carried on against them. 
A good general frequently attacks his enemy 
while in winter quarters; therefore, if not too late, 
immediately dig round, or if an orchard, plow up 
the ground; the grubs and lice, (for we have seen 
some of them live in the ground,) would be turn¬ 
ed up in a torpid state to be eaten by poultry and 
birds, or killed by frost. Sait, too, might with 
great advantage be sprinkled about the trees on 
the top of this new-turned earth, being very de¬ 
structive to worms, and a good manure. Your gro¬ 
cer will let you have it cheap from his fish and pork- 
barrels ; salt with fish and lard oils, are both excel¬ 
lent. The quarters referred to are but the out¬ 
posts, the main body of the enemy is snug in win¬ 
ter quarters in all the crevices of the bark, and 
under the bark. These barracks and citadels are 
to be warred on. A little sapping and mining at 
the root is first necessary, and you may be certain 
to be on their trail, if you see the red sawdust; a 
sharp knife opens a passage for you, where, if you 
can not knife him, follow on with a wire, and be 
not satisfied until you bring part of him out. Re¬ 
pair the breaches you have made by plastering 
them up ; the bark will soon heal, and the tree be 
not seemingly injured by the attacks. 
Our most difficult duty is still undone, the eggs 
of the plant-lice, (different species,) are still to be 
destroyed ; the producers of the yellows go yet un¬ 
scathed—they are now in your trees, in the places 
described. One thing is fortunate, they can not 
get out before spring, they can not crawl nor fly; 
will you let them remain there ? Most of them 
lie well covered with bark ; some lie in a web-like 
covering on the bark, and others conch and scale¬ 
like, the last perhaps the same insect that you 
see always (I may say) on the oleander of the 
green-house. If the bark is old and tough, and 
particularly, if in part peeled off or risen up, I 
would take, if a small tree, a knife, if a large tree, 
a drawing-knife, and cut the outside rough bark 
off. Many eggs and embryo worms will fall to 
the ground exposed, and be destroyed; what re¬ 
mains are most probably still in a position to exist. 
Moss, if any on the trees, should of course be re¬ 
moved. 
The subject is now ready for treatment, it is 
stripped. Mr. Farmer, suppose a boy had a sim¬ 
ilar disease, what is your remedy ? Rub him well 
down with grease and brimstone before a fire; 
the megrims die in the skin, the boy jumps into 
bed; in the morning washes himself for fear of the 
disease being known, and all is well. The dis¬ 
eases are both of the skin, they are both insects, 
the application may well be similar. The poor 
cow too, and sheep, have brimstone and oil applied 
for the like purposes. 
I am aware that some farmers say fish oil will 
kill the trees. I do not believe it. In August 
last I put rancid butter and pure fish oil on two 
pear-trees, each decaying, and having grubs at the 
roots. Being on quince stocks, and not valuing 
the trees, I drenched them well; the inner bark 
of the one saturated with butter soon became of a 
beautiful pea color, and lifted up, by its expansion, 
the old bark, where that was not taken off; the 
old bark became soft and spongy which was pre¬ 
viously like metal; the two or three months of 
fall was all my experience with this tree, but it 
was enough to convince me that the application 
was very efficient. The green also showed itself 
on the inner bark, on the tree to which the oil was 
