1881.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
45 
broken up as appears in the section. When 
the hen has laid an egg and turns round to 
peck at it, she is much astonished to find it 
Fig. 3.— NEST FOR EGG-EATING HENS. 
roll out of her reach. The rear of the box 
has a lid to allow of the removal of the eggs. 
Manure, the key to successful farming over 
the larger part of the country, demands at¬ 
tention. Perhaps in no one item of farm 
practice has there been a greater change than 
in that of the management of manure. 
Formerly it was thought that manure should 
only be brought to the field just as it is to be 
used. Now it is taken out when carting or 
sledding is good, and the hands and teams 
are not pressed with other work. By hau li ng 
it in winter, and placing it in heaps near to 
where it will be needed in spring, it gets the 
benefit of an extra turning, and, if desirable, 
these heaps may be again turned before they 
are spread. Of course some forethought 
must be taken to put the manure in the most 
convenient place for the after labor of dis¬ 
tributing it. Whatever else is done with 
manure, let it be kept in compact heaps ; to 
scatter over the whole barn-yard that which 
should only cover an area of a few square 
yards is wicked waste. After the winter 
rains have washed out the soluble matter 
from the scattered manure (often it runs to 
the nearest creek), what remains is of little 
value. It would be far better were the ma¬ 
nure upon the field where its washings would 
be utilized. One fact has been often repeated 
in these columns, but our correspondence 
shows that it is not everywhere understood, 
which is—the quality of the manure depends 
upon the quality of the food. The animal 
adds nothing to what is fed to it; it takes 
out something, but leaves the refuse, which 
it does not want, but the soil does, in an 
available form. The old adage “ out of noth¬ 
ing nothing comes,” is commended to those 
who think they can make a large quantity 
of rich manure out of a little poor food. 
The Orchard and Garden for February. 
It cannot be expected that every number 
of the American Agriculturist shall treat in 
detail upon all the various operations of the 
farmer or orchardist. To save space we some¬ 
times refer to some back number, where a 
particular subject has been fully treated. 
Thus grafting, one of the leading subjects, 
was given in the Notes for February last, in 
which the operations are made so plain by 
the aid of six engravings that an intelligent 
boy can graft with success.... The or¬ 
chards in many of the older parts of the 
country are sad examples of neglect and 
robbery. From the time the trees were set, 
the land devoted to the orchard has been 
called upon to produce, each year, a full crop 
of grain or grass. Under this treatment the 
trees have made ®nly a stunted growth, and 
the crop of fruit has usually been small. 
With such an orchard on his hands the more 
enterprising farmer asks : How renovate and 
make the old trees pay ? Frequently the work 
of neglect and robbery has gone too far, and 
the only way to establish a profitable orchard 
is to cut down the old trees and start anew. 
An orchard may not do well for various 
reasons. Sometimes the land needs draining, 
and the putting down of a few rows of tile 
will be all that is necessary. The soil may 
be either originally poor, or made so by ex¬ 
cessive cropping, and the trees are suffering 
from partial starvation. The great want then 
is food, which can be supplied by applying 
manure. If the orchard is in sod—and such 
orchards frequently are—spread a heavy coat 
of manure upon the surface and turn it under 
with a plow. After the sod has rotted plow 
again and spread ashes or lime upon the soil. 
The trouble with the unproductive orchard 
may be entirely above ground. The trunks 
and branches are frequently covered with 
old bark, upon which mosses and lichens 
thrive in abundance, and hidden beneath 
them the eggs and chrysalides of various 
destructive insects. The trees thus infested 
should be carefully scraped by using a short- 
handled hoe, and after removing the loose 
bark, etc., wash the trunk and branches 
■with a strong solution of home-made soft 
soap, leaving the rains of spring to do the 
rest. It will generally be necessary to do some 
pruning, which will be determined' by the 
condition of each tree. Endeavor to have 
an open top, that there may be an abundance 
of light and air. The cutting away of the 
larger branches may be done at any time to¬ 
wards the close of winter. Paint all wounds 
thus made.... Those who intend to set new 
apple orchards this spring should do the work 
of selecting the varieties now, and order the 
trees early. A dozen of the best sorts ; two 
early, four autumn, and only six winter kinds 
are sufficient. The list will be governed some¬ 
what by individual taste, and whether the 
fruit is entirely for home use or to be sold. 
The following may aid those about to make 
a selection. Early: Red Astrachan, Early 
Harvest, Golden Sweet. Autumn: Maiden’s 
Blush, Gravenstein, 
Porter, Duchess of 
Oldenburg. Winter: 
Rhode Island Green¬ 
ing, Red Canada, 
Golden Russet, Ben 
Davis, Northern Spy. 
By all means pur¬ 
chase of reliable nur¬ 
serymen, in order to be sure of good stock 
true to name. It is best to buy near at 
home and avoid the dangers of long trans¬ 
portation. Should the trees be frozen when 
they arrive, set them in a cool place to thaw 
slowly.... If not already attended to, as ad¬ 
vised in our Dec. Notes (illustrated), the eggs 
¥ of the Tent-caterpillar should be 
taken off and burned. The eggs are 
closely glued in a ring about the 
small twigs, and are quickly re¬ 
moved by cufting off the twig. 
The clusters of eggs can be best 
seen on dull days. The removal 
of the eggs now will save a great deal 
of work later in the season when time is 
more valuable. On mild days the Canker- 
worm may make its appearance during the 
present month, long before it is usually look¬ 
ed for.... Canker-worms are destructive to 
Fig. 1.—MACE CANKER 
WORM MOTH. 
Fig. 2. 
fruit trees, and also ornamental trees, especi¬ 
ally the elm. Here prevention is better than 
remedy. Some wait until the eggs have 
hatched and the caterpillars have begun 
upon the foliage, when they destroy them 
by the use of Paris 
Green mixed in wa¬ 
ter. The female in¬ 
sects are wingless, 
and can only reach the 
branches to lay their 
eggs by crawling up 
the trunk. The wing¬ 
ed male insect is shown 
in figure 1, and the 
wingless female in fig¬ 
ure 2. Barriers of va¬ 
rious sorts have been 
proposed; almost any 
of them will answer if 
attended to. Some Fi S- 3--lyman’scankeb 
j. , , . WORM PROTECTOR. 
adhesive substance is 
put around the trunk, and so long as this is 
fresh it answers ; but it may dry ; dust may 
cover it; or dead insects may form a bridge 
for the others to pass over. They must be 
looked to every few days. Whatever is put 
around the tree must fit so closely that no 
insects can get between it and the bark; a 
layer of cotton wadding will often make all 
safe. It is safest to attend to the matter the 
early part of this month. One of the best 
barriers is a thick brown-pa¬ 
per band, a foot wide, and 
smeared with pine tar or 
cheap printer’s ink. The late 
David Lyman used the con¬ 
trivance shown in figure 8. It 
consists of a band of tin, 
longer than the circumfer¬ 
ence of the tree, with a cloth portion made 
to tie tightly to the bark ; figure 4 shows how 
the tin is turned over to attach the cloth to it. 
The tin is smeared on the inside with Castor 
Oil, mixed with a little kerosene. 
Fig. 4. 
The Fruit Garden. 
If a new garden is to be made, or plants 
added to the old one, the varieties and the 
number of each should be decided upon, and 
the order sent to the nearest reliable nursery¬ 
man at once. It is best to select the bulk 
from well tried kinds, though the new sorts 
may be indulged in somewhat. The market 
and the home table have both to be consulted 
in making the choice. If the market is a 
distant one. then firm fruit that will reach 
its destination in good order must be se¬ 
lected. The local market and the home table 
demand a different class of fruit. The claims 
of those having new varieties of strawberries, 
blackberries, raspberries, currants, etc., for 
sale are not to be ignored, but a good well- 
tested sort is not an uncertainty.... There is 
much work to be done in the Fruit Garden 
that may be preparatory to the busy time of 
spring. All such work as the getting ready 
of the trellises and supports of grape vines, 
raspberries, etc., may be done now with great 
advantage. For grape vines in small vine¬ 
yards we prefer the upright trellis (fig. 5). 
Posts are set 8 feet apart : a strip 2y a inches 
wide is nailed on a foot from the ground, and 
another at the top of the posts (3 or 4 feet 
above the lower one). The arms of the vines 
are fastened to the lower strip, and perpen¬ 
dicular wires from the upper to the lower 
strip allows each ascending shoot to be secure- 
