AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST; 
87 
until the 1st of April, and they are not often 
ripe before the 1st of September, and some¬ 
times much later. Here you will perceive that 
there is a great loss of labor and time; you in 
fact lose six months of the year. If, then, a 
farmer knew that he could raise his potatoes fit 
for market in April, he would not be such a 
blockhead as to defer for six months what he 
could do in three. It comes to this at last, that 
to save time is to save your money—but there 
is a spirit of waste in our country that is most 
reprehensible. The Chinese are the examplers, 
and if we could understand their system of 
farming and gardening, our crops would be in¬ 
creased three-fold. Now it is well known that for 
half of the year we sit with our arms folded, 
and as soon as the leaves fall from the trees, we 
think that our work is finished, when in fact it 
has just begun. Here, then, is our great error, 
for we work but one-half of the year. 
To improve time, to determine labor, make 
the ground yield much more than it does by the 
present system of agriculture and horticulture, 
is the object of these papers. I am perfectly 
aware that all innovations are received with 
distrust, and so it is with all systems. If any 
one had said fifty years ago, that a man could 
be conveyed thirty miles in an hour, he would 
have been considered a fool; and if he were 
told that a letter could be made understood one 
hundred miles in a minute, he would have been 
considered a madman. It has all come to pass, 
and we no longer wonder. Now why should 
not the culture of the earth correspond with 
the improvements which are proceeding with 
progress ? The reason of all this is very pal¬ 
pable, the farmers are uneducated, and not one 
in a hundred knows the first principles of the 
constituents of soils; hence they know nothing of 
agriculture. The lands are worn out, and they 
starve by their own ignorance. All I ask is to 
submit facts, and if I can prove that I can raise 
twenty bushels of wheat where ten were grown 
before, I shall be satisfied. This is the object 
of these attempts to improve our present sys¬ 
tem- J. R. R. 
For tlie American Agriculturist. 
SWINE AMONG FRUIT TREES. 
I have often heard it remarked by old men, 
that “it is sure death to a fruit tree, if swine are 
yarded around, and allowed to root much about 
it, and to sleep near the body of it.” 
That this is not always the effect of swine 
yarded beneath fruit trees, will appear from 
what I have to state respecting an unproductive 
pear tree, and a cherry tree, in my yard. The 
pear tree was upwards of twenty years’ old, and 
to my knowledge had never produced any ripe 
fruit. It was usually well loaded with young- 
fruit, and much of it would swell to the size of 
a large hen’s egg, and then would become 
knotty, full of cracks, wilted, and would all be 
cast long before it was time for any of it to ripen. 
Neither pruning nor manuring appeared to have 
any ameliorating effect. I examined scores of 
the fallen fruit, in order to ascertain whether or 
not the curculio, or some other marauder, were 
not the cause of such an untimely casting of the 
fruit; but, not a vestige of an insect could be 
discovered. With no expectation of ever gath¬ 
ering any ripe fruit from that tree, I determined 
to test, what I looked upon as one of the whims 
of our illustrious progenitors; and, accordingly, 
two shotes were yarded beneath the tree, in an 
enclosure about one rod square. They were 
kept here about two months. Their bed was 
close to the body of the tree, under a few loose 
boards. In this yard, holes were made with a 
crow-bar, and corn put in them. The whole 
ground was rooted over and over, to the depth 
of 8 to 12 inches; and many of the roots were 
torn up. (This was in August and September.) 
I was often called wild and crazy , for experi¬ 
menting thus with such a valuable tree. But 
now for the result. 
The next season, instead of seeing a dead 
tree—the result of recklessness—as was prog¬ 
nosticated, and for five or six successive seasons, 
it has produced a fair crop of fine fruit; and it 
was never fairer nor more abundant than last 
fall. (And here, allow me to say, that some of 
the fruit was exhibited at our county fair, and 
pronounced to be the most excellent of any au¬ 
tumn variety, considering its size. Many of 
them weighed fifteen ounces each.) 
The cherry tree was a few rods from the pear 
tree, and was literally loaded with fruit every 
season. But it never ripened. Some of it would 
rot. Some would wilt and dry up. Some would 
be covered with black knots, and some would 
become almost ripe, and then drop to the 
ground; no traces of insects could be found. 
The hog remedy was applied thoroughly , and 
every season since it has borne a large supply 
of as good cherries as ever birds picked. 
From these facts, it would appear that if yard¬ 
ing swine about fruit trees is generally injuri¬ 
ous, here is an exception. If swine were per¬ 
mitted to sleep close to the body of a tree, and 
to root about incessantly for a whole season, I 
am not prepared to say that the effect might 
not prove fatal. But, there can be but little 
doubt, when fruit trees have stood in grass 
ground for a number of successive years, and 
for some unknown reason, fail to produce fruit, 
that if swine were confined about them for a 
month or so, the effect would be such on the 
trees as to render them productive. Perhaps , 
digging about them with a spade, and manuring, 
would be attended with the same result. I have 
my eye on several trees in this neighborhood, 
which bore no fruit for many years; but when 
the plow was applied to the soil beneath them, 
they brought forth good crops. The facts also 
furnish an unanswerable argument in favor of 
cultivating the soil about fruit trees if noth¬ 
ing more. S. Edwards Todd. 
Lake Ridge , Thomp's. Co., N. Y. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
DISEASES OF FRUIT TREES. 
You will excuse me, Messrs. Editors, if I be¬ 
gin what I have to say on the above subject, by 
telling you that I know of no paper in the coun¬ 
try, that has done, and is doing, more to interest 
and instruct the novice in horticulture, than the 
American Agriculturist. Though I consider 
myself moderately well “ posted up” on matters 
pertaining to fruit trees, their diseases, &c., yet 
I frequently may be found turning over its 
pages for a full confirmation of my experience. 
Like the human family, fruit trees are subject 
to diseases. The best preventive of this, I con¬ 
sider to be free and open culture, with constant 
and careful nursing and attention. The w-ant 
of this is what generally leaves so wide a margin 
for the introduction and encouragement of dis¬ 
ease. No orchard kept in grass will flourish. 
The very pleasure we derive from nursing a 
favorite plant, induces and awakens an increas¬ 
ing interest for its thrift and success. For my¬ 
self, I must say I take almost as much pleasure 
in the thrifty growth of a valued fruit tree, as I 
do in gathering its delicious fruit. 
The apple, peach, cherry, plum, and quince 
tree with us in New-Jersey, are often injured 
by a worm called the borer. My present pur¬ 
pose is not to present an elaborate description 
of the worm itself, but to refer to the effects of 
its attack, and the method of treating it. When 
a small puncture is discovered on the body of 
the tree at, and sometimes just beneath the sur¬ 
face of the ground, with sawdust like chips 
dropping from it, then your subject is before 
you. Now clear away the dirt entirely around 
the bole of the tree, that you may have free 
play, and then with a piece of middling stiff 
wire and a pocket knife, probe the wound until 
you find and destroy every worm. If the worm 
has taken a turn inside, and got beyond your 
reach, plug him in there, and seal him up air¬ 
tight, with grafting wax, made much stiffen 
than common, by adding mono beeswax and 
rosin, Next apply G to 8 quarts of a wash 
made with slaked lime, ashes, fine charcoal, or 
almost any such substance that is offensive to the 
worm, and not positively injurious to the tree. 
If you have much injured, or perhaps nearly 
girdled your tree in searching for the worm, don’t 
blame the remedy as worse than the disease, for 
the worm must come out. (Remember you 
should have done the work sooner.) Make a 
plaster of equal parts of clay and cow’s dung, 
and bind it about the tree for 4 inches below, 
and G inches above the surface of the ground, 
and do not remove it—except to renew—until 
your tree is healed. 
No good culturist will suffer his fruit trees to 
go a single season without digging around, and 
carefully searching for any marks of the worm. 
The digging would be decidedly beneficial to 
the tree, if no worm be found at all. 
The Yellows in the peach tree is a formidable 
complaint, and always will be, so long as it con¬ 
tinues to be propagated by ignorant nurserymen 
and transient growers. Some people are fond 
of dabbling in every thing. Of this class are 
many of those outsiders who, by planting every 
kind of peach pit they can pick up about the 
streets, think to raise a healthy nursery. If 
there is ar.y one variety of fruit tree that is a fit 
subject for legislation, and that should be placed 
only in the hands of respectble, intelligent nur¬ 
serymen, it is the peach tree. I know of no 
remedy for the Yellows but a complete annihila¬ 
tion of the whole tree, root and branch, by burn¬ 
ing. Don’t leave it a month or a day for the 
sake of its fruit, as such is generally premature 
and insipid. 
For black knots on plum trees, and of late years 
on the old-fashioned red cherry tree, the only 
cure I know to be relied upon, is cutting off and 
burning up. 
Curculio, and other insect ravages on plum, 
apple, &c., and quince blight, I must leave for 
another article. W. Day. 
Morristown , M. J. 
For tho American Agriculturist. 
THE BORER-HOW TO DESTROY. 
Westville, April 12,1851. 
Sir :—Will you please inform me through your 
paper the best method, or any method, of ex¬ 
tirpating the borer, or peach worm, so destruc¬ 
tive among many peach orchards by girdling 
the trees. My plan has generally been to ex¬ 
amine the trees about twice a year, and with a 
hooked knife dig them out completely, but I 
find this rather a tedious mode, and don’t re¬ 
duce their depredations as I would like to. Can 
there not be some wash or something applied 
around the collar of the tree to prevent the in¬ 
sect stinging the tree. I have heard that whale 
oil soap would remedy it, but have not tried it. 
What is your opinion of it ? Please answer im¬ 
mediately and you will oblige a 
Subscriber. 
The only effectual way to get the worm or 
grub out of your peach trees, is to use a knife 
as you have done, or long sharp awl; and then 
put about four quarts of slacked lime, mixed 
with an equal quantity of charcoal dust, coal or 
w r ood ashes, around the trunk of each tree. If 
you cannot get the ashes or charcoal, then 
use the slacked lime alone. It is rare, after 
this, that the grub will attack a tree—indeed, 
they have never done it to any of ours, and we 
have had eleven years’ experience of the remedy. 
We doubt whether whale oil soap will keep 
away the peach grubq but it is effectual to mix 
with water and syringe their leaves and branches 
for the aphis and some other insects. 
- ♦ © «- 
Not Satisfied. —Lorenzo Dow once said of 
grasping avaricious farmer, that if he had the 
whole world inclosed in a single field, he would 
not be satisfied without a patch on the outside 
for potatoes. 
