AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
345 
by the growing ones, and commence killing the 
worms the next morning. In this way I seldom 
fail to save the plants I wish to remain. 
Delphi, Ind., June 20, 1858. J. Peffley. 
-- atwi -► »- - - 
The Curculio. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
What shall be done'! Is there no help 1 These 
pestiferous little fellows are getting so bad, in 
most localities here, that in defiance of every 
known remedy (unless a man should be hired to 
watch each tree, and catch them singly, which 
wont “ pay ”) they ruin all the plums—and not 
only so, but even apples, cherries, pears, and 
often peaches are attacked. Must we give up, 
and cut down all our trees 1 Is there no cheap 
“kill or cure” sort of application that could be 
applied, say to the soil around each tree during the 
Winter, or early in Spring, to kill them all as they 
appear, certain ; and which might, perhaps, not 
Kill the roots of the tree itself? Would sulphur, 
lye, or brine do 1 And how much to a tree 1 
Z. 
Cumberland, Md. 
Remark —We must hand our correspondent 
over to our readers. We have from time to time 
given all the light we could on this subject—not 
much we confess. We are in the situation of 
Dickens’ “ Micawber,” who was waiting “ for 
something to turn up.” 
Conquering the Curculio. —Apropos to the 
above, Mr. W. N. White, of Augusta, Ga., writes 
to the July Horticulturist that he has succeeded 
this season in conquering the great enemy of the 
plum. He says: “ Forces employed against him 
—one man, one little girl, three two months’ pigs, 
sixteen Brahma fowls, and two Muscovy ducks. 
Implements, a mallet and tin bucket. Modus 
operandi: the nectarine trees being the most dan¬ 
gerous point, were fortified by keeping the troughs 
for watering the fowls, &c., underneath them. 
The trees were briskly shaken every morning— 
jariing the large ones with a mallet. Under the 
bearing trees, the corn for the fowls, &c., was 
scattered directly after they were shaken. At 
night, all the fruit not consumed was picked up 
carefully by the little girl and boiled and fed to 
the cow. Result: though plenty of fruit was 
visible the first few days, the enemy seems to 
have retreated. Plums are beginning to ripen, so 
the crop may be regarded as secure. Some 
twenty-eight sorts of plums, and two nectarines 
are full of fruit, which will yield probably ten 
bushels at least; had the trees been large enough, 
they would have yielded three times as much 
with no more trouble; half an hour a day will 
more than do the work in an orchard that would 
yield fifty bushels of fruit; except the packing 
up, which is a trifle.” 
Crowded Plants. 
Full one-half of the vegetables and flowering 
plants in our gardens are suffered to stand too 
closely together. Beets, onions, carrots and pars- 
neps are often checked in their growth by neglect 
of thinning them out when quite small. The 
roots should never be allowed to touch each 
other. Cucumbers, squashes and melons are of¬ 
ten injured by crowding. Three plants in a hill 
are much better than six. If allowed plenty of 
room, they grow faster, the fruit becomes larger, 
and matures earlier. It sometimes requires a 
good deal of resolution to pull up a vigorous vine, 
and to throw away incipient beets and onions; 
but every gardener who has observed the ram¬ 
pant growth of these plants will not fail to exer¬ 
cise such resolution. 
The same thing may be said of annual flower¬ 
ing plants. Even those designed for “ massing” 
should not crowd and choke each other ; room 
should be allowed for the expansion of leaves and 
roots. The full beauty of the foliage and flowers 
of many annuals is never seen. Asters, stocks, 
balsams, dwarf larkspur, phlox Drummondii &c., 
are much improved by standing five or six inches 
asunder. The Drummond phlox flowers almost 
as constantly, and as long as the verbena, if 
treated in the manner here suggested. 
—-- ■»-> -— e — —> —-- 
How to Water Plants. 
This is usually badly done. Water is poured 
upon the surface, enough, perhaps, to wet down 
an inch or too. The water washes the fine earth 
into the chinks and interstices, and there the 
plant stands with dry or only moist soil below, 
but with a baked mass on the surface which 
shuts out warmth, air and the moisture that 
would be derived from its free circulation. One 
of two methods should be adopted. Remove the 
surface earth and pour on water enough to reach 
the wet subsoil, and when the water has soaked 
in, replace the dry surface soil, to be moistened 
from below. Or, make a hole as near the plant 
as you can without disturbing the roots, and fill 
this with water two or three times, and after¬ 
wards fill it with the dry earth first removed. At 
all events, when you water at all, water freely 
and with the foot or a hoe throw a little dry earth 
over the surface as the water settles away. 
These are important hints. A few plants thus 
well cared for will yield more than three times 
the number carelessly treated. 
■—-—<——«©■—-*-«»- 
You can Transplant in Hot Weather- 
In the very hottest days, during the fore part 
of July, we reset several hundreds of plants, 
at different hours of the day, without using the 
slightest covering to protect them from the direct 
rays of the sun, and yet not one failure occurred, 
and scarcely one plant in twenty showed signs of 
even temporary drooping. We venture to say 
that we can take up any kind of plant, not over a 
foot high, and move it to a new locality in the 
middle of the day, in the driest season, and this 
too, with scarcely checking its growth. We 
make these positive statements to call attention 
to the mode of operating. 
1st. Thoroughly wet the earth around the plant 
to be taken up. Repeat the wetting several times 
during an hour, until the water penetrates to the 
bottom of the fibrous roots. 
2d. With a trowel, shingle, or thin board in 
the right hand, loosen a mass of earth around the 
plant, grasp this earth with the left hand and press 
it into a ball which shall contain a large share of 
the roots still surrounded with the original earth. 
Set this into a basket with as many more, simi¬ 
larly taken up, as the basket will hold in its bot¬ 
tom. Carry them to the new location. 
3. Dig for each plant a hole large enough to 
hold at least two quarts of water. Pour it full of 
water and hold the plant in it with one hand, and 
with the other draw in the loose earth as fast as 
the water sinks away, so as to keep the hole full 
of water until it is all soaked up. Let the plant 
stand at the same depth in the earth as it stood 
originally. 
4. Important. Draw over the surface of the 
hole, thus filled, half an inch of dry earth. This 
will be moistened by the water soaked up from 
below, but will remain open, and not matted or 
baked as is always the case when water is poured 
upon the top. 
The whole of the above is quickly performed, 
and your plants then stand in a thoroughly moist¬ 
ened mass of soil, and their feeding roots having 
been partially undisturbed carry on their func¬ 
tions as if nothing had happened. They will 
even do better than the unmoved plants standing 
in dry ground or watered upon the surface only. 
Cucumber vines, corn, cabbage plants, in short, 
any and every variety of plants may be trans¬ 
planted whenever you desire, with perfect safety. 
We speak from experience as well as theory. 
-—• - — - . - - 
Winter Cherry Seed Sprouting Late. 
We hear from several that the seed of the Winter 
Cherry, (Physalis viscosa) failed to come up. Our 
own experience will perhaps instruct others. 
The seed raised by ourselves, and that obtained 
from Mr. Goodsell, and from others, so far as 
known to be good and of the same kind, we mix¬ 
ed all together intimately. This we called No. 1, 
but did not so mark the seed-bags. The second 
lot of 4 lbs. obtained from Rhode-Island, was kept 
by itself, and the parcels sent out to subscribers 
were marked upon the back with a figure 2. 
No. 1 we had planted in the Green-House in 
March. It came up slowly, and we were disap¬ 
pointed in getting a smaller lot than we expected 
and had provided ground for. May 3d, we put a 
quantity of the same seed in the open ground. 
Seeing no appearance of its sprouting ^pto June 
3d, we sowed anew, in rows 4 inches from that 
sown May 3d. The last sown came up first, but 
that sown May 3d, appeared soon aiicr July 8th, 
both plantings were 4 to 8 inches high, and from 
their thickness in the rows we judge that every 
seed must have germinated. 
No. 2 (Rhode-Island Seed) was sown in the 
same manner, May 3d and June 3d, with precisely 
the same results. We can see no difference in 
the appearance or growth of the two kinds. 
Though, apparently, every seed sown May 3d 
came up, yet not a plant appeared in sight until 
about six weeks after sowing. 
The ground occupied by the Winter Cherry 
last year was left vacant. There were no signs 
of a volunteer crop until the last of June, when 
myriads of plants came up and completely matted 
the ground. We have given away several hun¬ 
dred of plants, moved many hundreds to other 
ground, and destroyed thousands. The above 
results show that the seed is slow in vegetat¬ 
ing. It will be noticed that not only that sown 
the first of May, and the first of June, but also 
that lying in and upon the ground through the 
Winter and Spring, all came up together the lat¬ 
ter part of June. The Physalis alkekcngi seed, 
sown in the Green-House, came up earlier and 
better than the other variety, but the plants are 
now the smallest. 
-- -- "Min -- «.-- 
Early Tomatoes- 
One way to hasten the maturity of tomatoes is 
to build a temporary pen around each plant, say 
five feet high on the back and one foot on the 
front, or south side, the east and west sides slop¬ 
ing. Over this, lay a window sash early in the 
season, to be removed in the middle or latter part 
of Summer. As the plant grows, train up the 
branches on the back side of the pen, like a grace 
vine. Where one has a high and tight board 
