1GG 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
L-IunR. 
takeoff these “scales.To save the hands, a 
swah or mop may be used. All these operations 
take time and care, but “ without pains there are 
no gains,” and I have found nothing to pay better 
than the time I thus expend upon my trees. 
Young Fanner .—I confess I have been a super¬ 
ficial observer. I have not looked closely to 
these matters, and until this morning have not 
examined the insects themselves. I shall take a 
new start: and I hope by next year to have trees 
worth showing. 
Old Orchardisl .—There is one other enemy to 
be feared, and against which it is well to exercise 
a little forethought. It is rather early just now, 
but by the middle of June, if you come into the 
orchard at dusk, or during a moonlight night, you 
will see pretty brown millers flitting about among 
the apple and pear trees. These are the parents 
of the worms found in the fruit. The millers de¬ 
posit their eggs upon the tender fruit, where they 
soon hatch, and the little worms enter the apples 
or pears, causing them to fall prematurely. Sev¬ 
eral methods have been devised for entrapping 
the parent millers. Advantage is taken of their 
night flying habits, and bonfires are sometimes 
built to attract and consume them. Flambeaux 
made by winding tarred rags upon sticks, will 
burn for a long time when placed in the orchard 
and lighted. A burning lantern may be suspend¬ 
ed in the tree, and a vessel of soap and water, or 
sweetened water made secure beneath it. The 
insects strike the lantern and fall into the water, 
or are even attracted by the sweets. A late con¬ 
trivance, is to cover an upright square or round 
surface of wood or tin with phosphorus, which 
shining in the dark, attracts the night insects. A 
vessel of sweetened water is secured below it to 
catch those that fall, or to entrap them when 
drinking. A broad flat top sheds the rain. By 
pursuing one or all of these methods, wormy ap¬ 
ples will be scarce next Fall. 
We must pay our respects to the borers before 
going. The old worms quite likely have left the 
trees, but it is well to dig into their holes, close 
to the ground, and destroy any remaining. Our 
chief aim, however, should be directed towards 
preventing further attacks. The last ofthis month, 
or early in July is the season chosen by the winged 
insect to deposit eggs. She usually selects nice 
young trees and lays her eggs upon the hark near 
the roots. By removing an inch of soil and tying 
some stiff paper—tarred if convenient—for a foot 
or more up the body, replacing the earth after¬ 
ward, the beetle will usually go elsewhere to de¬ 
posit her eggs. 
Death on Bugs. 
These lively fellows are abroad enjoying them¬ 
selves these pleasant June mornings. If they 
only had a grain of discretion, and would feast 
on dock and burdock, we should be content to 
see them thrive. But unfortunately they are 
epicures, and delight in squash, cucumber, and 
melon vines. And the finer and more delicate the 
variety, the more intent they are upon devouring 
it alive. Nothing i3 so savory to them as the 
Boston Marrow, and the Hubbard squash. They 
will feed upon the fat of the land while they are 
above ground. 
How to put them under and keep them there, 
that’s the question 1 They have more than a 
ghost's propensity to rise, and unless great vigi¬ 
lance is exercised, they will cut off the squashes 
and melons. The period of peril to these vines 
only lasts about ten days, and if they can be 
guarded for this time, they will take care of 
tbcuxieJve* A box with a glass over the ton, or 
a thin piece of muslin is a perfect safeguard, and 
some start all these plants in hoxes, and keep 
them there until they get the start of the bugs. 
But this is quite too much trouble for most culti¬ 
vators who do not keep a professional gardener. 
Others appeal forcibly to the instincts of the 
great bug family, and surround the plants with a 
cordon of anti-bug odors, that puts them to flight. 
This is a legitimate warfare, thwarting brute in¬ 
stinct with human cunning. A favorite ap¬ 
plication near the shore, is clams, or any other 
cheap fish or offal put upon the surface of the 
hill. A great advantage of this application is, 
that it is a good manure for the plants, and gives 
them a start after it has started the bugs. 
Other experienced gardeners save their vines 
by an application of Peruvian guano and plaster, 
one part of the former to three of the latter. It 
is put upon the leaves, top and bottom, with a 
dredging box, and sprinkled upon the ground. An 
application should be made to the leaves after 
every rain. This also is a good fertilizer for the 
plants. 
Others resort to compounds that appeal to the 
taste rather than the olfactories of the bug fami¬ 
ly. If he will eat and drink of the juices of these 
plants, they give him a bitter dose in the shape 
of quassia, steeped in hot water for a day or two. 
The quassia tea is applied every morning, or 
evening, until the plants are out of danger. We 
have tried this with favorable results. Ashes and 
soot are more common applications, and are in a 
measure efficacious. The trouble with these 
remedies is, that they are not applied often and 
thoroughly enough. Ashes will not protect the 
plants after they are washed off by the rain. 
Whatever remedies are used, it will be neces¬ 
sary for the gardener to visit these plants two or 
three times a day while they are in peril. Ex¬ 
amine the plants closely, and apply the thumb 
and finger to all bugs that have not been reached 
by other methods. This is the final argument, 
and leaves the plants, masters of the field. 
-«— . q -S-g——. O, - 
Destroying Cut Worms. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
A few years since, I destroyed cut worms from 
a field of corn, after a method somewhat similar 
te the one mentioned in the last Agriculturist. I 
hitched a horse to the forward wheels of a light 
wagon, then took two rake handles, cut them just 
four inches longer than the diameter of the 
wheels, and tied them across the wheels, so that 
when I drove over the field, there would be a 
smooth track made by the impression of the 
wheel for the worms to travel in, and a succes¬ 
sion of little pits for them to fall into, made by 
the projecting rake handles. The next morning, 
on going over the ground, I found I had caught 
thousands in the pits. They all died in the sun 
before noon. If it had rained, the earth would 
have fallen upoli them, and they would have lived. 
I think five to eight inches too deep; one and a 
half or two inches is the proper depth. 
Newport Co., R. I. J. E. MACOMDER. 
Gas Tar upon Fruit Trees—Caution. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
I wish to caution your readers against the 
use of coal or gas tar upon the trunks of fruit 
trees. I have often seen it recommended in the 
various periodicals as a preventive of the attacks 
of the borer, and mice. I used it myself to pre¬ 
vent mice gnawing the bark, and know the reme¬ 
dy is as bad, if not worse, than the vermin. It 
kept off the mice, but the tar became so hard, 
that I was obliged to slit it down to give room foi 
the tree to grow. My attention was called to tins 
by seeing what you wrote on page 121, April 
Agriculturist, where I observe you advise against 
applying tar directly to the tree. 
Lincoln Co., C. W. JAMES TAYLOR. 
- _ 
Scientific and Practical Talks About 
Manures.V. 
(Continuedfrom page 10? ) 
From the facts and theories stated in our dis¬ 
cussion thus far, we may now lay down as gene¬ 
ral rules : 1. All organic substances (that is. 
those of animal or vegetable origin.) have more 
or less value as fertilizers for crops. Even al¬ 
lowing that mineral salts are necessary, they are 
supplied by the various organic manures added 
to the soil. 3. These organic substances are 
valuable as fertilizers in proportion to the amount 
of ammonia or nitrogen they contain. 
We may therefore reckon as manures ■ straw, 
leaves, hay, roots (including muck or black earth 
containing decayed fibres of roots, etc ,) solid or 
liquid animal droppings, flesh, unburned hones, in 
short, everything that has formed a part of the 
organic structure of vegetable or animal growth. 
Every thing of this kind, produced, or found 
on the farm, should be carefully husbanded and 
applied to the soil. No cultivator desiring and 
deserving success, should allow a single pound of 
such materials to go to waste. It is much more 
economical to gather from the forest the leaves 
that lie thickly strewn upon the ground, and rot 
them in the compost heap for manure, than tc 
buy the best fertilizers, or what is worse, put up 
with half a crop. It is far more profitable to 
gather sods, or black earth from the swamp or 
low land, and rot it with the manure heap, or 
with lime or ashes, than to buy even bone-dust oi 
Peruvian guano. No cultivator can afford to buy 
fertilizers, while he has unused barn yard ma¬ 
nure, poultry droppings, or human excrements, 
or while a dark stream of water charged with the 
essence of his manure heap, is flowing off into a 
gullev, or upon a plot of ground where it Is not 
needed. It is more profitable to cart earth Into 
the yard to absorb this wasting liquid, and cart 
it out to he spread upon the field, than to buy at 
a distant market, at half the price now asked 
for them, any of the various articles sold as fer¬ 
tilizers.—When all these home supplies are look¬ 
ed after, and properly used, then it will usually 
pay to buy in addition, some such fertilizer as 
pure Peruvian guano, or pure bone meal (not the 
compound of plaster or lime and hones, too often 
sold as pure hone dust.) 
The comparative value of most of the home- 
produced fertilizers has already been indicated. 
We value them in about the following order : 
Solid human excrements, poultry droppings, 
sheep dung, horse droppings, cow manure, leaves, 
muck, etc. Unburned hones and urine might he 
placed first on the list, but bones can not well he 
used, except for fruit trees, without first grinding 
or dissolving them, which is not always practi¬ 
cable ; and urine is usually absorbed, or should 
he, in the mass of manure and litter. Poultry 
droppings are increased in value, by the fact, that 
the solid and liquid excrements are voided to¬ 
gether in a solid or semi-solid mass. 
The coarser straws of wheat, rye, barley, etc., 
are mainly woody carbonaceous substances, yet 
they contain some nitrogen, and they serve ad¬ 
mirably to absorb the fluids from the animal 
droppings ; and when mingled in a partially rot¬ 
ted state with the soil, they furnish additional 
carbonic acid directly to the roots of plants. 
