216 AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
American %ricu(furi$f. 
Ncw-York, Wednesday, ©ec. 13. 
From the Working Farmer for December. 
TEE PRAIRIE FARMER, COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, 
AND AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
The above papers are attacking us in true 
Billingsgate style, and will be answered in 
our next number. We sliall trouble Mr. 
Tucker with some proofs of his having made 
an intentional false statement in his article 
of Nov. I6th. The writer of the article in 
the American Agriculturist, of whose identity 
we have proof, we consider beneath the no¬ 
tice of any gentleman, and shall therefore 
only reply in consideration of the fact, that 
the Senior Editor of that paper refused to 
give the name ot the author when applied to, 
thus leaving his readers to view the produc¬ 
tion as his own. 
Well, we are up for annihilation ; but we 
must be truly grateful to the “ Professor ” 
that he has put a stopper upon his wrath for 
a whole month, and that he will not make 
himself as terrible as he can until his Janu¬ 
ary issue ; so, in the mean time we can en¬ 
joy the Christinas and New-Year holidays ; 
and then, having set our house in order, we 
can calmly await our fate. 
But, seriously, we almost deem an apology 
due to our readers for presenting the above 
paragraph ; yet, as Mr. Mapes figures some¬ 
what as a “professor’' of scientific agricul¬ 
ture, and his opinions are often quoted as 
“ authority ” on agricultural matters, it is 
probably demanded of agricultural journals 
to make some effort to guard the communi¬ 
ty against erroneous teachings. We have 
only once alluded to him and all we have 
said may be found in No. 62, (November 15,) 
page 145 of this volume. That article he is 
pleased to style “ Billingsgate/’ Very well; 
he will hardly dare to quote the article un¬ 
garbled, as a proof of “ billingsgate.” 
Mr. Mapes has been in hot water for some 
time past; and, in common with others, we 
could not be otherwise than disgusted at his 
manner of attacking those who stand in his 
way. It seems to be his favorite weapon, 
when met with unanswerable statements, 
to single out individuals and hold them up to 
public gaze as beneath his virtuous and dig¬ 
nified contempt. For once he has missed 
his aim. Upon the appearance of our article 
he wrote a private note to one of the editors 
hoping to have him disclaim the authorship 
as he had been successful in that way with one 
or two other papers ; but he received in re¬ 
ply that “his question was considered im¬ 
proper.” He thereupon announces that he 
has proof of the identily of the writers. This 
is interesting indeed. He is respectfully in¬ 
formed that our notice of him was a united 
expression of the opinion of at least the three 
most active editors of this journal, and it 
Avould doubtless be endorsed by the great 
majority of agricultural journals, of intelli¬ 
gent farmers the country over. If Mr. Mapes 
suspects any individual feeling against him, 
among the editors of the American Agricul¬ 
turist, we sincerely hope he will disabuse his 
mind of the error. Our former article dis¬ 
claimed any cause for personal feeling, Be¬ 
ing a professed candidate for public reliance 
and confidence, as a teacher of scientific ag¬ 
riculture, he must submit to have his claims 
and teaching canvassed. Personal attacks or 
haughty contempt of individuals will not aid 
to avert public criticism, nor establish his 
claims to superior reliability. 
EXAMINE YOUR FRUIT TREES, 
THE TREES IN CONVENTION. 
We are persuaded that more trees die of 
the laziness or carelessness of their owners 
than from all other causes united. Were 
they gifted with tongues, and assembled in 
convention, we think there would be indig¬ 
nant remonstrance at their untimely “ taking 
off,” and the cause of their death would al¬ 
most invariably be laid at the fruit grower’s 
door. Whether such a convention has actu¬ 
ally been held or not, we do not presume to 
affirm; but we find among our editorial 
notes, reports of speeches said to have been 
delivered at such a tree meeting. It seems 
the orchard and garden trees took a hint 
from the “ Joint-worm Convention” held 
sometime this last summer, down South, 
which they saw reported in the papers, and 
thought if the field insects could muster a 
gathering, it was fair for them to be up and 
doing. So a meeting was called at Pomo- 
logical Hall, to protest against death’s do¬ 
ings, and to devise ways and means to pro¬ 
mote the longevity of the race. The notes state 
that the meeting was unusually full, and that 
the natives of the orchard were all aston¬ 
ished at their own strength and numbers. 
The chief speakers were invalids, who bore 
in their persons unequivocal evidence of 
harsh usage 'and neglect. A venerable gen¬ 
tleman, by the nameof Apple, was among the 
first to address the chair. There was a ter¬ 
rible stoop in his shoulders, and a sad crook 
in his limbs, occasioned by the heavy 
burdens he had borne. His collar was per¬ 
forated with holes, and little piles of saw¬ 
dust lay about him as if he were about to 
make a saw-dust pudding, instead of a 
speech. 
“You see, gentlemen,” said he, “that 
if this convention had been held a lit¬ 
tle later, I should not have been here to 
attend it. This is my last speech, as it hap¬ 
pens to be my first. I speak from the bor¬ 
ders of the grave, and trust, therefore, that 
my words will be heeded. You see in me 
the marks of premature age, that I am 
honey-combed by the borer, and am soon to 
go the way of all trees. I might have con¬ 
tinued my useful labors for generations to 
come, had I not been over-tasked with bur¬ 
dens, and had my friends seasonably 
guarded me against my enemies. But not a 
finger did they lift to rout the caterpillars 
from their nests, or to save me from the rav¬ 
ages of the canker-worm. Year after year 
violence was done to my taste in dress, 
and instead of the beautiful green I most de¬ 
light in, I was forced to put on russet, and 
dingy brown in mid-summer. The borers 
seized me by the collar and plied me with 
their instruments of death, and not a soul of 
the bipeds that thrived on the fruits' of my 
toil thought it worth while-to knock out 
their teeth. I can not stand it much longer. 
I move you sir, that we appoint a committee 
to draw up a remonstrance, in view of our 
common grievances. 
A short-legged gentleman next arose, and 
was introduced to the audience as Mn Pear/ 
Some called him a dwarf, but he did not rel¬ 
ish the name, and always feigned youngness 
to accout for the lack of length in his per¬ 
pendiculars. His coat was a pepper-and-salt 
hue, and some called him a scaly fellow. 
“ I rise,” said he, “ to second the motion of 
my friend, Mr. Apple, and I do it all the 
more cheerfully, because I have certain 
grievances of my own that call for relief. 
It is enough to bring blight and mildew upon 
my body, that has the susceptible soul of a 
pear within him, to be treated as I am. Be¬ 
cause I happen to be a modest gentleman, 
and am ^willing to take lodgings Avith my 
country friend, Mr. Quince, I am treated as 
a person of small consequence, and am jam¬ 
med into quarters close enough to breed dis¬ 
tempers of all kinds. Instead of the great 
ado men make about the blight, the only 
wonder is that the race was not all blighted 
long ago. I am a Avonder to myself when I 
remember the usage I have survived. At 
first I was over-fed, and dosed with stimu¬ 
lants, that I might grow rapidly and gratify 
my OAvner’s cupidity Avith a large crop of 
fruit. My limbs had no opportunity to hard¬ 
en, and the first killing frost sloughed them 
off every winter. Then I began to bear, 
and that was the end of my stuffing. I can 
now scarce get nourishment enough to make 
fruit, and as to making wood, it is as impos¬ 
sible as a new creation. I am prematurely 
old, mossy, hide-bound, and to top all, cov¬ 
ered Avith scale-bugs, that are sapping my 
life. Not one of the ingrates whom I have 
annually feasted with my dainties, has had 
the manliness to touch me with potash of 
soda, and rout these enemies. I shall go 
for the motion.” 
Mr. Peach was on his feet in a twinkling, 
and said that, “ the grievances presented by 
the gentlemen that preceded him, were milk- 
and-water tales in comparison with the 
abuse which had been heaped upon him. If 
the age of martyrs was not already passed, 
he would readily pass as the John Rogers 
of his race, save that, to make the case par¬ 
allel, the wife and all the children should 
have been tortured with him.” Here he 
gave a hectic cough by Avay of emphasis, 
and which showed that he was dealing Avith 
realities. “ The abuse begins in my case 
previous to birth. We are bred as promis¬ 
cuously as the fish, and the result of this 
low state of morals is, that the honor of the 
family is \mpeacheA, and every Avomah 
among us gets jealous and dies off Avith th e 
yellows. When we were young, and had 
vigorous constitutions, we could get along, 
with almost any fare and do good service. 
Our very hardiness invoked negleet, and that 
treatment has become so chronic, that mul¬ 
titudes of us perish under the regimen. 
You see the Avorms have anticipated the 
feast of the grave in my case. I am attacked 
above ground, and my life-blood is flowing 
out through their deadly Avounds. No one 
