138 
APPLE ORCHARDS.- No. S. 
previously well worked and manured. Tu order to 
obtain early fruit, the seeds should be sown in a 
hot bed, or in boxes of light, rich earth, set at the 
kitchen windows, about the middle of March or the 
beginning of April. The bed, or boxes, should be 
exposed to the rays of the sun as much as possible, 
but at all times secure from frost, and the young 
plants should receive an abundance of fresh air in 
the middle of the day. If the seeds are but slightly 
covered with earth, they will soon shoot up 2 inches 
in height, when they may be pricked out, 3 inches 
apart, into another hot bed, or singly into small 
boxes, or pots, placed near the kitchen windows, 
so that they may grow more stocky and the better 
be removed. It will be necessary to sprinkle them 
occasionally with water, as the soil becomes dry, 
and to stir the earth often about their roots. As 
soon as the season will permit, without danger from 
frosts, say by the latter part of April or early in 
May, they may be carefully transplanted into open 
ground, with a ball of earth attached, setting them 
in a row, 3 feet apart, from plant to plant, along 
the southerly side of a close fence, or in some other 
sheltered place, where they can receive the full 
benefit of the sun ; or they may be planted in hills 
at 4 feet distant each way, care being observed to 
defend them, if the nights be cold, by mats, hand 
glasses, or pots. 
Those who have not the conveniences for forcing 
the plants, as directed above, may bring them to 
perfection by sowing the seeds in hills, in a warm, 
light soil, the last week in April or first week in 
May; and if the situation be favorable, with good 
management, the yield will be abundant, but later 
than by the other mode two or three weeks. Ah 
ounce of seeds will produce, at least, 60 good 
healthy plants. 
In the course of the season, the plants may be 
thinned out, one to each hill; cultivated or hoed in 
a similar manner as the potato 3 and, as soon as 
the vines begin to run, they may be trained on a 
fence, or trellis : or what would be more convenient 
in an open garden or field, to allow each plant Ao 
rest on a hoop, or square frame, supported on small 
crotches driven into the ground. In order to hasten 
the maturity and size of the fruit, the tip ends of the 
earlier plants should be nipped off, as soon as the 
young tomatos are set. 
Those living in a high latitude, may set their 
plants at the foot of a bed, sloping steeply towards 
the south, and as the vines begin to run, peg them 
down dose to the surface of the soil, where they 
will frequently strike root at their joints. As soon 
as the branches of the vines meet, their tips must 
be cut off, the lateral shoots removed, and their 
leaves thinned out, in order that the fruit may be¬ 
come well ripened by exposure to the sun. Under 
favorable circumstances, each plant, so treated, will 
often produce 20 lbs. of fruit. 
For further information on the culture and use of 
the tomato, see pp. 90, 91, vol. i. ; pp. 269, 282, 
303, vol. v. ; and pp. 253, 254, vol. vi., of the Ag¬ 
riculturist. 
Care of Fruit Trees.— Do not forget to apply 
leached ashes, charcoal, and oyster-shell lime to the 
roots of your fruit trees. See also that the moss and 
scaly bark is carefully removed from their trunks. 
APPLE ORCHARDS.—NO. S. 
Attacks from Caterpillars. —The tender buds and 
young leaves of the apple tree are sometimes at¬ 
tacked, in May and June, by multitudes of small 
caterpillars, described by Dr. Harris, under the 
name of the eye-spotted penthina ( Penthina ocula- 
na). They are of a pale and dull-brown color, 
warty and slightly downy, with the head and the 
top of the first ring of a dark shining brown. They 
usually acquire their growth by the middle of 
June, at which time they transform, and come out 
in the winged state early in July. These caterpil¬ 
lars live singly in the buds or opening foliage, 
which they fasten together and devour. The only 
sure mode recommended to destroy them is, to 
crush the withered clusters of leaves containing 
them or their chrysalides, and thus “nip them in 
the bud . 75 
The apple tree is also infested by the larvae of 
the white-marked orgia, or tussock moth ( Orgia 
leucostigma). These small, slender caterpillars are 
of a bright yellow color, and are sparingly clothed- 
with long and fine yellow hairs on the sides of their 
bodies. The females, in the adult state, though 
seemingly wingless, have two little scales, or stinted 
wings, while the males have large ashen-grey 
wings, the upper pair of which, are crossed by dark 
wavy bands, with a small black spot near the tip, 
and a minute white crescent near the outer hind 
angle. The body of the male is small and slender, 
with a row of little tufts along the back, and the 
wings expand one inch and three eighths. The 
females are of a lighter grey than the males, and 
their bodies are much thicker, and are of an oblong- 
oval shape. Different broods of these insects ap¬ 
pear at various times, in the course of the summer, 
but the greater number come to maturity and lay 
their eggs in the latter part of August and the be¬ 
ginning of September, wdiich are not hatched before 
the following spring. It is stated by the late Mr. 
R. H. Ives, of Salem, Massachusetts, in vol. i., p. 
52, of Hovey’s “ Magazine of Horticulture,” that 011 
passing through an apple orchard in February, he 
“perceived nearly all the trees speckled with occa¬ 
sional dead leaves adhering so firmly to the branches 
as to require considerable force to dislodge them. 
Each leaf covered a small patch of from one to 
two hundred eggs, united together, as well as the 
leaf, by a gummy and silken fibre, peculiar to the 
moth.” In the March following, he visited the 
same orchard, and as an experiment, cleared three 
trees, from which he took twenty-one bunches of 
eggs. The remainder of the trees he left untouched 
until the 10 th of May, when he found the caterpil¬ 
lars were hatched from the egg, and had com¬ 
menced their slow, but sure work of destruction. 
He -watched them from time to time, until many 
branches had been spoiled of their leaves, and in 
the autumn were entirely destitute of fruit; while 
the three trees, which had been cleared of the eggs, 
were flush with foliage, each limb, without excep¬ 
tion, ripening its fruit. 
The American lackey caterpillar ( Clisiocampa 
americana ), where proper attention has not been 
paid to prevent its ravages, prevails to such an ex¬ 
tent as almost entirely to strip the orchards of their 
foliage. This insect, from its abundance in all 
parts of the country, and being known almost ex- 
