THE CULTIVATOR. 
41 
bark, an excellent practice from other considerations, 
and which may be readily done with a hoe, taking 
care not to wound the fresh young bark ; also, tarring 
the bodies of the trees, or other impediments to pre¬ 
vent the ascent of the females. For the latter pur¬ 
pose, a hair rope has been recommended, wound once 
or twice around the bole of the tree. By making the 
bole clean and smooth, the insect is deprived of its 
winter shelter, and is exposed to destruction, in its 
ascent, from birds, which soon begin to make their 
appearance. 
The canker-worm does great injury to orchards, 
particularly at the east. The late T. Pickering turn¬ 
ed his attention to the means of prevention, and made 
a brush, similar to a bottle brush, though larger, and 
of a conical shape, which being attached to the end 
of a pole, is effectually employed in destroying the 
worm after it has formed its web upon the tree. This 
brush, denominated the Pickering brush, and sold by 
our seedsmen, we have successfully used for many 
years. It is our practice, when the leaf buds of the 
apple tree begin to burst, to send a man or boy into 
the orchard, with this brush, properly rigged, while 
the dew is on, or the weather damp, at which times 
the young worms are concentrated at a point which 
may often be covered with the thumb, and hundreds 
of the nests, with their inhabitants, may be destroyed 
in two or three hours. When within reach, they may 
be crushed by the hand, and when farther removed 
by the stiff hairs of the brush, which, by a turn or 
two, collects and brings down the web. At this pe¬ 
riod almost every nest may be descried ; and if any 
should escape notice, they may be seen on a second 
visit, which may be made a week afterwards, when 
the worms and their nests become more conspicuous. 
A day has served to go through an orchard of three 
or four hundred trees, planted from ten to fifteen 
years, and to destroy these pests in their germ. 
ON PRESERVING AND PROPAGATING TREES. 
This is a report from a committee appointed to ex¬ 
amine this subject. It relates principally to forest 
timber, a subject which is daily acquiring increased 
importance with us. The principal points suggested 
in this report are the following : 
1. That woodlands should be inclosed, to guard the 
young growth from cattle and sheep. 
2. If the wood is old and decaying, it is most pro¬ 
fitable to cut clean, and let the land lie for a new 
growth, which will thus have an equal advantage of 
sun and air. If inclosed, nature will do all the rest, 
and much better than art or labor. 
3. This mode of propagating wood and timber is 
profitable upon poor land. One of the committee 
purchased ten acres of poor land, which had just been 
cleared of its wood, at $>2.50 per acre; and in twen¬ 
ty years the growth of this wood had enhanced its 
value to $12 an acre. 
4. When sprouts have been nipped or bitten by 
cattle, cut them close to the ground : new sprouts will 
immediately shoot up, straight and vigorous. 
5. Woods ought not to be thinned too much, lest it 
cause the decay of trees, and by encouraging the 
growth of weeds, &c. prevent their growth. It may 
be ad'ded, it bares them to the unaccustomed force of 
the winds, which often does serious injury, as is of¬ 
ten witnessed in groves of sugar maple, which have 
been deprived of their protection, by the other timber 
having been cut away. 
6. Woods intended for timber are excepted from 
the preceding rule ; as that growing in thick shade, 
and moist air, is not so hard and tough as that which 
has the benefit of the sgn and free air. Upon this we 
remark, that limber trees ought to be of the second, 
not of primitive or forest growth. The best timber 
trees are from isolated clumps, or belts along perma¬ 
nent division fences, as we have seen in Pennsylvania, 
of second growth, where trees are thin from the out¬ 
set, and not where they are made so by the axe, after 
they have attained to large size. These belts, by the 
bye, we particularly recommend to the notice of our 
readers, not only as an economical mode of obtaining 
timber and fuel, but of giving shelter to cattle and 
crops, and as imparting beauty and health to the farm 
and landscape. The remark is particularly applica¬ 
ble to the bleak exposures of the farm, as the west, 
north and north west. Crops are specially benefitted 
by the shelter they afford in winter; and both cattle 
and crops are benefitted by them in summer. 
7. Recommends, that upon all poor and stony lands, 
unprofitable for tillage, the growth of trees be encou¬ 
raged, as the most profitable use to which they can 
be applied. It also gives directions for planting the 
acorn, the oak being deemed the most valuable tree 
to plant; but these directions apply to the seeds of 
many other forest trees, many of which are worth 
propagating in this way, as the maples, beech, ash, 
&c. The directions are, to gather the acorns in the 
autumn; make a bed of loam two inches deep ; on 
this plant the acorns two inches deep, ive should say 
one inch; over them lay another bed of six inches of 
earth; over that another layer of acorns, and so on, 
as far as occasion requires. Cover the whole to pre¬ 
serve them from frost, and plant them where they are 
permanently to grow. We consider the last as un¬ 
necessary. The seeds of all forest trees, as they fall 
and lay, are exposed to frost naturally,^ and yet they 
do grow; and so they will grow if artificially manag¬ 
ed. 
8. Directs the mode of planting the seeds where it 
is intended to grow permanently,—which is, to make 
a hole with a pick axe, drop the acorn, and cover it 
with two inches of earth. We dissent from this. . A 
plantation is as much benefitted, by the ground being 
previously broken and pulverized by the plough and 
harrow, as a cultivated crop—and it should be so pre¬ 
pared before the seeds of forest trees are deposited in 
it. A mistaken idea is too common, that trees and 
shrubs should live, and grow, and thrive, any where 
they may be planted, without reference to the nature 
and condition of the soil in which they are planted, or 
to the care which is afterwards bestowed upon them. 
Trees are like cultivated crops. They derive their 
principal nourishment from the soil. The more food 
they can find there, adapted to their wants—the more 
facility that is afforded them, by a mellow soil, of ex¬ 
tending their roots, to obtain this food—the greater 
will be their growth, and ultimate product. A man 
who would derive extra advantage from his trees, 
must bestow upon them the care and attention he 
would upon a favorite animal or favorite crop. 
9. Directs, as another mode of propagating the oak, 
to pare the earth with a plough, to plant the acorns 
in rows, and cover them with the turf. We would, 
for the reasons already stated, substitute, plough and 
harrow well, for pare, and direct the acorns to be then 
planted. 
10. Recommends that the society take steps to en¬ 
courage the cultivation of wood upon the sea coast, 
not only as a means of furnishing fuel and timber, but 
as a means of fertilizing the soil: the leaves of forest 
trees which fall in autumn, producing a rich mould. 
Efficacy of nitre in steeps of seed grain —a paper by 
Robt. Johnson, Esq. then a senator from Dutchess. 
After stating his own experience of its benefits in a 
steep for seed corn, he states a prominent case of its 
benefit to seed wheat. His neighbor sowed his main 
crop of wheat at the usual time, a fortnight later he 
sowed another parcel, the seed of which was steeped 
in a pickle in which salt petre had been dissolved. 
The latter ripened first, although the seed and the 
soil were the same as the first, grew four inches long¬ 
er, and was at least twenty-five per cent better than 
the early sown, and which had not received salt pe¬ 
tre. 
Analogy between Medical and Agricultural Edu¬ 
cation. 
The physician and surgeon, to qualify them for their 
professions, of preserving life, are required to study 
the anatomy of the human frame, the functions of eve¬ 
ry part of the system, and the nature and quality of 
whatever is requisite to administer to its wants, or to 
avert or remove the ills which it is heir to. Without 
this knowledge he can but guess at the cause or seat 
of disease, and of course his prescriptions must be 
questionable, and often hazardous. A knodfcdge of 
these matters cannot be acquired by bare practice. 
It must be obtained from the teachings of ages — in 
schools of medical science—in the dissecting-room. 
Hence the laws of every civilized people require in 
the pupil this preliminary study, before he is permitted 
to practice the art professionally. And no intelligent 
man, who justly appreciates the necessity of the sci¬ 
ence to perfect the art, likes to trust his health and 
his life, in the hands of a pretender, who knows no¬ 
thing of the great principles of the business which he 
professes to practice. 
So with husbandry. It embraces principles of sci¬ 
ence, upon which good modes of practice must neces¬ 
sarily be based; and without a knowledge of these 
principles, the labors of the farmer, like the prescrip¬ 
tions of the quack, must be either guess work, or con¬ 
fined to the routine in which he has been instructed. 
His soil and his animals are liable to sterility and dis¬ 
ease which he is ill-qualified to cure. Unless he knows 
something of the composition of the one, and the ana¬ 
tomy of the other, as branches of natural science, he 
is not likely to discover the true cause of an evil, nor 
to apply to it the right remedy. We will give a sin¬ 
gle illustration in the alternation of farm crops. It is 
now universally admitted,, that the alternation of crops 
is highly conducive to good husbandry. But why is 
it so 1 Science, who expounds the laws of the Crea¬ 
tor, in regard to inanimate matter, not only furnishes 
a satisfactory answer to the question, but suggests 
the classes of farm crops, and the order of succession, 
that ought to alternate and follow each other. Again, 
—gypsum, lime, marl and ashes, are beneficially ap¬ 
plied to some soils, to some crops, and in some sea¬ 
sons, while they are not beneficial upon other soils, 
to other crops, or in other seasons. Science can alone 
i explain these seeming contradictions. In a school ot 
scientific and practical agriculture, in which a series 
of experiments should be continually going on, these 
problems would ere long be solved; rules of practice 
would be laid down; the results, and the natural cau¬ 
ses of these results, would be explained, and the com¬ 
munity, and every member thereof, who had a latent 
spark of improvement, or the ambition to improve his 
condition, would seek for, practice, and profit, from 
the discovery. In this, agriculture differs from most 
other professions. While in other professions, the 
benefits of improvement may be monopolized by an 
individual, or a small number, improvements in hus¬ 
bandry are accessible to all, who are not too conceited 
to learn, or too indolent to practise, from the examples 
of improvement which are every day making around 
them. 
The result of the analogy which we have drawn, 
between medical and agricultural education, is this,—- 
that science is equally beneficial to both; that while 
the one is destined to preserve and prolong life, the 
other is charged with nourishing it, and of multiplying 
its comforts and enjoyments; and that both are, con¬ 
sequently, entitled to the protecting care of an en¬ 
lightened community. 
Pruning Fruit Trees. 
This operation is directed to be performed, by a 
writer in the Horticultural Register, in the uiinter. 
The common practice is to prune in the spring. Both 
we conceive to be wrong. It is unnecessary again 
here to repeat our reasons, for pruning at mid-sum¬ 
mer, as we have already twice published them in the 
Cultivator. We will only add, that our opinion in 
this matter is fortified by the philosophy and practice 
of the late Rev. Dr. Dwight—(see last Cultivator)— 
and by four years’ observation and practice in our own 
grounds. We prune in the last of June and first part 
of July. We earnestly recommend a trial of the prac¬ 
tice. 
The objects of pruning are at least three fold. We 
trim shade trees to produce symmetry of form. We 
trim forest trees to produce a handsome and valuable 
bole, or stem, for timber. And we prune fruit trees 
for the double purpose of giving them a good shape, 
and of inducing them to bear well. To the pomolo- 
gist that shape is most handsome, in a fruit tree, which 
indicates the best bearing qualities. It is remarked, 
particularly of the apple, that upright shoots produce 
less abundantly than those which grow horizontal, or 
deviate materially from an upright form. Hence, in 
forming the head of a young apple tree, it is customa¬ 
ry to take out the upright shoot, when the tree has 
attained a proper height, say seven to nine feet, and 
to leave three or four laterals or limbs to form the 
head. And as pruning does not increase the quantity 
of wood, but has a different tendency and effect, by 
lessening the leaves, which are the organs of nutri¬ 
tion, the upright shoot should not be taken out until 
the laterals have acquired considerable wood and fo¬ 
liage. In pruning fruit trees, all limbs which are like¬ 
ly to interfere with each other, should be taken out 
while they are small. The head of the tree should 
be kept open, so as to admit light and air, essential to 
the maturity of the fruit. In pruning all trees in the 
nursery, the limbs should be left always upon one- 
third of the stem, that is, only two-thirds of the stem 
should be denuded of limbs. 
Tunis Mountain Sheep. 
About thirty years ago this breed of sheep excited 
much attention in Pennsylvania, and the more south¬ 
ern states, several having been imported by Judge 
Peters and Commodore Barron some years before that 
time. They belong to the broad-tailed, or five quar¬ 
ter species—the tail weighing from six to sixteen 
pounds. These sheep were extolled for their great 
weight, good health, fineness of meat, early maturity, 
and quality of fleece. Individual animals weighed 
175, 192, and 214 pounds alive. Several of the Phi¬ 
ladelphia butchers and victuallers certify that their 
meat was uniformly superior to any in the market, 
that they fatten with little food, and are uniformly 
healthy. Maj. Raybold butchered 2,000 broad-tailed 
sheep, and is decidedly of opinion the meat is better 
than that of any other sheep, and that the Tunis sheep 
fattened the most speedy ; and “ I have slaughtered,” 
says the Major, “half and three-quarter blooded lambs, 
many of them weighing fourteen and fifteen pounds a 
quarter.” We should be very much obliged to any 
correspondent, who would furnish us an account of the 
present condition, value, &c. of these broad-tailed 
sheep. 
It is matter worthy of note, that the Merino sheep 
of Spain are supposed to have attained their present 
high character from crosses with rams from the north 
of Africa, perhaps of the stock from which the present 
Tunis breed have descended. These crosses, and 
consequent improvement of the Spanish flocks, are 
thrice noticed in history—first in the time of the Ro¬ 
mans, by Columella; thirteen hundred years after that 
by Pedro IY. of Spain ; and again by Cardinal Xime- 
nes, two hundred years subsequently. 
