Vol XL1I. No 1740. 
NEW YORK, JUNE 2, 1883. 
PRICE FIVE CENTS 
*2.00 PER YEAR. 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the y ear 1S83, by the Rural New-Yorker, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
.PomoloiRcal 
FIVE DESIGNS FOR TREE PROTEC¬ 
TORS WHICH MAY BE MADE 
AND USED BY ANY ONE. 
C. B. BROCK. 
Of late considerable attention has been 
given the subject of protecting trees from in¬ 
jury by insects which ascend the trunk of the 
tree from the ground. Especially have these 
devices been tried in the public paries, and 
with signal success. A notable instauco where 
trees in a public park have been provided 
with protectors may be cited—that of Boston 
Common. 
As early as 1838 one Jonathan Dennis, Jr. 
of Rhode Island, made applicatiou fora patent 
or a tree Tprotector. Dennis described his 
device as a “mode 
of preventing can¬ 
ker-worms or other 
insects from ascend¬ 
ing fruit or other 
trees.” This inven¬ 
tion consists (Fig. 
208) of a circular 
metallic trough, A, 
having a “roof,” B, 
projecting beyond 
the edge of the 
trough to prevent 
Dennis's Method.—fio. as. rain, hark, sticks, 
etc., from getting in the trough. Cotton-waste, 
hay, moss, seaweed, or other material, is placed 
between the true and the protector so as to 
prevent the insects from passing between the 
Shepherd’s Method. Fig. 210. 
two and yet admit of the growth of the tree, 
ihe trough coutuins oil or any other composi¬ 
tion that will destroy canker-worms or other 
insects. In 1858 William W. Taylor devised a 
way of protecting trees (Fig. 913) consisting 
of a peculiar liquid not hitherto used for that 
purpose and which he applied by means of a 
circular trough and protecting roof, as shown 
by the cut. This liquid, which Taylor declared 
to be exceedingly poisonous to insects, was the 
residuum, or “bitter” water, left from the 
evaporation of sen salt as obtained from sea 
or mineral water. The inventor states that 
sea water, from which the common salt, 
Glauber’s salt and Epsom salt have been 
crystalled out, contains principally muriate 
of lime and muriate of magnesia—two deli¬ 
quescent suits which are not at all disposed to 
dry up or crystallize; nor will the liquid freeze 
during an ordinary Winter. Taylor also says 
that oil is objectionable owing to the grout 
cost of the liquid, and that tar is so still’ that 
a bridge is soon made of the Itodies of dead 
insects, over which ;live insects pass. Saline 
solutions in general are objectionable, because 
the water evaporates and leaves solid salt, and, 
besides that, the ordinary saline solutions will 
freeze in cool nights in March in the latitudes 
where the apple, pear and plum flourish best. 
The intermediate spaces between the tree, 
the circular trough aud the roof or shield, are 
filled with cotton or any other suitable pack¬ 
ing, aud fastened to the tree by small nails. 
pendent from the band. A tarred rope, a, is 
bound around the tree just below the band and 
underneath the mica plates, which rest there¬ 
on. This tarred rope serves both to stop worms, 
etc., in their ascent and to cause the pendent 
parts of the strips to stand out somewhat from 
the body of the tree, so as to allow a free vi¬ 
bration of their lower ends to shake off auv 
insects which may have, by any possibility, 
crawled down on the inside of the mica, thus 
KAINIT AS A FRUIT FERTILIZER. 
ml $ m mm, 
' . i. x'h. \\\ \ <{ ,- y \ 
w l j. l y i \\ H yt J ( 
Taylor’s Method.—Fig. 212. 
Benjamin Merritt, Jr., in 1864. devised a 
contrivance for the protection of trees from 
larvae aud the like. It consists (Fig. 309) of 
a circular ring made of glass, pottery, or 
other similar surface capable of taking a hard, 
smooth polish. Ou the under side of this ring 
he made a semi-circular annular groove, d. 
To the outside of the riug a flexible web is 
attached by the clamps, e. This web is made 
in a conical shape, the apex is cutaway and an 
elastic band put therein so as to embrace the 
trunk of the tree (as seen in the cut), and ad¬ 
mit of the latter growing without the pro¬ 
tector cutting through the bark of the tree. 
Where the lame, in obedience to instinct, 
attempt to pass the smooth, hard surface of 
the grooved ring, C, their bodies will be in¬ 
verted, and most of them will fall off, uot 
being able to obtain sufficient hold thereon. 
Merritt asserts that, by oiling the surface of 
the groove, d, none of the larva- w ill be able 
to pass. The groove being of a bard, non- 
absorbent nature, the oil therein will not re¬ 
quire renewal except at long intervals. 
Forest Shepherd’s device (Figs. 310 and 211) 
for preventing grubs, worms and other insects 
preventing them from passing around the ex¬ 
treme ends. 1 he strips of mica are lapped 
considerably so as to break joint with each 
other clear around the tree, so as to render it 
impossible for any insect to get through be¬ 
tween the upper edges. The band. A, is made 
of thick, loosely-woven wooled webbing, and 
the mica strips are stitched thereto by- the 
ordinary sewing machine. 
Two semi-circular troughs, u, (Fig. 218 and 
214) comprise Asa T. Ring’s tree protector. 
These troughs he arranged to encompass the 
trunk of the tree aud to have an internal di¬ 
ameter larger than the diameter of the part 
of trunk encircled by them. Each of the 
troughs is closed at both of its ends, and is 
placed within the lower part of one of two 
semi-cylindrical eases, (>, b. These are hinged A 
together at e, and have semi-conical frustra 
or caps, c, c, each of which is surrounded by 
a semi-tube, d. Through each of the cases. 
6, there is au opening, /, provided with a 
closing slide, g, to enable a parson to gain 
access to the trough below such opening, 
in oilier to either supply it with the fluid, or 
to remove any worms or other matter that 
I am satisfied that the value of kainit as the 
basis of a compost for the fertilization of pear 
trees, is not properly appreciated by most 
pear growers. Having used it during the 
past six years, I am convinced of its value. 
While I have not experimented in its use ou 
other fruits, the leading ingredients being 
salt and potash I am inclined to think that 
it would form a valuable fertiliziug basis for 
the strawberry, peach and plum, and per¬ 
haps for some other kinds. 
Fourteen years ago I visited a strawberry 
field that had been partly overflowed by a 
stonn tide on the Eastern Branch of the Eliza¬ 
beth River, Va. where the water is sufficiently 
salt to grow oysters. I gave myself the trou¬ 
ble to make the Held two visits—the first im¬ 
mediately after the storm, when there were 
blossoms and half-growu fruit; the second 
visit was when the fruit w'as ready to pick for 
market, and 1 found the berries finer where 
they hud been overflowed than in the rest of 
the field; consequently I conclude that kainit 
would form a valuable basis in strawberry 
culture. 
The fairest peaches I have ever witnessed 
were grown on an island in South Carolina 
with full open ocean exposure where no in¬ 
sects (mosquito excepted) could stand the saline 
air. 
But returning to the the pear: 1 have about 
one thousand Bartletts in a plat planted 15 
years ago on a stiff clay soil, aud my loss by 
blight will not exceed three out of every 100 
trees, while I planted the following year about 
50 trees on similar soil and separated from the 
others only by a carriage-way; but 1 planted 
Oje 
Merritt's Method.—Fig 
from ascending the trunks of trees consists 
in attaching a series of strips or plates of mica 
or isinglass, B, to a suitable bund, A, secured 
to the trunk of the tree in such a manner that 
he strips of mica, when'in use, will haug 
may have accumulated. Au insect iu us vend¬ 
ing the tree will pass into the case and be ar¬ 
rested at the top; it will then be likely to pass 
down the interior surface until it may reach 
the liquid of the trough. 
Shepherd’s Method.—Fig. 2U. 
vegetables among them, manuring with barn¬ 
yard manure and commercial fertilizers which 
has resulted in the Kiss of about 30 per cent by 
blight. 1 conclude that the most difficult prob¬ 
lem for the fruit grower to solve is the proper 
amount, aud kind of food to administer to 
secure the health of the wood and fruit of trees. 
About 10 years ago I visited a neighbor who 
had, several yeais previously, planted out 
some 3,000 Bartlett pear trees, and he desired 
to know why he had only ahout a half dozen 
left, the others having perished from blight. 
I informed him that he had no laud sufficiently 
poor to raise pears. 1 asked him how much 
growth they made; he replied, some years 
eight feet of new wood. 1 will remark that 
as regards my plat of trees alluded to above, 
it is probable the perfection of under-drain¬ 
age may have some influence upon their ex¬ 
emption from blight. 
