1872.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
the surface at least'three inches. In absence of 
stable manure, pure bone-dust or blood and 
bone-dust should be used, in the ratio of at 
least one ton to the acre, and of course thor¬ 
oughly mixed in with soil designed for the sow¬ 
ing of the cabbage. Ground thus prepared, 
will in any season I have ever seen in this 
vicinity give excellent plants, fit to “ prick out ” 
four weeks after sowing; that is, if we sow on 
September 15th, we have plants of just the right 
size to “prick” into the frames by Oct. 15th. 
The article makes an assertion with which 
I can not agree. It says that when the stem 
of a cabbage plant is split it makes a loose 
head. If it is split severely enough to be de¬ 
cayed, it will die long before it gets a chance 
to form a head; but if not, the split part will 
form a callus, just as the slip of any plant does 
before it roots, and •when planted the roots will 
develop from there better than any other part 
of the stem. In the area of a mile from' where 
I write there is probably a million cabbages 
planted, most of them just beginning to “head 
up,” and I think it safe to say at least one half 
of them when planted were split in the stem, 
and, by the way the most of them look now, I 
should say few of them will form loose heads, 
but will be likely to give good solid results to 
the owners. This cold-frame cabbage business 
is now an important one, engaging the attention 
■ of hundreds of your readers in every section of 
the country, and if the article in the June 
Agriculturist had been accepted as applicable 
to all localities it might have lessened some poor 
fellow’s profits next season. 
[The article to which Mr. Henderson takes 
exceptions was by Col. Waring, of Newport, 
R. I., and we should have so stated when we 
published it. Col. W. gives his experience in 
the climate of Newport, and Mr. II. his in 
that of New York, and our gardening readers 
have now both sides of a subject.—E d.] 
■ - —►—»» - 
Notes front the Pines. 
We have Buried our Dead —or, what is 
the same thing, carted them to the brush-heap. 
They were mainly evergreens, but some deci¬ 
duous things went too. Evergreens of great 
rarity, that had been established just long 
enough to give promise of future beauty, went 
to the same heap with the more common but 
not less useful Hemlock, Norway Spruce, and 
Arbor-vitse. Among the deciduous trees that 
suffered most on my grounds were European 
Chestnut, Scotch Laburnum, Catalpa Kmmp- 
feri, Mahaleb Cherry, and Deciduous Cypress. 
Almond-trecs were badly injured, while the 
Peach, though most of the flower-buds were 
killed, was all right as to its leaf-buds. 
The Causes of the Winter-killing that 
have been assigned are principally these The 
unusual depth to which the soil was frozen; 
the unusual cold (zero or near it) in March, fol¬ 
lowing a mild spell in February; the unusual 
dryness of the soil during the winter, and the 
prevalence of drying winds. I think that a 
combination of the last two causes produced the 
results. Some curious cases appear difficult to 
account for. With trees, apparently just alike, 
standing side by side, one was taken and the 
other left unharmed; also one half of a tree 
would be killed, and the other half untouched. 
The Blooming of Fruit Trees was in our 
neighborhood something wonderful. There are 
numerous old orchards, the trees in which are 
fit only for fire-wood, yet every worthless, half- 
decayed old tree was completely sheeted with 
bloom. Nor were the valuable trees less full. 
My little cordon apple-trees were what the name 
implies, garlands; and my bush apple-trees 
were filled from the ground to the very top, 
forming the most beautiful monster bouquets it 
is possible to imagine. 
The Red Maples have shed their seed. I 
have four trees, and am thankful that only one, 
and this not the largest, is a bearing one, but 
this supplies seeds enough to make it a complete 
nuisance. The fall of the maple keys is worth 
watching. The heavy end, which contains the 
seed, is downwards, while the wing acts as a 
parachute, and this being one sided, the key as 
'it falls takes a rapid spinning motion, which 
delays its descent, and allows the least breeze 
to waft it to a distance from the tree. In watch¬ 
ing this beautiful contrivance for the dispersion 
of the seeds, one is inclined to forget the trouble 
that the young maples will give him as weeds, 
springing up in every corner. A skilled sower 
could not cover the ground more evenly with 
grain than it is now strewn with maple-seeds. 
Tree-Labels. —If anything illustrates the 
“depravity of inanimate things,” it is a tree- 
label. If any one is careful to have the wire 
loose, I am, yet I go about and find here and 
there some branch has grown so out of all rea¬ 
son that the wire is already strangulating the 
bark. Let me advise those who have set trees 
this spring just as they came from the nursery, 
to go over them at once and look to the labels. 
The nurseryman, when he wires on his tag, 
puts it there that the tree may be identified by 
the purchaser, and he fastens it securely. The 
wire is twisted on tight, and if left thus, stran¬ 
gulation and injury will result. With cherries 
and peaches, I find it makes no difference how 
loose the wire is. If it hangs in a crotch, the 
wire will somehow get imbedded in the bark. 
Plant-Labels —by this I mean those stuck 
in the ground, as distinguished from those tied 
to trees and shrubs—are also annoying. If 
small, they will get lost at the first hoeing, and 
if large they disfigure the beds. If there is a 
garden workman who appreciates the import¬ 
ance of a label I have yet to make his acquaint¬ 
ance. I have adopted a stake so large that it 
can not be hoed up without considerable trou¬ 
ble. In small gardens one can trust to memory, 
but where the plants are numbered by hun¬ 
dreds, and many things are new and on trial, a 
label becomes a necessity. 
Packing Plants. —What a difference there 
is between good and bad packing ! Most florists 
and nurserymen put up plants admirably, but 
once in a while one makes bad work of it. The 
general fault is too little moss or other packing 
material; sometimes this is too wet, and the 
plants put in so loosely that they can move 
about. Last year I paid $5 for some plants, 
and as much more for express charges, from a 
distant nurseryman. When the box was 
opened, the whole lot was not w T ortli a dollar. 
The plants were put in dripping-wet moss, and 
not closely packed. In the long transit, plants 
and moss were shaken up into a mush. 
Columbines have bloomed splendidly this 
spring. Too much can not be said in praise of 
Aquilegia ccerulea , from the Rocky Mountains. 
It is the most graceful and charming of all. Do 
you know what a beautiful thing our native 
Columbine ( Aquilegia Canadensis) is in cultiva¬ 
tion? Not only are the flowers more abundant 
and finer than we usually see it in the wild 
state, but the foliage is much handsomer. I 
263 
think it a much better plant than the related A. 
Skinneri. Last year I obtained from Zurich 
seeds of a new Columbine, said to be from the 
Rocky Mountains, called Aquilegia aurea , I 
only succeeded in raising a single plant. It is 
certainly a beauty, not only in color, but in the 
form’of the flower, which is unlike that of any 
other species with which I am acquainted. 
— o—4 ■ 11 i ^ rriiBn i n> 
Shall we Kill the Toads?— My garden 
is full of toads, with a rather large poetic license. 
The more manure and the better the cultiva¬ 
tion, the more the toads thrive. This is proba¬ 
bly with a sharp eye to business, for insects 
thrive best in rich land. Bugs are scarce on a 
gravel bank. But where the ground has been 
trenched, and the manure worked in unspar¬ 
ingly, and vegetation is rank, there insect-life 
abounds. And the toad makes his domicile un¬ 
der the cabbage or the squash-vine, and watches 
patiently for snails, worms, bugs, and millers. 
That smooth tongue that he darts out with such 
rapidity looks innocent enough, but it sticks 
like pitch to every living thing. His power of 
digestion is excellent. Harris fed one hundred 
black larvae, three quarters of an inch long, to 
a single toad without destroying his appetite. 
We can not afford to lose such an agency as this 
for the destruction of insects. He does for the 
ground what the birds do for the trees. Give 
the toads the freedom of the garden.—C. 
The Apple Maggot-Fly. 
(Trypeta pomonella, Walsh.) 
BY C. V. RILEY, STATE ENTOMOLOGIST OP MISSOURI. 
The following letter was received some time 
ago from J. H. Spatter, Esq., Keene, N. H.: 
“ Gentlemen : We are troubled here with a 
new pest, which I have seen described by no 
writer yet. It is a worm about half an inch 
long—about a3 large as a large pin. It eats 
through the apple (fruit) in all directions, com¬ 
ing only to the skin (not through it), completely 
honeycombing it, rendering the fruit entirely 
worthless. It prefers the early sweet apple, 
commencing its ravages about the time it begins 
to ripen. Also attacks the later sub-acid apple 
1 geek-no-Further,’ etc. It does not puncture 
the skin. If you can give us its history, modus 
operandi, and destruction in your Agriculturist 
you will confer a great favor on the sufferers.” 
The matter being referred to Mr. Riley, he 
sends the following: 
The insect referred to by your correspondent 
is known as the Apple-maggot, in contradis¬ 
tinction to the notorious and more wide-spread 
Apple-worm or Codling-moth. This last oc¬ 
curs all over the land, and was originally im¬ 
ported, with apples, from Europe. The insect 
which Mr. Spatter refers to is, on the contrary, 
an indigenous species, and feeds naturally on 
our wild haws or thorn-apples, and, as I have 
proved, also on our crabs. It was first described 
by the late Benj. D. Walsh in the American 
Journal' of Horticulture for December, 1867, 
and further treated of in his Report as Acting 
State Entomologist of Illinois. Prior to the 
year 1866 it was not known as an injurious in¬ 
sect, but since then it has done much damage to 
apples—and especially to tender-skinned vari- 
ties—in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, 
and Vermont, and now we may add New 
Hampshire to the list. 
This insect differs notably from the Codling- 
moth in the following respects: The parent fly 
has two transparent wings clouded with marks 
as in the engraving (fig. 1), and it consequently 
