THE CULTIVATOR. 
101 
supported by a frame work of some kind, or brush, as the 
fruit will be better than if left on the ground. There 
are several varieties of the tomato, but the large red for 
the table or preserving, and the cherry tomato for pick¬ 
ling, are perhaps the best. They are used in various 
ways; eaten in vinegar as cucumbers, made into soups, 
into toasts, baked in pie, but perhaps the greatest use is 
in tomato sauce, which is highly esteemed. 
There can be no doubt that our farmers might, at a lit¬ 
tle expense, greatly enlarge their list of valuable garden 
esculents; and in so doing materially decrease their an¬ 
nual expenses, while they are at the same time adding 
to their comforts. 
APHIS OF THE CHERRY TREE. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker —Huber, in hisaccountof 
the ants of Switzerland, says there are some species 
which obtain their principal food from the honey-like 
substance that is excreted by the aphis—that the ants 
watch, tend and keep the aphis for its honey, as men do 
cows for their milk. I have not, by any direct observa¬ 
tion of my own, been able to verify this fact in refere • 
to our American ants. Mrs. Darling, on one occasion, 
had the good fortune, on raising a fiat stone in the spring, 
to see the ants pick up and carry off the aphides which 
had been housed for the winter in the same habitation. 
I have no doubt therefore but that our ants are, as Huber 
expresses it, a “ pastoral people,” as well as those of 
Switzerland. It is quite probable that the aphis of the 
cherry tree in particular is domiciled with the ants in 
winter, and in the spring, as soon as the leaves are un¬ 
folded, is carried by the ants to the trees where it finds 
pasture for the summer. It rather confirms the supposi¬ 
tion, that when the cherry aphis first makes it appearance 
in spring, it is on leaves very near the ground. I have 
had occasion to turn this fact to account, in preserving 
my young cherry trees from this destructive insect. 
Summer before the last, I had about a thousand young 
trees, which, before I was well aware of the evil, were 
covered with the black aphis. All the usual applications 
recommended in books, were made without much effect. 
I was forced to give up the trees to the insects. The 
trees in consequence were very much stunted in their 
growth, and what Avar; quite as bad, grew crooked and 
deformed. The last season I determined to commence 
the destruction of the aphis at its first appearance. As 
soon as the leaves started in the spring, I examined the 
trees carefully, especially near the ground, and killed 
with the finger the few insects that were to be seen. In 
this way my trees were wholly preserved from injury, 
and without any other trouble than looking over them, 
at first every day, afterwards every 2d, then 3d day, and 
finally once a week. 
r’each trees which hav r e been tarred in the spring for 
protection against the borer or peach worm, are never 
infested with the aphis—I suppose because the ants 
cannot carry the aphides up the trees over the tar. 
My plum trees were preserved in a different manner. 
The trees were suffered to stand unattended to, till I sup¬ 
posed the ants had carried up all the aphides which they 
intended to put in that pasture. I then cut off every 
leaf Avhere insects were to be found—and no more made 
their appearance. I took care however to leav r e un¬ 
touched the leaves on which were the eggs of the chry- 
sopa perla, a green, lace-winged, fetid fly that devours 
the aphis. These eggs are hung to the underside of a 
leaf by a small thread about £ of an inch long; and 
should never be disturbed. Noyes Darling. 
roots to see if the borer has been there. If there arc 
any holes made in the tree by insects, fill them with hard 
soap. Wash the tree with soft soap, diluted with an 
equal quantity of water. In a month after, look again 
for the borer; he can be traced by his te saw-dust;” dig 
him out. Go through the orchard again in July, and 
give the wash as above. 
GRAFTING GRAPE VINES. 
The following is the mode practiced by the late Mr. 
Herbemont, of South Carolina. (e Take away the earth 
around the vine, to the depth of four or five inches—saw 
it off about two or three inches below the surface of the 
ground. Split it with a knife or chisel, and having taper¬ 
ed the lower end of the scion in the shape of a wedge, 
j insert it in the cleft stock, so as to make the bark of both 
coincide, (which perhaps is not necessary with the vine;) 
tie it with any kind of string merely to keep the scion in 
its place, so as to leave only one bud of . the graft above 
the ground, and the other just below the surface, and it is 
done.” 
TO KILL THE PEACH TREE BORER. 
Mr. Jas. Camack, of Athens, Ga., in a letter published 
in the Magazine of Horticulture, recommends fish brine, 
diluted with an equal quantity of water, and a pint to be 
turned round each tree in the spring or fall. The trees 
on which he used this liquid were 2^ to 3 inches in di¬ 
ameter. To smaller trees he thinks less brine should be 
applied. 
^Domestic €c0n*mt|). 
EXPERIMENTS IN MAKING BUTTER. 
CUTTING SCIONS. 
This is a good month for cutting scions. They should 
be kept in a cool, moist place, till the sap runs brisk¬ 
ly, when they may be set. If they are to be carried any 
distance, it is well to dip the cut ends in wax, and pack 
in moss, dampened a little. 
ORCHARDS. 
Mr. Harkness, writing on the management of or¬ 
chards, in the Prairie Farmer, advises to go over the 
trees in the spring as soon as the leaves begin to start, to 
clean off the eggs of the caterpillar and examine the 
The following communication, we think valuable be¬ 
cause the experiments which are detailed, seem to have 
been conducted with the care and judgment necessary to 
establish a fact. We are not disappointed at the results—. 
former experience having led us to believe that where 
milk is kept at the right temperature, all the cream will 
rise, and we can get no more than all by the scalding 
process. Either of otfr correspondent’s plans is far better 
than letting the milk freeze, which should not be permit¬ 
ted. 
Messrs. Editors —In the winter of 1841, we institut¬ 
ed some experiments by scalding the milk with a view 
of ascertaining a better method of obtaining cream and 
making butter in cold weather than heretofore adopted. 
Our experiments then were confined to the milk of one 
cow; it now embraced the m ;k of five cows, which 
probably may account for the difference in the amount of 
milk taken to prodnee a pound of butter. It is well 
known that cow’s milk is liable to v^ary considerably, ac¬ 
cording to the nature of the food and the state of the 
I weather. The quality of the milk of a cow, can easily 
!be decided by a lactometer, or by setting a portion of it 
for cream, in a wine-glass, and comparing it with others 
in the same way, and under the same circumstances; or 
the milk of a particular animal can be placed by itself 
for a period of time, and the actual produce determined. 
There is a great difference in the quality as well as 
the quantity of milk given by cows of the same appear¬ 
ance and treated in the same manner. Not unfrequently 
in the same herd, the product of one cow is worth double 
that of another. The writer has known one cow whose 
milk would not produce butter, and strange as it may ap¬ 
pear, she raised the fattest calves of any cow in the herd. 
It is presumed that every person who keeps a cow is de¬ 
sirous of having one of superior quality, but it is more 
the result of good fortune than prudence if he obtains 
such an one in the ordinary way. 
Our object in the present experiment, was made not 
only with a v r iew to ascertain the comparativ e advan¬ 
tage, if any, of heating the milk, but in the time em¬ 
ployed in converting the cream into butter; the amount 
obtained from a given quantity of milk; and the quality 
of the butter, all managed under circumstances as nearly 
alike as possible. The difficulty of raising cream and 
making good butter in cold weather is well known to 
all who have paid any attention to that branch of 
the fanner’s business. 
