124 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
April, 
Strawberries destroyed by Grubs. 
By the short description your correspondent, W. P. 
Sargent, gives of the grub that destroyed his straw¬ 
berries, I presume it to be the larva of the cockchafer. 
(Scarabceus melolontha ,)which is often very destructive 
to the strawberry ; commencing just below the crown 
of the plant, and eating its way through, after which 
it betakes itself to the next if not destroyed. 
In newly broken ground it is often very plentiful; its 
presence may easily be detected by the plant becoming 
unhealthy, when if the soil is a little removed around 
the plant, may be found close to its work, and if the 
plant is not too far gone, by its removal the plant will 
recover. 
This pest attacked a newly formed plantation here 
last summer, but being an old acquaintance, was sought 
for and destroyed. 
The following is its history in Nicholson’s Cyclopedia. 
The eggs are layed in small detached heaps beneath 
the surface of some clod, and the young when first 
hatched, are scarcely more than the eighth of an inch 
long, gradually advancing in their growth, and occa¬ 
sionally shifting their skins, till they arrive at the 
length of nearly two inches. 
At this period they begin to prepare for a change in¬ 
to a chrysalis or pupa, selecting for the purpose some 
small clod of earth, in which they form a cavity, and 
after a certain time, divest themselves of their last skin, 
and immediately appear in the pupa state ; in this they 
continue till the succeeding summer, when the beetle 
emerges from its retirement, and commits its depreda¬ 
tions on the leaves of trees, breeds, and deposits its eggs 
in a favorable situation, after which its life is of very 
short duration. 
It is said to be two or three years in passing from its 
first form into that of the perfect insect. 
The larva is eagerly sought for and devoured by 
swine, bats, crows and poultry. Edgar Sanders. 
Mismanagement with Apple Trees. 
Four-fifths of the apple trees that have died in north¬ 
ern New-York during the last twenty years, have died 
of starvation and improper pruning. There is scarcely 
a man that has followed husbandry ten years, who does 
not know that it will not answer to take off more than 
five or six crops of grain in succession from a piece of 
land without manure ; but he will take off fifteen crops 
of apples from his orchard in succession without add¬ 
ing any manure, and when the crops begin to grow 
light, the fruit small, and. of inferior quality, he be¬ 
gins to inquire for the cause of such light crops. He 
asks his noighbor what is the matter with his orchard. 
He tells him it needs pruning. He being very much 
afraid of present cost, strives to find a man that will 
do it cheap. (Most farmers if they are obliged to have 
a leg cut off, employ the most skillful surgeon they can 
find, who performs the operation with the sharpest of 
instruments; but the same men generally employ the 
cheapest bunglers they can find to cut off the limbs of 
their apple trees.) He soon finds a cheap bungler, who ' 
knows scarcely enough about pruning to tell a live 
branch from a dead one when the leaves are off; and 
to make it come cheaper he hires him by the job, and 
gives him all the branches to pay for the labor. This 
induces him to cut off twice as much as he otherwise 
would. He now commences the work of death upon 
the orchard, and with an axe or dull saw cuts or hag¬ 
gles off about half of the branches. The next year 
the apples being much larger, Mr. Unthrifty thinks he 
has accomplished the great object. The reason why 
the apples are larger is, the few branches receive the 
same nutriment that the whole received before. The 
branches being improperly cut off, the stocks do not 
heal over, but soon die, rot, and form holes into the 
trunks of the trees; these holes let in the water, which 
soon destroys the inside of the trunk; this, together 
with the want of food, acts so powerfully upon the vi¬ 
tality of the trees, that after vainly struggling for a 
few years, they give up and die; and who blames 
them ? No man of good sense can. 
This man now finds his plans frustrated, and again 
inquires of his neighbor what has caused the death of 
his orchard. He tells him it must all be laid to the 
climate, and the only thing that he can do is to set out 
a young orchard. He says to himself this will be of 
no use to me, for I am now sixty years old; but as I 
have children who are fond of apples, I will set out a 
few trees to gratify them. The first step he takes is to 
find where he can get the trees cheapest, without any 
regard to the manner in which they have been train¬ 
ed. Unthrifty being a man who deals mostly in cheap . 
articles, he employs a man to furnish the trees and set 
them by the job. This he does for 16 cents a piece. It 
is frequently the case that people who work by the job 
slight their work; he is therefore very careful not to 
dig the holes too deep, nor too large. He digs them 
about as large as a peck measure; into these small 
cavities he crams in the roots of the trees, and if he 
cannot get them all in the hole, he cuts off part of 
them with his shovel. He then throws back the sods 
and lumps around the trees, and pronounces them set 
in first-rate order. He then receives his money and is 
off in haste. Unthrifty soon expects to see a thrifty 
orchard, but is greatly disappointed. The trees being 
improperly trained, and improperly set, one-half of 
them die the first season. The remainder being sick¬ 
ly, languish for three or four years, during which time 
one-half of them die. Of all the trees set in this way, 
not more than one in ten is ever profitable. About 
this time Mr. Unthrifty dies, leaving his unthrifty or¬ 
chard for his children, who are not very thankful for the 
orchard which their father has left them, at the same 
time thinking him to be nearly as wise as any man in 
the United States. This is the wpy many men manage 
with their orchards, who boast of being enlightened, 
and who are living in these free and enlightened states 
of North America. I would like to say more on this 
subject, but will defer it till a future period, well know¬ 
ing that the minds of men are much like their stomachs, 1 
If cramm’d too full, they throw out the whole, K 
But if fed by degrees, they digest"all with ease. rfs) 
Hoosick , Rens. co., N. Y. Elihu Cross. X3 
