1868.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
327 
width, made of good steel, very light, very 
sharp, and balanced on a line with the handle. 
We never before employed so handy a tool 
for surface working of the soil where it is not 
very stony. It picks out weeds close to, or in 
the carrot row almost, and often quite as well 
as a pair of fingers; it sweeps through the crust 
of the soil, cutting every weed and letting it 
stay where it stood. Held at a different angle 
it turns off quite a furrow, which may be 
directed against the row or up to a “ hill.” It 
works around a hill of corn or beans in an af¬ 
fectionate sort of way, the point entering to 
nick out a weed or two, and the blade whisks 
about, loosening the soil and cutting off the 
weeds, and though out of sight is in no. danger 
of doing any injury—the “goose-neck” being 
turned toward the plant. The handle is very 
light, and might be best made of clear straight¬ 
grained pine, for it is, or should be, subjected 
to no hard blows. “ P.” writes as follows : 
“ I have seen nothing that suits me better for 
stirring the ground between plants, loosening 
hard soil, and even for chopping up deep-rooted 
weeds and tufts of grass, and scraping the top 
soil, than the spear or lance shaped hoe. A few 
years ago I went to a blacksmith and described 
to him what I wanted. He took a worn-out, flat, 
shoeing rasp, and broke it in two in the middle, 
and from one-half of it soon forged me a very 
complete tool, sharp and thin at the edges and 
point. I ground it up quite sharp on the side 
edges, leaving the back or middle thick, the in¬ 
side flat, about in the shape of a spear head cut 
or split in two flatwise. After a use of three 
summers it is but very little worn, and seems 
to be the favorite tool of the garden. For replant¬ 
ing corn and truck seeds generally, it is splen¬ 
did. It cannot be excelled for ease of working 
and completeness, and by using the side, it is a 
fine' affair for scraping the top of the ground and 
killing weeds just starting.” 
Remedy for Canker Worms. 
We published last year, page 102, Ralph Rob¬ 
inson’s method of destroying the female moth 
of the canker worm. That had the merit of 
cheap materials, but -was expensive in the item 
of labor. In a recent conversation with John 
PROTECTION AGAINST CANKER WORMS. 
G. Barker, of Cambridge, Mass., lie gave us the 
details of a plan, which he has applied to the 
orchard of which he has charge, for the last two 
years, with entire success. He is indebted for 
the idea to Elijah Luke, an amateur horticultur¬ 
ist, of Cambridgeport, Mass. To prevent the 
moths from ascending the tree, he incloses the 
trunk with a rough box, fig. 1, about 15 inches 
deep, of sufficient size to leave about 4 inches 
between the inside of the box and the nearest 
points of the trunk. The box is set on a level, 
and the lower edge 3 inches in the ground. 
The space inside the box is packed with tan- 
bark, to prevent the moths from ascending with¬ 
in. About 3 inches from the top of the box on 
the outside, he fastens a V-shaped trough made 
of zinc or some cheap metal, as shown in the 
illustration. A tinman is needed to solder the 
corners, and make the trough tight all round. 
The trough must be on a 
water level. He then 
puts into the trough about 
one pint of crude Petro¬ 
leum, which is very de¬ 
structive to insects. This 
article is comparatively 
cheap, about 25 cents a 
gallon, and does not read¬ 
ily evaporate. Over the 
trough he fastens a zinc 
lid upon each side of the 
box, with a screw in the 
middle of the lid, which 
projects 3 inches beyond 
the trough. This protects 
the petroleum from the 
weather. It is fastened 
by a screw for conven¬ 
ience in removing to pour 
in the oil, or to remove insects, lest the trough 
be clogged. The boxes are put around the 
trees, and the troughs filled the last of Septem¬ 
ber, and are kept there as long as danger 
threatens from this pest. The cost of the boxes 
and troughs is about two dollars per tree, and 
they are good for a great many years if well 
made. The saving in labor from the old method 
of tarring is very great. After the oil is put in, 
there is absolute security, with only a rare visit 
to the trees to see that the troughs are not filled 
with the moths. We are assured by Mr. Bar¬ 
ker that his success has been complete in the 
midst of orchards that were made bare by this 
insect. He has raised apples enough in the last 
two years of dearth to more than pay for the 
expense of the boxes. In Vol. 24, page 366, 
Mr. David Lyman describes a device for pre¬ 
venting the ascent of the moths. It is a tin 
cylinder suspended around the trunk a few feet 
from the ground, by means of a short cotton 
bag, which is tied firmly to the tree. The low¬ 
er edge of the tin is smeared with a mixture of 
castor oil and kerosene, which requires frequent 
renewing. This is a cheaper contrivance, but re¬ 
quires more labor in watching and attending to it. 
A Durable Stone Fence. 
The great objection to the old style stone 
fence, whether built single or double, was its 
want of durability. Unless the foundation was 
put below frost it was soon thrown out of line, 
and in a few years gaps were made in it every 
winter, and much labor was expended for re¬ 
pairs. It was, indeed, a better fence than one 
of rails, for the material never rotted, and it did 
not need resetting so frequently. It was always 
expensive, and would never have been so exten¬ 
sively built but for the convenient market it 
made for surface stones. The rock lifters, of 
wdiich we have two, at least, mounted upon 
wheels, have introduced a new style of heavy 
wall that can be cheaply built, and will last for¬ 
ever. These machines will draw boulders 
deeply imbedded in the earth, weighing six or 
eight tons, and, with a single yoke of cattle or 
span of horses, will lay them in the bed of the 
wall. The smaller boulders are put in their 
position without any straining or lifting, and a 
wall of five or six feet high, embracing three 
tiers of stone, as shown in the illustration, can 
be laid by the team and two men. The inter¬ 
stices have to be filled up with smaller stones, 
and the large stones sometimes need blocking 
to make them bear perfectly. The largest 
boulders are five or six feet across, and this is 
the width of the wall at the bottom, as usually 
WALL OF HEAVY STONES. 
made. The stones next in size make the second 
tier, and the smaller ones form the caps. A 
wall of this kind with a four-wheeled machine 
can be laid up for about $2.50 a rod, including 
the digging of the stones. The most expedi¬ 
tious method is to lay the stones as fast as they 
are dug, as this saves the labor of hitching on 
to them and raising them a second time. If 
properly laid, no frost will ever disturb such a 
wall, and it will last until the boulders crumble. 
Thus very rough pastures are economically 
cleared and fenced, and turned into smooth, 
productive meadows. The stone pulling is a 
very thorough subsoiling, and the effect is visi¬ 
ble for many years. 
Tethering Cattle in Grazing. 
The tethering of cattle to save grass, except 
upon the smallest scale in yards and orchards, 
has never been pursued in this country. Land 
is so cheap, and grass so abundant in summer, 
that no need of it lias been felt. In the region 
of cheap lands there is, perhaps, nothing to be 
gained by a change of the present system of 
promiscuous pasturage. But in some of the 
older States, and especially in the vicinity of our 
large towns, where land is worth $200 an acre, 
and upward, we think the system of tethering 
might be adopted with advantage. In the un¬ 
restrained grazing of fertile lands much of the 
grass is destroyed for feed by trampling and by 
the droppings of the cattle. Me have seen in 
the grazing districts rich meadows, that would 
make two or three tons of hay to the acre, de¬ 
voted to fat cattle. They are all unequally 
