
          314

" 'Another piece of labor has to be performed in this
warm climate, which serves likewise to keep down
the weeds and grass under the trees.  An insect resembling
greatly in appearance the botfly [!] that
teases our Horses, pierces the bark of the trees, a
little below the surface of the earth, and there deposits,
in June and July, its eggs; out of which
are hatched, a red worm  [!], half an inch long
and of the thickness of a coarse knitting needle.
These worms injure the trees much, and often
kill them, by girdling them quite round, just
under the surface of the soil. [' "]

" 'To prevent these winged insects from operating
on the softened bark, near the surface,
a hill of earth about a foot high is raised
round each tree, about the 1st of June; and
taken away about the 1st of September.  These insects
either find the bark too hard and dry to
pierce, or the taking away the earth leaves the
eggs uncovered and they perish.  The fact is,
after a ten year's trial, Mr. Bayley has found his
trees thus completely preserved against the
worms. [' "]

" 'The age of a peach orchard, Mr. Bayley
estimates at twenty years [there could have
been no "yellows" in that region in 1814 !] He
has seen them much older; but thinks more
profit is to be had, by replanting at the end
of twenty years. A tree is nearly in perfection
the sixth year; when it will yield annually
at the rate of fifteen gallons of fourth-proof
brandy, for every hundred trees. The price of this
liquor, before the War [of 1812], was one dollar
fifty cents, and now two dollars per gallon. / [' "]

" 'When the season of gathering peaches commenses [commences,
a number of Hands are hired, chiefly
        