UMASS/AMHERST

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FIVE COLLEGE
DEPOSITORY

E FACTS

FOR THE

RKER,

THE

FRUIT GROWER,

AND THE

PUBLIC.

The Horse in the Slobber Grass.

4aQ

837

FURNISHED BY JOHN FORMAN, Esq. FARMER AND NURSERY-
MAN, WESTERN NEW-YORK.

BY M. R. BARTLETT

NEW-YORK :

19HED FOR THE PROPRIETOR BY NAFIS & CORNISH, 278 PEARL-ST.
PHILADELPHIA : JOHN B. PERRY, CS 1-2 NORTH SECOND-ST.
BOSTON ; LEWIS & SAMPSON WASHINGTON-ST.

1S43.

LIBRARY

OF THE

MASSACHUSETTS

AGRICULTURAL

COLLEGE

sour 499
B37

,

■■ pctcm

/ 1

DATE DUE

.vMO

(a

PRIME FACTS

FOR THE

FARMER,

THE

FRUIT GROWER,

AND THE

PUBLIC.

The Horse id the Slobber Grass.

FURNISHED BY JOHN FORMAN, Esq. FARMER AND NURSERY-
MAN, WESTERN NEW-YORIL

BY M. R. BARTLETT

NEW-YORK

PUBLISHED FOR THE PROPRIETOR BY NAFIS & CORNISH, 278 PEARL-ST.

PHILADELPHIA : JOHN B. PERRY, 88 1-2 NORTH SECOND-ST.

BOSTON : LEWIS & SAMPSON, WASHINGTON-ST.

1843.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843,

By M. R. BARTLETT,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the

Southern District of New-York.

TO WHOM THIS MAY COME.

We the undersigned, citizens of the State of New -York,
do hereby certify that we have been personally acquaint-
ed with John Form an, Esqr. of Onondaga Hollow, West
New- York, for the last thirty years, and that we know
him to have been a most, ingenious and critically exact.
Farmer, — the first detector of the cause of the Horse Slob-
ber, &c. and a greatly successful Fruit Grower : — having,
some forty years since, first introduced into these parts, many
of the most choice and valuable kinds of fruit in the country,
and subsequently supplied our northern and western inhabit-
ants with nearly all of their present stock of trees.

New- York, November 20, 1842.

O*

J. L. Richardson,

Willet Ray nor,

Elam Lynds,

C. A. Baker,

A. Northam,

R. Woolworth,

H. F. Fellows,

Thomas B. Fitch,

William Downs,

John Lave,

John Dunford, (20 years)

A. J. Butler, (13 years)

William Barker, (30 years)

Henry Van Keeser, (20 years)

L. O. Phinney,

Joseph Knight, (15 years)

John Leslie,

Ezra Town, (17 years)

Stephen Porter, (12 years)

Z. W. Cagswell, (good)

R. Raynor, (20 years)

A. Phillips,

S. House,

B. D. Nexen,
L. H. Redfield,
M. D. Burnet,
J. Fleming,

E. Phillips,

F. Benson, (Sheriff,)
J. J. Hopper,
Hiram Putnam,

M. Williams, M. D.
H. W. Dunford,
D. C. Lansing, D. D.
Samuel Eager,
John C. Brown,
John P. King,
Samuel Lamed,
H. A. Perkins,
George N. Germell,
Daniel Dana,
Isaac Rawn.
P. N. Rust,
William Malcolm,
William B. Kirk,
Luther Marsh.

DEDICATION

This little work, prepared in behalf of the great and grow-
ing interests of the country, is most respectfully dedicated to
the various AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES of the United
States of America, by a devoted friend to the perpetual pros-
perity of the whole union, — "one and undivided,''

M. R. BARTLETT.

City of New- York,
Jan. 1, 1843.

PREFACE.

The Few Prime Facts, submitted to the Public in
the following pages, are gathered from patient observation
and carefully conducted experiments, through many years
of practical enquiry and close investigation ; not, however,
by a mere book man, — a vague theoriest, but a Practical
Farmer, and most successful Fruit Grower.

He sensibly felt the evils to which these Facts refer, and
early sat himself down in an absolute wilderness of conject-
ure, to discover the causes of them. The progress was slow ;
but the end was sure ; and each cause, as it became fairly de-
veloped, almost invariably pointed out a remedy for the evil
which it inflicted.

He now comes, at his earliest convenience, to place both
the cause of these evils, and the cure of them before his coun-
trymen ; and he does it, not in abstruce technicalities and
erudite phrases, but in plain, farmer-like language, and in
terms suited to common capacities.

He indulges the hope that his brief statements will prompt
to further and more scientific investigation, and that they
may finally lead to a high degree of perfection, in the pres-
ervation of the horse and the cow, and in the cultivation of
fruit trees.

He here takes the freedom of saying, should this labor of
his hands be kindly received and honestly rewarded, he has
some other facts with respect to the Bee, the Bee-house, &c
which shall be given in a future number.

Author.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER L

Page.

Sec. 1. — Disease of the Horse, &c. ... 9

Sec. 2. — Disease of the Cow, &c. ... 16

Sec. 3. — Cure of the Horse and Cow. ... 22

Sec. 4. — Patent Slobber Grass Drag, &c. . . 26

CHAPTER II.

Sec. 1. — Disease of the Plum Tree or Black Bunch, &c. 30
Sec. 2. — Cure of the Plum Tree, (fee. ... 35

CHAPTER III.

Sec. 1. — Decay of the Peach Tree, <fcc. . . 40

Sec. 2. — Remedy, &c, Frauds of Nursery Men, &c. 47

Note. — Publishers of Pajiers, tfC, who may feel disposed to notice thess
<■ Prime Facts," are respectfully requested not to make extracts from the
work and thereby harm the sale.

Proprietor.

A FEW PRIME FACTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE HORSE AND THE COW.

FACT NUMBER ONE.

THE DISEASE OF THE HORSE..

Section I.

THE CAUSE OF THE SLOBBERS.

It is a fact, generally known, and known too by dear-bought
experience, that, in this country, and probably in most others,
the horse kept in the summer season on ordinary grass feed,
contracts a disease called the Slobbers, the cause of which
has utterly baffled the enquiry of many a farmer and horse
grower for nearly the whole of the last half century. For
many years the complaint was regarded as inflicting noth-
ing more than a little inconvenience, a disagreeable drool,
&c. ; but experience soon proved that it plants other diseases
which, like the "jaw bone," have slain their thousands.

The cause of the Slobbers has been attributed to the Ca-
nada Thistle by one set of farmers ; to Dr. Thompson's
cure-all, the Lobelia, by another ; one says it is the after
growth of Clover, called Rowen, or fall feed, and another
knows it to be Spider-icebs suspended on the grass feed, and

2

10 FACT NUMBER ONE.

by the help of the dew is rendered quite conspicuous during
the morning hours ; but more recently, it has been said, the
Slobbers are caused by the Spur found on the wire or wild
Indian Grass, which is said to be a native of the country.

But all these, and in fact all else, if else has even been
stated, were mere conjectures, or what the Yankees call
■' guess-ioork." Every thing known as to the real cause of
the complaint, was altogether blind uncertainty, up to the
period of the month of August, eighteen hundred and
thirty-eight. At that time a farmer by the name of John
Forman, one of the early settlers in Onondaga Hollow,
West New- York, had a highly valuable and favorite cow
come to her milk, or rather was to have come to it, but when
delivered of her calf, she had no milk whatever, nor had she
any udder to hold the milky secretions.

The wonder was great and pretty general ; and no little
solicitude was felt for the animal, and the preservation of the
little stranger, who prompted by instinct, acted as one labor-
ing under the weight of Nature's left-hand cuff.

The farmer concluded there must be a cause for a pheno-
menon so singular and unexpected, and sat himself down to
investigate the matter. Upon a little enquiry, he found six
cases of a similar character in his own neighborhood, and
therefore concluded the occurrence was not so very strange
as he at first supposed. However, he pursued the enquiry
with his own cow, and after close examination found the
beast affected very much as man is, after being freely dosed
with mercury.

He turned from his cow to his horse, then staggering under

FACT NUMBER ONE. 11

the effects of the Slobbe?'s, and saw at once the animal was
salivated, and that both cow and horse, were diseased alike,
though the glandular affection was not so strongly apparent
in the former as in the latter. Both however were sensibly
relieved, temporarily, by a mess of wheat bran, and hence
the direct intimation of the propriety of a change of feed.

A few experiments satisfied the enquirer, that whatever
the cause might be, the disease was destruction to both ani-
mals ; if not directly so, as by poison, then by the induction
of other diseases. By a course of experiments made upon
the horse, it was found the animal lost his flesh, his strength,
his spirits, and his ambition ; dropping successively into the
Scoioers, — then the Yellow Watei\ and, lastly, to death.
Yet in the worst stages of the complaint, he could be brought
back and built up in a short period, by a course of dry feed,
oats, shorts, bran, &c, in the place of pasture or grass
feed.

The next advance in the enquiry went to prove that there
were kinds of grass feed or pasture, which did not inflict
the disease at any time, and that the commencement of the
complaint, was about the period of the full blooming of the
chestnut-tree ; while its end was, at latitude 43 north, late
in October. Yet a few cases of the disease were found to
have been known while feeding on dry hay in the winter
season, but they were not very violent nor of long duration.

Following the horse from one day to another, and from
one pasture to another, and watching the effect of each move,
the long sought cause was finally discovered, and it was also
discovered, at the same time, to be more abundant in certain

12 FACT NUMBER ONE.

places than any other kind of feed. The observer had seen
it before some hundreds of times ; it had been about him,
and about others for many years, and yet had not been once
suspected ; nay, it had long been regarded as appropriate
and wholesome fodder, both for summer and winter

This discovery is deemed a great public benefit, — a na-
tional blessing ; and it claims to merit the consideration and
gratitude, not of the farmer simply, but of every member of
the household of man. Aside from the misery which it im-
poses upon the poor horse and other animals, which every
humane mind must feel and regret, the loss to the owner, in
behalf of labor and property, and the aggregate loss to the
country, in point of general prosperity and wealth, must be
immense ; and without the knowledge of this discovery, it
must have increased in the ratio of the increase of horses,
<fcc, and of our population.

Any further detail with respect to the manner in which
the cause of the Slobbers was discovered, or the experiments
made in this behalf, need not now be stated ; though it is but
just to observe that the discovery has been withheld from
the public up to this period, for the purpose of making what
appeared very sure, positively certain, and thereby place the
whole matter on tangible premises and above the reach of
doubt.

Now, then, — the cause of the Horse Slobber, is a
wild grass, a native of our soil, and wonderfully prolific.
It was first found in and about old Indian reservations, and
it still grows about those regions in the greatest abundance
and to much the greatest perfection. But it is by no means

FACT NUMBER ONE. 13

confined to such grounds, nor indeed to any particular soil
or climate yet known. It is found to some extent in all
parts of the country ; it grows on the lowest and highest
points of land, and even in the streets of our great cities. It
is wonderfully tenatious of life, and to destroy it out of the
land, would prove more difficult probably than the destruc-
tion of the Canada Thistle.

With respect to the character of this poison grass, it may
be well to observe that, in point of height, it has been found
to vary from three inches, at maturity, to thirty inches ; and
where the soil is very favorable, it sometimes rises to three
feet. Where it has free scope, it branches out from the root
and strays off in almost every direction, something like the
garden pursley, but in every few inches, it penetrates the
earth, and throws its roots downward and its stems upward.
Hence, the main or primitive root, has been known to send
up from one to three hundred stems or stalks, while the ava-
rage branches on a healthy stem ranges from ten to twelve
which form heads, and the seeds in each head run from four
to seven hundred. From these premises some notion may
be formed of the manner in which this troublesome grass is
propigated.

The discoverer of the effects of this grass upon the horse,
&c, knowing no name for the plant, took the freedom of
calling it Slobber Grass ; nor has this appellation been
found to militate with any previous name ; for no one seems
to have known any term by which it was designated. The
Indians, so far as the Six Nations are concerned, have had no
name for it ; though some of them claim to have known it

14 PACT NUMBER ONE.

longer and better than any body else. Mr. Chilton, an emi-
nent Chemist and Botanist of the city of New- York, when
shown the grass, said it was a species of Dog Grass ; but
of what kind he was not then able to determine. Chilton's
remark is probably correct ; for observation proves that the
Dog does in fact eat it, instinctively, though very sparingly,
and that it acts on him as a medicine.

Professor Gray of Boston, a gentleman who enjoys the re-
putation of being one of the most accomplished Botanists of
this or any other country, said, when a stem of this grass
was presented to him, " the Botanical name of the plant is
Digitari a S anguinalis," but he had no common name for
it. In the absence, however, of a traditionary cognomen, we
venture to christian it Slobber Grass, and under that de-
nomination, we represent it, at full length and perfection, in
the opposite cut, by which we presume it may be very easily
identified.

The name of the grass is of but little moment compared
with its perfect identity, and the wide spread evils with
which it is visiting our whole country.

The mere slobbering or salivation of the horse, is, with
respect to this noble animal, only the beginning of trouble ;
for when the slobbering is suffered to run on for twelve or
fourteen weeks in the year, without a check, it almost inva-
riably passes into a disease commonly called the Scowers,
or a kind of Flux, that sometimes proves fatal. If however
this complaint is survived, a vitiated state of the blood ensues
which generally brings on the Yellow Water, or a kind
of Dropsy, which, in hard weather, almost always carries the
animal off.

FACT NUMBER ONE.

15

SLOBBER GRASS PLANT.
As to the actual amount of loss in the property of the
horse either to the farmer or the country, no estimate is here
attempted, simply because the proper data are not at hand.
Could the amount, however, be honestly reached it would
probably surprise the most incredulous.

Note There is a harmless kind of wild grass which somewhat resembles

the above ; its leaf however is broader and perfectly smooth, whereas, the
Slobber Grass leaf is stoutly coated with fuze, not to 3ay beardy.

16

FACT NUMBER ONE.

THE COW TWO WEEKS AFTER EATING THE SLOBBER GRASS,

FACT NUMBER ONE.

THE DAIRY COW.

Section II.
THE CAUSE OF THE FALLING OFF IN THE MILK OF THE COW.

We have already observed that the Slobber Grass dis-
ease, visites the Milch Cow with great severity; and we
now say, that, the evils resulting from the disease of the
horse, in this respect, bear no proportion to those arising
from the salivation of this animal while in a state either of
coming in, as it is called, or of giving milk. In the cow,
these evils have been seen and felt, especially in the old
states, for more than half a century ; and they have gene-
rally been regarded as a matter of course, — a visitation in-

FACT NUMBER ONE. 17

separable from the nature of things and the relation of the
animal system to the earth.

Where any doubt has existed, or where thought has been
exerted on the subject, all has been referred to some peculi-
arity in the character of our country, — the nature of our soil
or our climate, — the breed of our milch stock, or the immedi-
ate effect of sin in our world ; and, therefore, in any case
there could be no remedy except patient endurance and be-
coming submission.

In the end, however, observation first opened the way to
enquiry ; this led to experiment, and experiment soon tram-
pled all vague suppositions under foot, placing the whole sub-
ject under the easy and absolute control of every man who
sees fit to exert his senses or employ his wits.

Experiments have proved, beyond all controversy, that the
Slobber Grass acts upon the cow very much as calomel ope-
rates upon the human system, though the slobbering does
not appear so abundant as in the case of the horse. It is
found to create a fever, followed by a loss of energy; to viti-
ate the blood; diminish the quantity and debase the quality
of the milk ; run into the butter, giving it the appearance and
even the taste of hog's lard; and into the butter-milk, giving
it a watery consitency and an impoverished taste. It is
also believed to sensibly impair the health of those who, in
that condition of the cow, use her milk in any way, inducing
probably the disease called the Milk Sickness.

At all events, the disease soon runs the animal into the
Scowers, the same as the horse, and then into the Yellow
Water, or the overflow of the gaul, which generally termi-

3

18 FACT NUMBER ONE.

nates in death. But if she chance to survive all these, she is
soon taken with the hollow-horn, or the hoof-ail ; and should
she wade through the whole, the inference is, she has been
favored with mild weather and a good nurse.

Then another evil, consequent on this disease, is the scar-
city of milk and butter, and the extravagantly high price of
the latter, notwithstanding its poverty, not to say its poison,
at a season of the year when it should be most abundant
and most perfect in quality.

The falling off in the milk, in point of quantity, has been
known to exceed one half, and the difference in respect to
purity and richness, is probably still greater. In latitude 4TC
north, and so on to 46, these deficiencies have been observed
to commence, where the Slobber Grass flourishes freely,
about the first, or during the first half of July ; and although,
in ordinary seasons, they may be partly regained, as tin's
grass dies away in the frosts of the declining year, yet,
should the cow live through the disease, the effect continues
to a great extent until she comes to a renewal of her milk.
Well tested experiments sufficiently prove that a cow, coming
to her milk, where she has had a free use of this grass, in
the month of August or September — may not have one gill ;
though previously eminent for a rich and large supply of
this needful nourishment.

All these afflictions, and inflictions, have been charged,
from time immemorable, to the account of the bad seasons,
— the want of rain, or the excess of rain; the dirth of feed,
or the poverty of feed; the influence of the climate, or the
presence of the dog-star; the heat of the weather, the change

FACT NUMBER ONE. 19

in the moon, the place of the planets, or something beyond
the knowledge of created intelligence. But we are now
prepared, to say, and to prove what we say," that the loss of
the milk arises entirely and exclusively from the Slobber
Grass. Yet it is fair to suppose the extent of the loss, as
well as the degree of the disease, may be found subject to
some slight modifications from other causes.

We here beg leave to observe that further and more sci-
entific experiments in this behalf, are now in progress, the
results of which will be made known in due season.

With respect to the effects of the grass on other animals,
it has already been ascertained that it is dangerous to the
goose and fatal to the gosling. It is the poison Pally Wroc>
which has so often swept off many an entire brood of these
web-footed younglings. This grass, to the goslings, is a
powerful physic; it soon turns the bill, the legs, and the feet,
a pale ash color, and in a few hours, fairly scowers the
fowl out of the world. This was the case with some ten or
twelve, upon which experiments were made in 1840. They
were placed where this grass flourished richly, and shut out
the growth of all other kinds of feed, and no one of them
survived the third day.

Other experiments satisfactorily proved that the hog,
probably the least dainty of all the four-legged tribe, shuns
this grass instinctively, as if it were really known to be a
certain death-dose. He will famish with hunger rather than
taste either root or branch of it ; though by breaking up the
ground, he multiplies the growth of it at a wonderful rate.

The hog is also known to avoid the Tobacco plant very

20 FACT NUMBER ONE.

much in the same way ; may not man, therefore, an animal,
not quite so delicate, in this respect, as Master Grunt, substi-
tute this grass for that weed and gain something by the ex-
change ? The enquiry is made merely to elicit experiment.

Sheep are observed to eat the Slobber Grass freely, though
it is believed to be injurious to their milk and to the growth
of their young. It has been found by careful comparison,
that lambs, where this grass prevails to the exclusion of
more healthy and nutritious feed, do not attain the weight
of lambs in regions where the grass is not known, by some-
thing more than thirty per cent. A course of experiments,
however, is now in progress which will probably determine
with more accuracy the effects of this grass upon sheep and
several other animals.

No attempt is here made to exhibit the precise qualities
or properties of the Slobber Grass, for the simple reason that
no fair test of its component parts has yet been obtained.
The plant has not been honestly submitted to a chemical
analysis ; the first and great object has been to say to the
world the cause of the Slobbers has been discovered and a
remedy found.

Preparations however are now in progress and are nearly
completed, for ascertaining its qualities and developing its
whole character by a scientific examination.

But without any character, and even without a name, it
has long been a prevailing plant in this, and probably in
many other countries, and has never been regarded as any
thing more than a harmless wild grass — a coarse pasture
feed. Mixed with other grasses, it has long been cut and

FACT NUMBER ONE. 21

'cured as appropriate winter fodder without once exciting
suspicion or waking enquiry. The entire loss of the milk
and the bag of an elegant and valuable cow, in the midst
of summer and fine feed, first roused attention, and patient
investigation has fully proved all and even more than all
that we have here stated.

22 FACT NUMBER ONE.

FACT NUMBER ONE,
Section III.

REMEDY FOR THE HORSE SLOBBERS, &c.

It has already been observed, that the Slobbers in the
horse, may be cured in a few hours by the use of dry feed,
and it may now be added, that wheat bran is believed to be
the most immediate as well as the most effectual temporary
cure. In some parts of the country, the laboring horse, to
avoid the effects of this disease, is regularly shut up and fed
on various kinds of dry fodder, during the whole slobber
season. A somewhat similar change of feed, provided for
the cow, will, if seasonably given, protect her also, or par-
tially restore her after she has been afflicted, from the effects
of this grass. But a more effectual remedy may be found
by adopting a regular and systematic course of pasturage,
something after the following order : —

1st. The Slobber Grass, like Indian Corn, will not
thrive in the shade ; in order, therefore, to smother its growth,
keep the ground, when suitable, heavily stocked with herds-
grass, or what is called fox-tail, with clover, or with some-
thing that will afford a thick, strong sward. Then, to pre-
serve this sward, and leave no opening for the Slobber Grass
to sprout, the hog should be carefully shut out from the pas-
ture ; for where this animal breaks the ground, the poison
grass springs up with wonderful celerity, scatters its seads,
and destroys the wholesome feed.

2d. The earliest spring feeding, should be taken from

FA.CT NUMBER ONE. 23

those lots or portions of ground, destined to be broken up for
the Summer Crop, and here the Hog may run and root to
his fill, without doing much mischief in the way of proro-
gating the Slobber Grass.

3d. The next feeding should be taken from what is in-
tended to constitute the main Summer Pasture, where the
Hog must not be suffered to run on any account whatever,
nor must the horse or cow remain there for any great length
of time ; because, the object is merely to crop off the first
growth a little, so as to cause the grass to spread, become
thick, retard the period of its coming to maturity, and hold
the Slobber Grass in check.

4th. In the third place, the feeding may be taken from
what is reserved as Fallow Ground, where the Hog may also
run without damage. Here the horse and the cow may re-
main until the grass in the principal summer pasture shall
have attained a rich growth, in the shade and unbroken
sward of which, little or no Slobber Grass will be found.
Or they may remain on the fallow ground until the Chestnut-
tree comes out in full blossom, at which time the Slobber
Grass will have become dangerous to the horse and cow,
and they must be provided for forthwith in the main sum-
mer pasture. In this pasture they may remain with perfect
safety, until the after growth of the herds-grass and red-top
meadows are ready for feeding.

5th. The Hog and the sheep too, if need be, may remain on
the fallow ground to advantage until seed time, when the
former may go to the apple or peach orchard to pick up the
windfalls ; and the sheep may go into the principal summer

24 FACT NUMBER ONE.

pasture, to feed every thing off close, and they may remain
there until the heavy frosts check the Slobber Grass and
leave the wholesome grass feed, young and tender, and in
good order for the Fall Pasture of the cow. The working
horse, at the same time, should be housed, at least, during
the night, and carefully prepared for the winter service.

6th. It may here be observed, that the aftergrowth of
clover simjrty, should be carefully avoided, because it is
liable to be mixed up with the Slobber Grass. Clear clover
does not form a fairly combined sward, nor a perfect shade,
and therefore the bad grass will creap in, and taint the feed.
It has been known to be so heavily mixed with clover
rowen as to inflict the Slobbers in the dead of winter.
S. Here we will also remark, that herds-grass is sometimes
called timothy, as well as fox-tail ; and in some places it
appears to be confounded with red-top ; but this latter is a
totally different species of grass, it thrives best in low, moist
ground, where it comes to maturity rather late in the season.

Now, the Slobber Grass will not thrive with heavily stock-
ed timothy, or red-top ; nor will it grow freely with clover,
springing from a thick herds-grass sward.

This poison grass, in order to reach its greatest perfection,
demands the sun-light in rich perfusion, and a rich cultiva-
ted soil. This fact gives the farmer a partial control over
its effects upon his stock by carefully adopting and carrying
out the plan of pasturing which is above described.

This plan has been fully tested and successfully followed
for the last three or four years, and is, without doubt, the
safest course so long as the poison grass is suffered to grow.

PACT NUMBER ONE. 25

It is believed however, that not only this grass, but every
other noxious grass and weed, may be easily and very advan-
tageously eradicated from the soil, and all expences thus in-
curred fully paid by the increase and superior quality of the
productions of the ground the first year. The manner of ac-
complishing this important object is laid down in the follow-
ing section.

26 FACT NUMBER ONE.

FACT NUMBER ONE.

Section IV.

DESTRUCTION OF THE SLOBBER GRASS, &c.

By the destruction of the Slobber Grass, &c, we mean
the destruction also of the Canada Thistle, the John Wort,
the Stean Crout, Daisey, Cockle, Tare, and all other hurt-
full weeds and plants, which prey upon the farmer's labor
and destroy his substance. When this is once effected, and
experience proves it all perfectly feasible, the soil will be left
to bring forth, from good seed, not only clean and whole-
some grass and grain, but the richest and largest amount of
both.

This important object may be attained by means of a
simple machine, called the Slobber Grass Drag, which
is of easy construction, and of cheap use ; for it may be drawn
by a single horse, and tended by a boy.

This Drag, a diagram of which stands opposite, has some-
thing of the form of the old-fashioned heater ; it covers
more ground than the ordinary harrow, and is comparative-
ly lighter. Its length may be rated at eight or nine feet and
its greatest width at six or seven feet ; and it may be formed
either of iron and steel or wood and steel. It is jointed near
the middle, for the purpose of fitting uneven or rough sur-
face, and its pitch or track is measured as to depth by three
iron revolving wheels or pullies.

This Drag is armed with thirteen, (the number may be
varied) spoon-bowl shaped shavers or knives, made of wel!

FACT NUMBER ONE.

27

tempered steel and designed to be kept sharp. Each knife is
about ten inches in length and eight wide at the head, and it is
made fast to an iron shank, fitted to the timber or beam of the
Drag, and dropping about six inches in the clear, by a screw

PATENT SLOBBER GRASS DRAG.

A. A. A. Iron wheels. B. B. The two joints. C. C. Places for handles.

28 FACT NUMBER ONE.

and nut, planted three inches from the heel. These knives
enter the ground about one inch and scrape over the whole
surface, cutting up the grass and weeds the entire width of
the Drag.

The Slobber Grass Drag, is designed to be employed on
the fallow ground ; and for the purpose of destroying that
grass, the thistle, &c. — this ground must be broken up soon
after these poison plants make their appearance, which in
40°, and upwards is about the 1st of May. This ploughing,
if well done, effectually covers up and desiroys the first or
spring growth of the grass, &c, and converts it to compost.

The ploughing should be followed, forthwith, by a har-
row, for the purpose of levelling down the inequalities and
smoothing the surface for the knives of the Slobber Grass
Drag. Then the Drag is to follow the harrow immediately
after the offensive weeds make their appearances and while
they are yet tender and most easily destroyed.

Now, it must be observed, that the ploughing, in ordina-
ry grounds, should be done, for several reasons, while the
earth is moist, but the Drag should be used only in dry,
warm weather, that the sun may wither up all that the
knives shear off; and this shearing off should be repeated
as often as the young Slobber Grass, thistles, &c, start up
and coat the ground. In the mean time, the ploughing and
harrowing should be repeated three times at least, before
seeding, and if the fourth time is added, the benefit will be
palpable to common observation.

This kind of dressing, honestly and judiciously conducted,
will secure the field against all kinds of poison grass and

FACT NUMBER ONE. 29

weeds, even if heavily charged with either the grass or the
thistle, or with any other poison vegetable, for four or five
years, and all the increase of labor and extra expence, and
will be more than counterbalanced in the quantity and
quality of the crop even of the first year's produce.

When the land thus dressed, is designed either for mow-
ing or pasturage, the timothy seed should be scattered im-
mediately after the last harrowing ; for it will then take
early root, form an early sward, and help to smother all bad
weeds ; forming, at the same time, a protection to the young
clover stocking, sown in the spring of the year, both from
the sun and the frost.

30 FACT NUMBER TWO.

CHAPTER II.

THE PLUM TREE.

FACT NUMBER TWO.

Section I.

FORMATION OF THE BLACK BUNCH.

The Plum is a beautiful and delicious fruit. Some kinds
are known to be of very high antiquity, and have long been
esteemed, in all civilized countries, as a choice table dish, as
a rich preserve, and as applicable to many other delicate pur-
poses of food. Many kinds of plum trees grow richly in
nearly almost all parts of our country, and great pains have
been taken to bring the fruit to some good degree of perfec-
tion, but for the most part the success has been very limited.

For the last forty or fifty years, the tree, in the old settled
parts of the Union, especially, has encountered almost insu-
perable difficulties, and these have really discouraged thous-
ands even from attempting to cultivate the fruit. The most
formidable of these evils is a species of Black Rot which
invariably induces premature decay. From this cause the
fruit has not only been poor in point of quality, but the sup-
ply has been scanty and uncertain.

One special design of this little work, is to trace out the
cause of this Black Rot, or Black Bunch, as it is called, —
the foundation of the Decay, and thus provide a remedy by
which the rot, and the evils resulting from it, may be avoid-

FACT NUMBER TWO.

31

■d, and that too, without the loss of the tree, or even an
jntire suspension of its fruit.

A BRANCH OF THE DISEASED PLUM TREE.

The cause of the premature decay of this tree, is an in-
sect, called the Plum Tree Louse ; for,: strange as the fact
may appear, trees have Lice as well as man and beast. This
insect makes its appearance about the time the tree begins
to bloom, and it then has the form of a small, green mite.

32 FACT NUMBER TWO.

lodged, by myriads, on the under side of the leaves and
about the blossoms. But in due time, this green mite be-
comes a winged insect, and passes from one branch of the
tree to another. It visits the fruit after it has become fairly
formed : feeds on the tender skin, and not only stints the
growth of the plum, but mars its beauty and vitiates its quali-
ty. The leaves and the fruit thus wounded by the louse
and the fly, or the winged louse, as it is called, shrivel up,
turn yellowish, and generally drop off at an early period
of the season. This is the beginning of the evil.

Now, it is a well known fact, that the leaves perform the
same office in the vegetable world, which the lungs perform
in the animal world ; they are the means of sustaining respi-
ration,— the channel through which the tree breathes. If,
therefore, these have been wounded, and have dropped to the
ground, during the breathing or growing season, it is evi-
dent, that so far, at least, the growth of the Spring Shoot,
is actually stifled.

What then is the natural consequence ? Does the shoot
or tender sprout instantly die ? No ; — but it has a death
stab which it will not survive. By this stab, the sap, the
life of the sprout, becomes vitiated, and that portion of it
which should have gone to feed the decayed leaves and fruit,
not only remains in the newly formed spring shoot, but falls
back to the point where the sprig or shoot first took its ver-
nal start, and there forms an irregular bunch under the bark,
and upon one side of the shoot. This bunch, though small
at first, soon becomes perceptible ; it presents a wood-like
appearance, yet without any regular grains or lairs, but

PACT NUMBER TWO. 33

granulated and soft, or rather spongy. In the end, however,
as it continues to accumulate in matter and increase in bulk,
it becomes more porous, and in the course of two or three
years, generally bursts the bark, when the vitiated matter
runs out and turns to a dingy black. This therefore is com-
monly called the Black Bunch on the Plum Tree.

But should the increasing matter at the diseased point, be
retained within the bark, it nevertheless continues tocorode,
and finally turns black, forming a kind of punky substance
which in the end destroys the limb, and in due course of
time, the whole tree, branch, body, and root.

Aside from this insect, the plum tree has another enemy
to contend with, which, though less formidable, in point of
numbers, is sometimes quite as fatal. This is a species of
Black Bug, which springs from a darkish, grub-like-worm,
and is somewhere called the Carcula. It generally makes
its appearance about the time the fruit is one fourth or one
third formed, and though its tarry is not very long, it does a
good deal of mischief. It preys upon the fruit ; perforates the
delicate pulp covering, and propagates its species by deposit-
ing its eggs in the fleshy parts of the plum. The fruit thus
poisoned, soon feels the wound, and begins to wilt ; then
comes the rot, and the promised bounty finally falls to the
ground. During the progress of this untimely decay, the egg
becomes a worm which winters in and about the root of the
tree, and finally forms the following year's Black Bug. But
the ravages of this enemy, is not confined exclusively to the
fruit of the tree ; for, while in the form of a worm, he often
finds his way into the body or stem of the tree, rankling at

5

34 FACT NUMBER TWO.

the veiy heart some two or three feet above the root. In
this operation, he not only breaks the bark and lets out the
gam, forming, of the life of the tree, fit habitations for vari-
ous other irritating and cankering insects, but leaves the
road open for the approach of the auger-worm, whose tooth,
like the waste of time, soon or late, perfects a total ruin of the
tree.

Two or three modes of avoiding the evils inflicted by this
insect, both in its worm and bug form, and even before it
has assumed either form, will be given in the third chapter
while providing for the preservation of the Peach Tree.

FACT NUMBER TWO. 35

THE PLUM TREE,

Section II,
THE REMEDY FOR THE PLUM TREE.

Experience has shown that, where there are no plum
trees, there are no plum tree insects ; therefore, to effect a
radical cure of the Black Bunch, the present stock of plum
trees, now rendered almost valueless, should be taken, by
common consent and simultaneous action, and cast into the
fire, root and branch.

The surviving insects, if any, will perish in the course of
a year or two ; hence, eighteen months after the destruction, a
new stock may be planted from choice seed, which will not
be troubled with lice until the country shall be again infect-
ed with them through the importation of trees from the
old world. The whole process may occupy some six or
seven years ; and the new stock of trees may thrive and
bear fruit for half a century ; for we have now many aged
persons among us who remember when the lice, the Black
Bunch, and the premature decay of the plum tree, were
things altogether unknown, and such may again be the
case if all the people, as one man, shall see fit to will it.
Actual experiments abundantly prove that the plum tree can-
not be raised, even from the seed, in the immediate vicinity
of old diseased trees, without subjecting it to the visitation
of this Black Bunch at a very early age.

Now, as this mode of destroying the Black Bunch, may

36

FACT NUMBER TWO.

not be deemed strictly feasible, inasmuch as the will of all
may not be readily obtained, it may be proper therefore that
each man should have his own remedy.

^*0Mk

PLUM TREE WITH BREATHERS.

FACT NUMBER TWO, 37

From long and patiently tested experiments, it has been
found that the plum tree, infected with the Black Bunch,
which is nothing more nor less than the Plum Tree Scrofu-
la, will again thrive and bear fruit, if not too far gone to
throw shoots, after the diseased branches have been trimmed
off ; provided there are six or eight healthy branches left for
the purpose of furnishing leaves or lungs through which
the tree may breathe. And while these branches sustain the
tree, they will also use up the sap from the roots, and supply
a goodly share of fair and wholesome fruit.

This trimming should be performed in the dead of win-
ter, for then the sap is at the root, and the branches should
be sawed off some two or three feet from the body of the
trunk, or main stem, thereby leaving full room for fresh
shoots to branch out which are to be the future bearing
plum tree.

The limbs thus lopped off, with all the trees past bearing,
and all the sprouts or suckers, which should be taken up,
root and branch, should be forthwith burned up ; and no
useless appendage of a plum tree, capable of harboring in-
sects should be left on the premises.

In the next place, the six or eight healthy branches, left
for breathers, should be carefully examined and guarded for
two distinct purposes : — The first of which is, to protect them
against the ravages of the lice ; and for this protection, the
lopping off of all the other branches from the tree affords
ample elbow room. Should lice make their appearance on
these branches, they must be destroyed by water and dry
lime, or house ashes.

38 FACT NUMBER TWO.

The water is first thrown upon the under side of the leaf
by means of a syringe or other instrument, and the lime,
dust or ashes must be faithfully sprinkled on immediately
after, and either will destroy the lice and check the ravages
of the insect on the leaf. This washing and dusting must be
repeated two or three times during the early part of the -
season. The new shoots will have fruit, fair and abundant,
on the second or third year. Should it turn out that some
or all of the six or eight healthy branches, reserved as breath-
ers, are really sickly, they must be lopped elf also and burn-
ed up while the sap is at the root of the tree : otherwise de-
cay soon follows.

The other object for which the breathing branches should
be carefully watched, is, to save them from being broken
down by the increased growth of the shoots, and the exces-
sive weight of the fruit, acted upon by the wind or the rain.
This is done by furnishing props on which the branches
may rest until the fruit matures.

It may also be proper to observe here that the tree fur-
nishing the egg plum, bears up against the ravages of these
insects much longer than any other kind of plum tree. The
reason probably is, the leaves of this tree are much larger
and thicker than the leaves of other plum trees, they arc
therefore not marred so much but that they remain on the
tree and act as breathers through the bearing season.

The Marilla cherry tree is also visited by insects which
produce the Black Bunch similar to that on the plum tree,
and it may be cured in the same way if taken in proper
season.

FACT NUMBER TWO. o9

A like course may also be pursued with the pear or the
apple tree, when either, by continued bearing, has destroyed
its: energies, and rendered its fruit valueless. The breathers
left to support the tree, will yield fine fruit the first season,
and the new shoots the second or third season, and all of
prime size and rich flavor like the fruit of a young tree.

40 FACT NUMBER THREE.

CHAPTER III.

THE PEACH TREE.

FACT NUMBER THREE.

Section I.
DISEASES OF THE PEACH TREE.

If the Plum, the fruit of the tree just under consideration,
is a rich and dainty morsal, the Peach, the produce of the
tree of which we now intend to speak, is altogether more so.
It is much larger, — much richer, — more healthful, and more
universally esteemed. As a table dish, it ranks foremost,
and as a preserve, it is said to be more delicate and nutritious
than the quince.

The tree however which furnishes this delicious fruit, has,
in these latter days, become extremely frail and strangely
perishing ; and its fruit also has grown impoverished in point
of quality, and greatly narrowed down as to quantity ; — the
stock has fallen off, within the last forty years, probably
more than fifty per cent.

Great labor has been given and expense incurred to get at.
the cause of the evils which light on the Peach Tree and its
fruit, and to bring both back to their pristine beauty and
perfection, but all labor, all enquiry, seems to have proved
utterly abortive, until efforts in that behalf have generally
been abandoned as altogether hopeless.

FACT NUMBER THREE. 41

In one quarter, however, enquiry was not dropped, nor
was labor given over. This point was in the Sunny Hollow
of Onondaga, near the confines of the old Indian reserva-
tion. Here, after a series of patient and close observations,
and carefully conducted practical experiments, extending
through a period of more than thirty years, it was finally
discovered that the Peach Tree may be easily and safely
reared, and made to yield prime fruit for forty or fifty years,
and probably a hundred, as well as for four or five ; and that
too, at less expense of ground, as well as time and labor,
than is consumed by the mode of culture now generally
adopted.

It has been satisfactorily proved that the premature decay
of the Peach Tree, springs from one or more of the three
following causes, viz. : «

1st. The want of a proper choice of ground for the
Seedling Plant. If the seed be planted in damp, cold
ground, or in soil covered with sand, resting immediately on
a compact, clayey sub-stratum, the seed may indeed spring up
and grow, but the plant will be unhealthy ;— the root will
soon take the Consumption, and then transplant the sickly
thing to any kind of soil, and look for thrift, and behold
nothing but disappointment will come. When the canker
has once taken hold of the young stock, no sunny nook of
earth; no kindly kindling soil, can ever afterward remove the
disease, or renovate the tree. Close inspection will show
that the heart has grown black and is virtually dead; and
although the sap may circulate for a while, its energies are
wholly lost in throwing out a mass oNiWfe needle shoots,

6

42

FACT NUMBER THREE.

which not only yield no fruit, but probably never show a
blossom. So much' for the growth of the Seedling Plant

2nd. The present improper mode of culture. That
say : — the tree is trained to grow, like the apple tree, and

THE DISEASED PEACH TREE.

FACT NUMBER THREE. 43

some other kinds of fruit trees, in one body or stern, to the
height of several feet. The growth of this stem is general-
ly very rapid, consequent^', the texture of the timber is
coarse and poor, or what is called brash ; hence easily bro-
ken by a little access of fruit, or a fall of damp snow, el-
even a brisk wind.

The quick growth of this tree, resulting from the concen-
tration of a large supply of sap from the roots, especially
where the soil is rich and genial, generally causes the smooth
and delicate exterior covering of the bark to burst and form
cavities and ridges in the rind, leaving the inner bark, or
wood coating, to perish in the atmosphere, at once opening
the way for the fatal anger worm, whose tooth carries him
to the very heart of the tree.

The inequalities in the bark, especially where they have
an inclining, or horizontal position, catch and retain the wet
and sleet of the winter storms, which, being immediately
followed by severe frost, are soon frozen up and thereby de-
stroy the bark, leaving the tree exposed, not only to the loss
of its gum, which is its very life, but to the free action of
the wire and the post worm ; either of which inflicts a death-
blow to the tree, even while the roots are yet green and
healthy — and able to send forth fresh and fair shoots and
new hopes.

: From this one-stem mode of cultivation, there is also a
special evil resulting also to the fruit of this tree. It
is this : — the superabundant mass of sap, passing up the
single stem, proceeds, when the other parts of the tree cease
to take it up, directly to the Blow Bud, as it is called, and,

44 FACT NUMBER THREE.

in the mild weather of Autumn, more especially where the
the tree is protected from the cool winds, swells it to tactual
bursting- and frequently to full bloom.

This enlarged bud, being subsequently exposed to the
rains and frosts of the season, which frequently succeed each
other in almost the same hour, is frozen up, and the germ of
the future fruit perishes in the icy embrace. This dead
germ, turns black immediately, and thereby proclaims to
every close observer, and almost upon the very heel of the
first exposure, the extent of the ravages committed in this be-
half on the next year's supply of the peach crop.

3d. The Peach Tree Insect. This is a species of Worm,
which somewhat resembles a small, White Grub. It is
probably known among fruit growers generally as the Peach
Tree Worm, for it has long been felt through all the old
States of the Union, as a deadly despoiler of the fair pro-
mise of the peach orchard.

Close observation has discovered that this worm comes
from an Egg deposited both at the root of the tree and in the
fruit of the tree, during the Summer season ; not by a fly, as
was long supposed, nor by a large, glossy, black and titter-
ing Wasp, as many have imagined, but from a longish, black
Bug, the last change which the little White Grab, — the
Peach Tree Worm,— undergoes, and in which stage, it is
evidently well prepared to do its mischief and propagate its
species.

In the grub form, however, it is as far from being harm-
less as it is from being idle. It has been caught a thousand
times, girdling the tender seedling stock, and rioting in

FACT NUMBER THREE. 45

die alburnum, or sap, as early as the first Autumn after the
seed has sprouted. It also feeds on the roots of the young
tree, saps their energies, imparts to the leaf a decaying cast,
called the Yellows, and often destroys the hope of life be-
fore the seedling has attained a single year's growth.

Observation proves that this worm winters in the tree
near the root, and that in the Spring, it forsakes its burrow
in the form of the aforementioned Bug, and is prepared to
traverse both the earth and the air. In this form, it reaches
the fruit of the tree, where it not only perforates the tender
skin, — stinting the growth and marring the beauty of the
peach, and often causing it to die and drop to the ground, but
there deposites an egg, which in time becomes a grub, and
the grub again becomes a bug, and so the plague is perpetu-
ated as a primeval cause. After the dead peach has lain on
the ground a short period, the white grub has been found
full of life and with instinct sufficient to leave its decaying
habitation, and make its way through the grass, &c, to the
root of the tree from which the fruit fell, with the view no
doubt of finding safe winter quarters. Here, burrowed with
the little wire worm, a native of the soil, in the gum which
has oozed from the tree, it passes the cold season, chafing
and irritating the tree, as best the torpid state will admit,
until the whole plant perishes both root and branch.

The bug, too, after having stung the fruit and destroyed
its life, has been found to go back to the root of the tree also,
where it deposites other eggs, which subsequently multiply
the army of worms and bugs, which in their turn make war
upon this frail tree and its fruit if they have any thing left to

46 FACT NUMBER THREE,

war upon, and rendering the existence of the one extremely
precarious, — and the flavor of the other poor and nearly
tasteless.

In view of all the evils which are found to beset this beau-
tiful fruit tree and its productions, it can hardly be a matter
of surprise that the peaches of our country are so meager and
scanty. In fact, the wonder might more justly arise, that we
have either peaches or peach trees in the land. And this
wonder might well be increased when another and a still
more dangerous evil to the fruit of the tree, is taken into the
account ; I here mean the Rose Bug, which, in truth, seems
to threaten the annihilation of almost every kind of fruit. But
this evil is of very recent appearance and not as yet of uni-
versal spread. So far, it has been felt principally along the
sea board, reaching annually, however, further and further
into the interior, and apparently forbidding the hope of ever
again enjoying a full supply of rich and wholesome peaches
or of any other species of fruit.

We venture to add however, that, formidable as these evils
appear, each and all that beset the Peach Tree, except the
visit of an untimely frost, (which is not here counted among
the ordinary Peach Tree enemy,) may be effectually over-
come. Indeed, they have been overcome ! and rich, and rare
peaches, have been taken this season, (1842) in latitude 43
and odd, from trees which have borne steadily for nearly
forty years. We will explain the whys and wherefores in
a very few words, and point out the ways and means by
which every man may preserve his Peach Trees and enjoy
their fruit through a long life. "

FACT NUMBER THREE. 47

THE PEACH TREE.

Section II.
REMEDIES FOR THE PEACH TREE, &c.

The remedies for the diseases of the Peach Tree, and
tiie evils which generally befall its fruit, here submitted to
the public, may not all, indeed, prove the very best under the
sun, nor may they all prove to have attained their highest
degree of perfection, or the most advantageous mode of ap-
plication. Yet we are free to say they are the best and most
perfect, in all respects, which patient observation and long
experience, have yet been able to suggest.

It may well be expected, nay, it is confidently hoped, that
future experiments, (and here we take the freedom, of saying
they are daily and even hourly progressing,) may yet point
out important improvements, in some of them at least, and
in the mode of applying them, and in the end, open the way
to a more extended and more accurate knowledge of the
culture not only of this tree, but of our whole stock of fruit
trees.

In almost every department of agriculture, our whole
country is in a state of comparative infancy ; and it must
remain so .to a great extent, until we become content to cul-
tivate less space, and to exert in the premises more practical
science and experimental knowledge.

In this respect, something of the proper principle begins
to appear about our large towns and cities, where, as the

48 FACT NUMBER THREE.

ground becomes valuable, it is generally made to yield a
pretty good share of its full strength, — its exhaustless riches.

With the true principle of agriculture, however, we also
need, above all things, the adoption of another principle, still
more important, more vital, both to individual and national
prosperity, — to true greatness and true happiness. We here
mean the principle of common honesty ! — of fair, open-
handed, every day dealing, as between man and man, and
between man and his final accountability. The beauty of this
essential principle of life, we are pained to say, has been most
fearfully marred of late years by the poor, debasing spirit of
speculation— the wild, bewitching wish for instant wealth,
— the reckless rush to excessive fortune — the cankering lust
of gold ! This spirit is daily seen and felt, here at home, by
every one who, with half an eye, measures life and the
things of life by the honest standard of time's allotments,
while abroad, it is seen and felt, and held as our most innate
and closely besetting sin, — our broadest national blot. In the
presence of this spirit, the ties of nature, the pride of country,
the hope of heaven, all fade away, and even love and law
lose all their force. The fatal example, once put forth by a
bold spirit, high in power, setting plighted faith and sacred
rule at noon-day defiance, and daring all consequences, has
worked a lamentable waste in fhe world of moral obligation,
and by the mass it is now claimed as a letter patent under
the seal of a demi-god, for the commission of any crime, —
the infliction of any wrong,— the utter disregard of all pub-
lic and all private faith.

Who, at this day, abides his word or his bond as in days

FACT NUMBER THREE. 49

past? Who honors moral worth or commercial integrity as
both were once honored ? Where is the sanctity of a prom-
ise, the steadfast confiding, the holy keeping, which were
once our honest boast,— onr glory at home and our passport
abroad ? Into what profession, avocation, or calling, has not
bold, open-day cheat, blink-eyed duplicity, and unblushing
fraud, dexterously crept, as if they were all so many white
winged angels nestling in the bosom of Eve-like innocence !
Even in the cultivation and sale of the humble plant whose
name adorns the heading of this chapter, — the generous
fruit-giving Peach Tree, the most villainous deceptions and
coolly contrived frauds, have just been detected, and in vari-
ous quarters they now exhibit strong proofs of extensive
prevalence and long standing. Our nurserymen, from the
mass of whom however, we are happy in being able to make
some worthy exceptions, have taken the responsibility of
carrying on, and carrying out a series of preconcerted knave-
ries which merit the severest reprehension, — the rod of just
retribution. But as this subject will be briefly stated in
another place, we now waive further comment, and proceed
forthwith to the consideration of the cure of the Peach Tree
and the preservation of its fruit. And

1st. The choice of ground, &c. In the planting out of
the nursery seed or peach-pitt, as it is called, care should be
taken that the seeds are strewed along in the drill or furrow
about four inches apart. This distance affords fair room to
dress out the plant, and it particularly favors an early inocu-
lation, say the first Summer after planting the seed ; this too,
by consequence, will greatly favor an early transplanting to

7

50 FACT NUMBER THREE.

the orchard plat, especially if the enoculation be made close
to the ground, which should always be the case with a
healthy seedling plant.

Then the Peach Tree seed demands, invariably, a dry,
warm, and strong soil, free of stones, loeeds, and grass,
and smally declining in some direction, so as to avoid stand-
ing pools of water. From this ground, which should be lo-
cated quite remote from all old and sickly peach trees, the
weeds. &e. should be carefully dressed out two or three
times during each season, and all cob-web nests, and the
homes of insects, should be thoroughly brushed away. Any
other course than this, may possibly save labor, but it inevi-
tably leaves the infant tree exposed to incurable disease and
early decay.

In the next place, in order to preserve the nursery plant
from the visitation of the white grub-like worm and all other
unfriendly insects, the earth immediately about the root of
each plant, must be effectually drenched with stale chamber
lye, and this must be followed up faithfully during the
months of August. September and October of each year of
the seedling's nursery growth. The free application of this
lye to the ground about the plant, has been found effectual
in keeping every kind of noxious insect out of the way, and
preserving the plant not only in a healthy state, but in a fair
and thrifty condition for the orchard.

It will probably be said that this mode of preserving the
seedling plant against the inroads of the worm, &c, imposes a
great deal of labor. The objection has some weight ; but it
is all much more than counterbalanced by the consideration

FACT NUMBER THREE. 51

that no part is lost ; — by the consideration that one seedling
plant thus watched and reared for the orchard, is worth
more money to any man who wants good fruit, than a whole
wagon load of diseased roots, dug up from among wild
hedges and wet waste lands, grafted and planted in mellow
nursery ground, to cheat the honest, confiding purchaser,
first, out of his money ; next, out of his labor, and lastly, out
of all hope of raising fruit.

But let it be remembered that the labor bestowed on the
nursery plant, large as it may appear, is all irrecoverably
lost, unless proper ground be selected for planting out the
Peach Orchard. This fact has been long since abundantly
proved by the utter failure of thousands who have attempted
to rear this fruit, even from the best of seedling stock, planted
in unfriendly soil. Well tested experiments effectually show
that dry, elevated, and rolling ground, is not only the most
inviting, but the most safe and the most certain. And should
the surface chance to be quite broken and quite rocky, these
form no serious objections.

Much of the success in the cultivation of this fruit, is ge-
nerally supposed to depend upon the direction of the descent
of the ground of the Peach Orchard ; but the point of declina-
tion, is not in fact of any great moment. Experience proves
that the north and west pitch, will, in ordinary seasons, pro-
duce the greatest amount of fruit ; while the southern and
eastern pitch, bring the earliest and richest flavored fruit.
Deep valley grounds should be avoided by every possible
means as damp and unhealthy, but elevated sites may range
from fifty to two hundred and fifty feet above the fair level

52 FACT NUMBER THREE.

of the surrounding country, and do well in almost any cli-
mate, provided the soil be dry, warm, and quick.

2nd. The training of the Peach Tree in a single stemr
&c. The evils arising from this mode of culture, may be
all easily and effectually remedied by substituting the follow-
ing course of cultivation, viz.

1. In planting the young trees in the orchard, say about
one year after the ingraft, care must be taken, in the first
place, to set them some ten or twelve feet apart; this
distance will admit a free team passage about the orchard.
Then, in the next place, further care must be taken to plant
the roots of each seedling full eight inches lower in the
earth than the depth at which it stood in the nursery. This
distance down places the roots quite out of the reach of the
bug and the worm, and gives them a fair hold upon the
earth and the nutriment which it furnishes. Then, if it
should so happen that the worm or other insect, bark the
tree and bore it, and even kill it at the ground, new shoots
will immediately spring up from the safely bedded root,
strong and full of health, and thus keep the orchard stock
in good condition.

2. In the spring, next following the planting of the orch-
ard, each tree must be cut off at the ground. Then, from
the root or stump thus left in the earth, fresh sprouts will
soon shoot up, as in the subjoined cut, and these are to form
the future peach tree.

The thrifty stems severed from the stump, may, if taken
off at the swell of the leaf bud, be separated into slips of
about ten or twelve inches in length, and planted some eight

PACT NUMBER THREE.

53

or ten inches deep in the earth, leaving simply a fair sprouting
space above the surface. These slips, if the ground be rich,
fine, compact, and kindly disposed, will also sprout and grow'
forming roots downward, and shoots upward, and this too,'
as experience teaches, in six or eight cases, as an average, in
every ten.

THE RENOVATED PEACH TREE.

f)i FACT NUMBER THREE.

The same course has been pursued with strongly thriving
branches, or suckers, taken from any healthy peach tree,
and fine fruit has been thus propagated at a very rapid rate,
and small expense. But let it be observed, that, in all cases
of this kind, much of the chance of success, depends on the
season, the condition of the slip as to the state of the sap, &c,
and the care and judgment employed in the operation of plant-
ing, &c, for it must be remembered, that the Peach Tree is
one of the most delicate and difficult plants to manage that
belongs to our list of fruit trees ; in fact its true character and
true training, seem to have baffled all common place philo-
sophy.

3. The sprouts springing from the deeply grounded root,
and forming the Peach Tree, are all held in an upright and
family-like position, by the body of earth which surrounds
them ; and although the ground in which they stand may
be extremely rich, and full of appropriate nourishment, —
and the sap very profuse, yet, being divided among so many
suckers, it affords to each but a moderate share of nutriment .
and that share may be easily regulated to suit any quality
of ground by increasing or diminishing the number of
sprouts.

One great object in this mode of culture, is to secure, not
a rapid, but a very moderate, not to say, sloio growth of the
tree, and at the same time, a sound and durable quality of
timber, with a, smooth and safe bark into which the rain
and sleet will not penetrate, nor will the frost or post-worm
find a ready entrance.

4th. But should the White Grub, in his rambles, or the
Black Bug, in his flights, chance to reach one or two of
these sprouts, or even all of them at a single visit, which in
fact would be a very rare occurrence, and prey upon them,
they would all die as a matter of course ; but then the root
is safe ; it has felt neither the sting of the one nor the tooth

FACT NUMBER THREE. DO

of the other : and it will soon send up new and healthy
shoots, — an entire health?/ and graceful Peach Tree.

Experience has proved all this, and it has also proved,
that, in such cases, an excess of shoots will often spring up,
and make a too minute division of the sap, thereby endan-
gering- the health of the whole family of sprouts ; therefore,
these sprouts must be trimmed out and the number gradu-
ated to the condition of the soil. In this trimming howev-
er, some thought must be had as to the nature and state of
the ground, its location, pitch, &c. In 'poor land, some
three or four shoots are enough, and six or eight in rich
soil. Then, as to the relative position and promise of the
plants, — division is one object, the preservation of the largest
and most thrifty, is another, and both, and all demand the
exercise of judgment. But. let it be borne in mind, that this
surplusage of shoots, let them come whence and when they
may, must be removed only at early trimming time.

These thrifty sprouts, whether from the root of the nursery
tree, or from one killed by the grub, will begin to bear fruit
the second or third year ; and by the sixth or seventh year,
they become extremely prolific and elegant. In this way,
the stock of peach trees may be preserved in a perfectly
healthy state, secure from all ordinary casualties, the late
Spring frosts excepted, for many years ; ay, for whole gene-
rations, and rarely show the symptoms of the yellows, as
the sickly foliage is generally designated, or the decay of a
root or a stem.

It may here be observed that, in order to promote the pu-
rity of the jieach orchard, and preserve the beauty and
quantity of the fruit, the hog should be allowed the free
range of the whole ground, from early grass time up to the
ripening of the choice peach: and when he is restrained
from this range, all exposures of the roots of trees, to the rav-
ages of insects, &a, should be carefully covered up, and the

56 FACT NUMBER THREE.

ground left somewhat rounding or rising rather than hollow;
for standing water is a deadly foe to the Peach Tree.

This plan of cultivation, if faithfully pursued, will, if there
is any truth to be drawn from experience founded on expe-
riments, ensure the permanent growth of the Peach Tree,
and also a perminent supply of peaches, provided there were
no voracious bugs in the world or in the way. But as these
frightful despoilers of the growth and beauty of the peach,
and almost every other fruit, are actually among us, and
threaten uncompromising devastation, it may be proper, in
the next place, to see what may be done with them, for the
time being, at least, and for the protection of the fruit against
their ravages.

We have already referred to the Black Bug which comes
from the little grub-like worm, and perforates and poisons
the peach ; and now, in respect to this insect, we will further
observe that three different modes have been adopted to get
rid of him. and the seed which he plants to propagate his
species. Each of these modes, (though neither, nor, indeed,
all united, has effected an entire extermination,) has, in fact-
proved greatly beneficial to the growth and beauty as well
as the perfection of this fruit.

The first and probably the most effectual mode of destruc-
tion, is, as we have before observed, that of giving the Hog
the free and full range of the orchard ground. This animal
urged by a ravenous appetite, is very prompt to gather up
all the wounded peaches which fall to the ground, and he is
not less prompt to devour them, and so far he effectually de-
vours the seed of the bug, whether in the form of an egg, or
the more advanced form of a worm. Here the hog should
remain, gathering his daily grub", so long as his presence does
not interfere with the perfect fruit of the orchard.

In the next place ; — as the period of the existence of this
bug, is very brief, and as he traverses the air on the wing

FACT NUMBER THREE. 57

during the warm evenings of mid-summer ; and. further-
more, as he is always attracted in the dark, toward a bright
blaze ; torches, therefore, have been provided for the purpose,
and carried through the orchard immediately after dark, and
the bug has been caught by thousands and bagged up for
subsequent destruction.

Lastly ; — Small fires have been built at several points
near the orchard ground, which have in a little time drawn
nearly all these insects from their lurking places about the
trees and the fruit, directly into the fire. This precaution,
followed up nightly for a few weeks, has been known to save
the fruit effectually for the whole season.

As to the Rose Bug, the fruit spoiler from the " Queen
of Flowers," we are not, in truth, famillM- with his habits,
nor with the extent of his ravages. We have been told, how-
ever, that he is from the Dog Rose, generally, and makes
his flights only in dry, warm sun-light. If this be true, we
desire, as an appropriate means of effecting his capture and
destruction, to recommend a machine, which was primarily
constructed for another purpose.

This is a great sheet, — cheap cotton factory cloth, formed
so as to be spread out, on all sides, beneath the boughs of the
fruit tree, and something beyond the extremity of the outer
limbs ; then, if sprinkled moderately with water, and the
bugs shaken from the tree into the sheet, they will remain
until they may be gathered Up for destruction.

The same sheet may be used, as long experience proves,
without the trouble of sprinkling, to gather the destructive
worm called the caterpillar and hold him for extermination ;
but then he must be taken before he forms his net- work nest
on the tree, otherwise it is no easy matter to dislodge him by
a simple shake of the boughs. If however it should so hap-
pen that he escape attention until he gets housed about by
his silken web, bidding defiance to the jostlings of the hand
or the winds, and the peltings of the rains, then he must be

58

FACT NUMBER THREE.

taken by a more direct and sturdy assault, or he soon endan-
gers the life both of the fruit and the tree.

If the hands be well guarded by stout buck-skin mitts,
and a light ladder be employed to reach his castle, fatal bat-
tle is soon waged. True, he is not, indeed, the most deli-
cate thing in the world to handle whether with or without
mittens, but then the labor of an utter annihilation, both of
house and tenant, is not very great nor veiy dangerous ; and
then, if the wounded tree be rubbed over with a little soap
or candle grease, none will return to build up the ruin.

THE SHEET AND EARLY FRUIT TREE.

'The first idea of this Great Sheet, was suggested by a
sense of the want of some safe and easy means by which
early fruit might be gathered and secured without subject-

FACT NUMBER THREE. 59

ing it to severe bruises and consequent decay. At the out-
set, it was a long and narrow web, attached to the tree by a
loop, and carried round by the hand; but when it was made
a depository for the worm, it was constructed after the man-
ner represented in the opposite cut.

When this sheet is designed for a very large tree, it may be
made thirty feet square; but one of half that size will answer
for the peach or ordinary apple tree. Its construction is very
simple and cheap, and being of two equal parts, may be easily
preserved, by being rolled up like a flag, round the pole or
rope attached to the border of each, and placed under cover.

Though Winter Fruit should always be gathered by the
hand, individually, and with more care and tenderness in the
handling than so many hen's eggs, yet the ordinary Fall
Fruit as well as the Rare Ripe, may be gathered by this
sheet, and, if need be, piled at the root of the tree, which great-
ly expedites the operation of picking fruit. In connection
with the treatment of the Peach Tree, there is another fact
which was originally intended to form the closing part of
this work, but which, from circumstances beyond our pres-
ent control, cannot now be broached. The Fact here refer-
red to, relates principally to a new and improved mode of
Ingrafting, Inoculating and Pruning fruit trees in gen-
eral,— a mode which experience proves to be an important
step gained in the art of cultivating fruit.

Now, as we are not able to speak on this point, it remains
only to treat of the frauds which have crept into the business
of the nurserymen and which seem to threaten both a dirth
of fruit, and the destruction of the character of our country
in her ability to grow fruit. We refer to this matter in no
other spirit than that of regret. — a painful duty ; we shall
therefore be as brief as possible.

It has already been observed that, in order to procure safe
and healthy seedling stock of any kind, and above all of
the Peach Tree kind, the ground for tie nursery plants,

60

FACT NUMBER THREE.

should be of a choice character ; — dry, warm, and quick, and
free from stone, grass, shade and harbors for insects. But why
demand such select and rare quality of ground ? Because this
is the soil which recieves the seed of the future tree ; — the
soil which, by a secret process of nature, unwraps the sleep-
ing germ and wakes the tender shoot to life. In this soft and
vivifying mold, the stem is formed and thrown upward to
be nursed in the air by the kiss of the breeze and the sun-
beam, and the root is drawn downward to extract its nutri-
ment as a child draws its life from the breast of the mother.
Now, if that soil be cold, or wet, or barren, — if it be a sour
clay, or a sterile sand-bank, — if it lie in the shade of the forest,
the hedge-row, or the wild grass, what must be the nature
of the nourishment afforded to the young plant? What
would be said of a mother's designs upon her child, who, in
calling in the aid of a wet nurse, should advertise for one
with a cankered breast ! Would she intend for the young
sprout of humanity, a fair and healthy growth, and a long
and happy life, or would she not purposely entail a sickly ex-
istence and a premature grave ? If, then, foul intent would lie
against the mother, with what design shall the nurseryman be
charged, who, year in and year out, and for whole loustrums
of years, coolly prepares and deliberately vends to an unsus-
pecting and honestly confiding community, many thousands
of nursery fruit trees formed on seedling plants which have
been nourished from the seed upward only at the cankered
breast ! — seedling plants, gathered from all the winds of
heaven, and all the bogs and waste lands of the earth ! —
sick at heart and eaten up by vermin at the root ! The simple
idea of such plants, brings to mind the enquiry of the Pro-
phet at the valley of dry bones : — Neighbor, can such seed-
ling plants live? Nurseryman, thou knowest that each
and every hope of life must perish !

We speak advisedly and within the bounds of fact, when
we say that the business of digging seedling roots, employs

FACT NUMBER THREE. 61

for a part of the year at least, more than one thousand hands,
and that more than one hundred thousand of these wild
and diseased roots, come to-the New- York market annually,
and are re-planted in the neighboring- nurseries ! From these
places, they are subsequently sold out, and sent to every part
of the continent ! If it be asked how this traffic is conducted,
the question, as to the general operation, is easily answered.
The nurseryman employs laborers who go out into the fields,
among hedges, and over waste grounds, and redeem this
kind of stock from pasture lands and waste places, and, having
cast the poor, unsightly upper portion away, make prize of
the root as so much gain. This root is adopted into the
warm and kindling soil of the nursery ground, where the
stump, thus reclaimed from the fens and bogs of waste lands,
receives a graft from some well conditioned fruit tree, and
then, to an unschooled eye, all looks fair and of a fair promise.
But what is the true state of the case ? Just below the " beau-
tiful cion," there remains, covered up with earth, the sickly
seedling root, — worm-eaten, canker-smitten, and heart- wasted,
beyond the reach of art, — the healing touch of nature,— and
the world of hope. To say that each and every root thus re-
claimed, is necessarily sick and worthless, is saying too
much ; it is possible and even probable that among so many
thousand, a few may be found sound and healthy ; and it is
possible also that a selection is made, and the actually decayed
roots are thrown away. Yet many of our nurserymen know,
we presume, and if they do not, we can tell them, that, if all
this care in the selection be made, their grounds are charged
yearly, with perfectly dead seedling stumps, grafts and all,
which, when first planted, were too far gone either to sprout of
themselves, or give nourishment to the adopted cion.

To an individual familiar with the nature and due health
of seedling plants, this base botch- work is, in fact, no cheat
whatever ; for with him, the very gloss of the bark, the tinge
of the leaf, or the leaf-bud, the simple blush of the plant,

62 FACT NUMBER THREE.

proclaims its condition, and every attempt at deception, lies
as open to his eye as a noon-tide sunbeam. It is the want
of knowledge in this behalf, among the great mass of man-
kind, who are the buyers, not the raisers, of fruit trees, that
has opened the Avay to the practice of impositions ; and though
it may add something to the credit and standing of the
American bred citizen, to say the frauds lie at the door of the
nurseryman from abroad more generally than at his, still
they are none the less reprehensible,— none the less disastrous
both to the propagation of good fruit and the moral char-
acter of our country. " I bought those trees," (pointing to a
yard of stinted saplings,) " of neighbor" , (said a gen-
tleman of fortune, a few days since,) " and I gave him a
round price for them, for he pronounced them the best fruit
in his nursery ; but, I hardly know how it is, my ground I
fear is not of the right kind to grow fruit, for I have nursed
them with unwearied care for more than five years, yet they
have never shown me a blossom ! They have really become
an eye-sore to me, and I am resolved to have them removed
out of sight."

In a few minutes, the jack-knife related the whole history
of the scrawny fruit trees; everyone of them was canker
eaten at the root, and as black as the ace of spades at the
heart, and they had all been death smitten long before they
left Mr. 's nursery !

Look into the towns and villages of the whole western
country, and the complaint will be found almost universal.
Choice fruit trees, as they were called, have been taken from
some of our far famed neighboring nurseries to the distances
of two, three, and even four thousand miles, at a most griev-
ous outlay of time and money, with the hope of enjoying the
luxury of rich and elegant table fruit, but in the end, every
prospect built upon the boasted purity and excellence of the
stock, has utterly perished. Such has been the frauds on one
side and the disappointments on the other, that, in some of the

PACT NUMBER THREE. 63

western states companies have been formed, who have plant-
ted nurseries, and divided an interest of 30 per cent. There
is one of this kind in the vicinity of St. Louis which will com-
pare to advantage, if not in point of extent, at least in respect
to the purity and healthiness of stock and the variety and rich-
ness of fruit, with the best nurseries in the old states. An in-
terest is now forming to introduce an establishment of this
kind in East Florida, for the express purpose of supplying our
market with healthy fruit trees. Here, then, the evil so wan-
tonly inflicted, will be found, as it ever has been found, to re-
coil in the end, upon the heads of the evil doers. These frauds,
these cunningly devised cheats, are wrong ; — wrong in any
state, and doubly wrong in a young and growing state like
ours, where every false step carries us back toward the cor-
rupt and rotten condition of the old countries of the East,— a
condition to which no true son of America, will ever feel
ambitious of being immediately promoted.

We are not ignorant of the fact that the profession of pro-
pagating and training nursery trees for the purposes of fruit,
has become a very widely spread business in our young
confederacy, and that large estates are embarked in that
pursuit. Nor are we ignorant of the fact that some of
those estates, are conducted with the utmost fairness, and with
all due respect to the character and standing of the profes-
sion, and the just expectations of the public in behalf of fair
and wholesome fruit. That all of them are not so conduct-
ed, is the evil of which we complain, — the evil which we
aim to cure. How far we shall succeed in effecting a reme-
dy, time only will determine.

We are fully aware, that in making our statements, we are
stepping on the toes of those who have corns, and therefore,
we feel bound, for the present, to tread lightly. Though to
this widely sweeping charge, we are able to make some hon-
orable exceptions, we deem it prudent to let distinctions rest

64 FACT NUMBER THREE.

where they are until we see the effect of this general accusa-
tion.

Our object in this matter is merely a reformation ; we ask
for it without delay, and we indulge the hope that what
we have now said in the premises, will accomplish that object.
If, however, we find our just expectations denied, and these
fraud's continued, we have some other facts for the public,
and with them we have also a list of names and places, and
shall feel bound to speak out in terms that will not be mis-
understood. We can disclose some transactions in the way of
nursery dealing, which will not bear the light and leave their
authors to bask in the sunshine of public favor.

In concluding our labor, we desire to say that, in stating
our " Prime Facts" we have adopted such language only
as will be readily understood by the plain man and the Far-
mer. At the same time, however, we have endeavored to
place the subject in a form not altogether below the attention
or the interest of more learned individuals ; we therefore
venture a hope that the discoveries here put forth by our
worthy citizen, to whose ideas we have merely 'given form,
will not disappoint public expectation.'