The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1853-11-10

ing day. Again in the same garden, ]
remarked scar or ring around each plum
tree, just above the ground, and, on inqui-
ry, ascertained that these trees had been
girdled last spring by some malicious
scoundrel, who had halted one dark night,
on his way from the gutter to the state
prison, to perpetrate this dastardly out
rage. The owner discovered the mischief
early next morning, and, having pot of
copal varnish in the house, speedily ap-
Piled it with brush to the wound on each
tree, covering each with acoat of varnish
and by this means every tree was saved.
When l saw them in midsummer, they
were as green and thrifty as any tress
within miles. Now do not stand here
to maintain that soap-suds will always in
sure an abundance of fine grapes, nor
that coating of vanish, seasonably ap-
piled, will alWays save girdled trees; for I
do not know such to be fact I trust fur
ther experience and inquiry will cast ight
on both points-that soap-suds will be
withheld from the door-yard and given to
the grape-vines; and that every tree that
any prowling rascal may gingle will be
promptly coated with vanish-until we
shall determine under what circumstances
and with what limitations, potash or soda
is beneficial to grapes and varnish an anti
dote for girdling. The point make is
this, chat no sane farmer, having heard
this relation, will henceforth throw away
his soap-suds or neglect vanishing his gir-
died trees, unles he learns some reason for
doing otherwise; and that, if he would do
so on the strength of my mere narration,
he ought many times rather to do so had
he found these sane receipts in an Agri-
cultural paper or manual, where the chan
ces are ten to one that it would not have
found place unless on the strength of
testimony more reliable than mine, be-
cause founded on wider and more varied
experience, and subjected to more rigid
scrutiny. tte '
Take another case: Ny friend Dr. R.
7. Underhill was a physician in exten-
sive practice some twenty yearsago, when,
in the prime Of life, having become hear
tily tired of gallipots and bone saving, he
shook off the dust of our city from his feet,
and resolved henceforth to live an honest
life as grower of fruits. He went forty
miles up the Hudson, bought a neck of
land, and commenced the cultivation of the
Grape, which he has since prosecuted with
scientific knowledge, untiring energy, and
at length with decided success. He has
probably assuaged more suffering with his
grapes than he ever created by his drugs;
he has grown considerably younger by
his twenty years farming, and is now ia
king his place among the most brisk and
genial of our youth--an admirable speci-
men of that branch of ''Young amer
lea" which does not hate to work nor long
for an opportunity to steal. 5
"Well; the doctor, since the untimely
death of the lamented Downing, stands,
probably, at the head of our fruit-grow
ers, with whom one knotty problem of the
last few years has been--how to counter
act the ravages of the curculio, which is
nearly robbing us of plums, for which his
taste is equal to OURS, while in the matter
of gratifying it he is decidedly ahead of
us. BY the time he has taken his quota,
the plums left on tree, or score of trees,
are not worth gathering. ButDr. Under
hill, by long sturdy and careful observa-
ton, has discovered the means of COM
pletely outwitting him. He has found, by
watching and noting her movements, that
the female curculio will not deposit her
eggs where they, when the plums contain
ing them drop, will fall into water, her in
stinct teaching her that they will thus be
drowned. Taking advantage of this in
stinct, the doctor plants his plum trees on
the bank of a stream or pond, and gives
the trunks such an inclination that all their
branches overhang the water. Thus the
desolateris checkmated by his owninstinct,
and the fruit preserved from his ravages.
I know nothing cleverer in its way than
this device. .,.
Now I suppose there is no contemner
of 'Book-farming' so mulish or SO dull
that he would not, after hearing of this
device, take advantage of any brook or
pond he might have on his premises, and
set his plum trees where they will be safe
from the curculio. But suppose the dis
covery had been made by some fruit grow
er of the last century, and duly recorded
in book, had since been subjected to a
thousand ordeals, and had passed trium-
phant through them all-would it have
been less acceptable or less valuable than
it now is? Ii it be worth our while to
learn at all, what difference can be imag-
ined between the knowledge founded on a
neighbor's experience and that contained
in book? If there be any, are not the
odds a1touether in favor of that nrescrin.