“The words of the wise are as goads and as nails fastened by masters
of assemblies.”—SOLOMON.
After a great pother about canker worms, peach-tree worms, and other
audacious robber-worms; after smoke, salt, tar, and tansy, bands of
wool, cups of oil, lime, ashes, and surgery have been set forth as
remedies, to the confusion of those who have tried them bootlessly, it
now appears that we are about to _nail_ the rascals. The Boston
_Cultivator_, contains an article “On Destroying Insects on Trees,”
from which we quote:
“I did not intend to give it publicity until I had fully
tested it, but as the ravages are very extensive in the
West, I cannot delay giving you the experiment, hoping that
some of your western readers may now give it a fair trial
and report the result. I will give one case which may induce
the experiment wherever the evil is felt. In conversation
with a friend in Newburyport, Dr. Watson, last fall. I
mentioned the experiment; he invited me to his garden, where
last year a fruit-tree was infested with the nests of
caterpillar or canker-worms, as were his neighbors’ trees;
he showed me a board nailed for convenience of a
clothes-line upon one of the large limbs of the tree; he
said he noticed a little while afterward that the nests on
that limb dried up, and the worms disappeared, though the
cause did not then occur to him though apparent as it will
be to any scientific mind.
“Drive carefully well home, so that the bark will heal over
a few headless cast iron nails, say some six or eight, size
and number according to the size of the tree, in a ring
around its body, a foot or two above the ground. The
oxidation of the iron by the sap, will evolve ammonia, which
will, of course, with the rising sap, impregnate every part
of the foliage, and prove to the delicate palate of the
patient, a nostrum, which will soon become, as in many cases
of larger animals, the real panacea for the ills of life,
_via Tomb_. I think if the ladies should drive some small
iron brads into some limbs of any plant infested with any
insect, they would find it a good and safe remedy, and I
imagine in any case, instead of injury, the ammonia will be
found particularly invigorating. Let it be tried upon a limb
of any tree, where there is a vigorous nest of caterpillars,
and watch it for a week or ten days, and I think the result
will pay for the nails.”
Let our farmers take their hammers and nails and start for the
orchard; if they see a bug on the tree, drive a nail, and he is a bug
no more! If they see a worm, in with a nail, and the “ammonia evolved”
will finish his functions!
The _Southern Planter_ is out with a backer to the Boston
_Cultivator_:
“A singular fact, and one worthy of being recorded, was
mentioned to us a few days since by Mr. Alexander Duke, of
Albemarle. He stated that whilst on a visit to a neighbor,
his attention was called to a large peach orchard, every
tree in which had been totally destroyed by the ravages of
the worm, with the exception of three, and these three were
probably the most thrifty and flourishing peach-trees he
ever saw. The only cause of their superiority known to his
host, was an experiment made in consequence of observing
that those parts of worm-eaten timber into which nails had
been driven, were generally sound; when his trees were about
a year old he had selected three of them and driven a
tenpenny nail through the body, as near the ground as
possible; whilst the balance of his orchard has gradually
failed, and finally yielded entirely to the ravages of the
worms, these three trees, selected at random, treated
precisely in the same manner, with the exception of the
nailing, had always been vigorous and healthy, furnishing
him at that very period with the greatest profusion of the
most luscious fruit. It is supposed that the salts of iron
afforded by the nail are offensive to the worm, whilst they
are harmless, or perhaps even beneficial to the tree.”
We do not wish to interrupt any experiments which the enterprising may
choose to make. To be sure we regard the facts with some incredulity,
and the chemical explanations with something of the mirthful
superadded to unbelief. But if nails _are_ an antidote to worms—a real
vermifuge—let them be administered, whatever may be the explanations;
whether they are an electric battery, giving the insects a little
domestic, vegetable lightning, or whether they afford “salts of iron”
to physic them, or “evolve ammonia” in such potent, pungent strength
that vermicular nostrils are unable to endure it!
While one is fairly engaged in a campaign of experiments, we heartily
hope that war will be carried to the very territory of ignorance, and
we will propound several other important questions of fact and theory,
which, if settled, will crown somebody’s brow with laurels.
It is said that hanging a scythe in a plum-tree, or an iron hoop, or
horse shoes, will insure a crop of plums. This ought to be
investigated.
It is said that pear-trees that are unfruitful, may be made to bear,
by digging under them, cutting the tap root, and burying a black cat
there. We do not know as it makes any difference as to the sex of the
cat, though we should, if trying it, rather prefer the male cat.
Lastly, that we may contribute our mite to the advancement of science,
we will state that, in our youth, we were informed, that, if we would
go into the wood-house once a day and rub our hands with a chip,
_without thinking of red fox’s tail_, the warts would all go off. We
have no doubt that it would have been successful, but every time we
tried the experiment, whisk came the red fox’s tail into our head and
spoilt the whole affair. But might this not cure warts on trees?