Agricultural Superstition.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 114, 18 April 1885, Page 4

Agricultural Superstition.

In reference to the peach tree disease, and the use of brass nails referred to by Mr Dew at a meeting of the Progress and Industrial Association, the N.Z. Farmer, Bee and Poultry Journal, says : — We are sorry to have to say anything calculated to check a promised spurt m the colonial demand for brass and copper nails, but if it be true, as stated, that many people are deluding themselves with the notion that they can make their peach trees healthy by sticking brass nails into them, we must really tell them that such an idea is sheer nonsense. Mr Dew apparently did not say—-per-haps he did not know — what else the local gardener had done to the peach trees besides studding them with brass nails. It is strange what bad logic is sufficient to convince some people. The fact that some peach trees were sick and, after their owner had adorned them with some brass nails, became healthy again, is accepted as proof positive that the nails effected the cure. Two little boys we know were recently observed m a neighbour's cherry tree ; the neighbour went for them, and they went for home- One, who was fat and short-winded, and wore a felt hat, got caught and warmed; the other, who was thin and active, and wore a straw hat, got away clear. Who can doubt it was the straw hat that saved him ? We had thought the nail superstition well nigh extinct, amongst colonials at any rate, but here it is revived, a brass nail taking the place of a rusty one m the venerable recipe. Our readers may rest assured that the only kind of " brass " or . copper that will do sick peach trees any good will be that which they expended m manuring and cultivating their orchards, and affording proper shelter to delicate trees.