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TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



they were then ; but of course improvement is gradually going on and we 

 are getting better varieties. 



Peaches pay when we get a crop. Two years ago Early Barnard 

 gave us two bushels to the 'tree. Crawford will not pay with me. Old 

 Mixon is as good a peach as the new varieties ; yet the peach also varies 

 like the apple, depending upon the situation and soil where it is grown. 



In my apple orchard the borer infests some trees and not others, and 

 is also very persistent in its attentions to certain trees. It is a very easy 

 matter, however, to keep this insect in check, if you will keep the ground 

 around the bodies of your trees free from weeds and grass, then go along 

 the rows of trees two or three times during the season, and the eggs can 

 usually be found by the little holes in which they are deposited, and they 

 can be crushed by pressing over them with a knife blade; or if the insect 

 is in the bark of the tree, his castings are quite plainly to be seen and he 

 can be dislodged. 



The Canker-worm is our worst pest. I have never yet found any 

 means of entirely getting rid of him, though I have spent time and money 

 without avail; I do not find the tar bands reliable. Of late, however, I 

 am happy to say they seem to be disappearing. I would say that I found 

 Rawles' Janet and Willow Twig quite exempt from the attacks of the 

 canker-worm. It has been argued here that non-success in apple-culture 

 is due principally to climatic changes. I myself am satisfied that climatic 

 influences to a certain extent control the growing of this fruit, but not so 

 much as soil. 



Mr. Wier. — I am somewhat surprised that brother Robison don't 

 know why borers affect some varieties more than others. I will tell him 

 the reason : some varieties are earlier in their strong downward flow of 

 sap than others, and in such varieties the borers are drowned in their 

 burrows. September is the best time to hunt out and destroy the borer, 

 as his castings are easily seen then, and it does not require much cutting 

 to reach him. 



Mr. Robison (in answer to a question). — I find borers do more 

 damage in certain spaces, within certain limits, rather than on certain 

 varieties. I don't think the borer is drowned out, at least I never saw 

 one that appeared to be. All kinds of apple-trees seem subject to their 

 attacks, but, as I said before, in certain places. 



Mr. Wier. — The beetle lays her eggs indiscriminately on all varieties, 

 and they all hatch equally as well on one variety as another ; it is after 

 hatching, in June or July, that the young borer makes his way into the 

 wood through the bark, and this is when the flow of sap drowns him. 



