Thk Peach-Tree Borer. 199 



freezing" method in 1779, injuring his trees and not the worms; 

 hence it is probable that the "digging out" and "mounding" 

 methods were among the first to be used against the insect. 



About the year 18U0, John ElHs received a prize of $30.00 offered 

 by the American Philosophical Society for an essay on the best 

 methods of preserving peach trees. Ellis' method consisted in put- 

 ting a band of straw, three feet long and an inch thick around the 

 tree from the roots upward when the tree was in blossom, then 

 removing the band in autumn. 



In February, 1806, Mr. Peters read a paper before the Philadel- 

 phia Society for the Promotion of Agriculture in which he gave 

 some remarkable experiences in combating the insect. The remedial 

 measures employed against the peach-tree borer in the early part of 

 this century are so well brought out in Mr. Peters' article that v/e 

 quote from it as follows : 



" I have failed in many things, in which others are said to have 

 succeeded. Straw and Ijass^ (dv lywper^ surrounding the trees, from 

 the root, at all distances, from 6 inches, to 3 or 4 feet — ichite- 

 washing, jxtiiiting, iirinous applications^ hrine^ soot^ Imie^ fratnes 

 filed with sand^ oil, tar, turpentine, sidp/miric acid or oil of vitrol, 

 nitrous inixtures, and almost every hind of coating. Teguments 

 of straw or bass make the bark tender ; the more dunse coating 

 stopped the perspiration. The oil invited mice and other vermin, 

 who ate the bark thus prepared for their repast and thus killed the 

 tree. I planted in hedge rows and near woods, \ paved, raised hil- 

 lochs of stone — I have suffered them to grow from the pit only, 

 grafted on various stocks and budded, hilled up the earth in the 

 spring and exposed the butt in the fall — I have scymhhed the stocks 

 or trimhs with hard hrushes, soap suds and sand, scraped them 

 with proper instruments : I liave, for a season or two under various 

 experiments, amused myself with the persuasion, that I had discov- 

 ered an infallible panacea. I had temporary success, but final 

 disappointment. 



" I remove the earth a few inches around the tree in August or 

 September. I pour around the butt of the tree, beginning about 

 one foot above the ground, a quart or more (not being nice about 

 the quantity) of boiling hot soap suds or water. This kills the ^^jg 



