THE PEACH-TREE BORER. 



Sanninoidea exitiosa Say. 

 Order Lepidoptera ; family Sesiidae. 



FTER having made a careful study of the horticulture 

 of JSTew York State, I am convinced that the peach 

 industry suffers more from careless and unscientiiic 

 methods than any other pomological interest. The 

 greatest fault lies in the cultivation, or, I might 

 have said, in the lack of cultivation. The second 

 fcmlt is inattention to hovers and yeUoiosr Since 

 1894, when Professor Bailey expressed the above 

 opinion, the peach industry in x^ew York has increased until now 

 there are probably 13,000 acres of peach orchards in the State, and 

 many of them are receiving better care and cultivation. But every 

 commercial o^rower of this luscious fruit realizes that his success 

 oftentimes largely depends upon his ability to prevent the weaken- 

 ing or destruction of the trees by that king of all peach insect pests 

 — the peach-tree borer. 



One of America's most noted peach growers, J. H. Hale, has said 

 that " the peach-borer has killed more trees than all other causes 

 combined." We suppose that but comparatively few of the peach 

 trees, which have been planted east of the Mississippi river during 

 the last quarter of a century, have lived to produce a crop of fruit 

 without suffering more or less from this dreaded borer. 



The peach-tree borer has ranked as one of the standard and serious 

 insect pests of the United States for nearly a century, hence, natu- 

 rally, it has been mucli discussed in our literature ; the bibliography 

 of more important writings concerning it, which is appended to this 

 bulletin, will serve to show how voluminous is the literature regard- 

 ing it. By far the larger proportion of this literature deals with 



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