168 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



treatment was instituted, is now partly dead and in a decaying condition, tbus proving- 

 in tins case that the medicine was worse than the disease. It has borne no fruit since- 

 and in all probability never will. Upon looking over a tree full of bark Hce I often 

 see scales that are torn open on the outer surface, as if the work of some small bird^ 

 and without doubt, as Dr. Harris assures us, birds lend us a helping hand even against 

 bark lice. 



The advice that j^Ir. Walsh gives in his 6th statement, (p. 52 Eeport) to always plant a 

 clean tree, is most excellent. A clean orchard isolated by a few hundred yards wiU be- 

 likely to escape if care is taken not to introduce infested trees to fill vacancies. Cut 

 do-wn all old orchards with bark lice as soon as they cease to bear profitably. Mr^ 

 "Walsh also (p. 53 of his Report) advances two most excellent tenets : 



1st. That cultivating the tree does not discommode the bark louse. 



2d. That drugs of any kind can not be introduced into the circulation of the tree 

 and have the same effect on the bark louse as when applied directly upon the insect. 



These appear to be as evident as the axioms of geometry themselves, and yet they 

 have always been a stumbling block to many. And thus after all you see that I have 

 not given you a universal panacea against bark lice. 



The ancient Alchymists long sought the elixir of life, and found it not. The 

 Spaniards, in the times of the early discoveries in America, sought in vain for the 

 fountain of youth. Ponce DeLeon expected that when he should discover this 

 iountain and plunge beneath its waters, that his gray hairs would turn black, and 

 that he would come out a rosj" boy ag-ain, but he was only rewarded with a mortal 

 wound by the savages; and Ferdinand De Soto, by plunging into the unexplored, 

 wilds of America, found a hollow log in which his mortal remains were committed to 

 the Father of Waters. 



Reversing this picture, although we have not found a universal panacea for extermi- 

 nating bark lice, 5"etwe will continue to hope that we may find some "hollow log"^ 

 that will float the apple bark louse away from the shores of time. 



Dr. Shroeder — I will give two remedies here foi' the bark louse. 

 It happened that I had a thousand gallons of poor Avine, that did not 

 have sugar enough in it that a man would take it. I put the barrels 

 outside in order to get the rays of the sun into the wine. One of 

 these barrels burst, and it happened that we took a sack to stop the 

 crack in the barrel, and it came in contact with the sour wine. I 

 hung that sack on a tree, and the sour wine ran down on the tree,, 

 and I tell you, the bark lice were killed. [Laughter.] I went to 

 work and tried another tree, and I found they could not stand it. 

 [Eenewed laughter.] Now, there is no joke about it. [Loud laugh- 

 ter.] I just want to throw that out to our friends. Try vinegar. 

 Por everything there is a remedy. You can kill the devil if you 

 like. [Cheers and laughter.] We killed slavery, why should we 



