82 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



The LEAF-CRUMPLER has been unprecedently abundant, in some 

 localities, the past season, doing serious damage, especially to young 

 nursery trees, in checking their growth. These pests are now easily 

 found, closely done up in their slender, tough cases, attached firmly to 

 the twigs, and surrounded with small bits of dead leaves, which they 

 destroyed during the summer. The diligent and really prudent nursery- 

 men and orchardists will not fail to pick off and burn these enemies. 

 As this work can be done at any time during the fall and winter, there 

 is no reasonable excuse for neglecting it. In some of the nurseries, it 

 will probably cost fifteen dollars per acre to clean the trees from these 

 unsightly pests. 



The SCALY BARK-LOUSE, while holding its own in some localities, is, 

 on the whole, diminishing. Those who have stimulated their orchards 

 into renewed vigor, by means which I shall soon mention, have, to a 

 great extent, counteracted their effects, and diminished their numbers. 

 Several persons in this county (Grundy) report that they have applied a 

 light coat of linseed oil, with a common paint brush, to the infested 

 trunks and branches of their trees witii marked benefits, in both desti'oy- 

 ing the insects and producing a clean, vigorous appearance to the trees. 

 The hope is often expressed, that the parasite which our lamented friend 

 Walsh discovered preying upon the eggs of these insects will so far hold 

 them in check diat they will be comparatively harmless for a few years 

 to come. 



The extreme drouth of the season seems to have been favorable for 

 the multiplication of tent caterpillars. The orchards upon some 

 of the large farms have shown many trees full of fruit, yet denuded of 

 leaves. Of course there is no valid excuse for this state of things, as this 

 enemy is so easily destroyed. It is usually the slovenly farmers, or else 

 those who can see value only in steers, hogs, or corn, whose orchards ate 

 thus infested. The fruit upon such trees, though insipid, is usually 

 colored well, and " will sell with the rest." 



Cultivation of Orchards. — So much has been published in our 

 agricultural papers, and talked in our horticultural meetings, about the 

 richness of prairie soils, justly cautioning persons planting trees upon 

 these new soils against using manures, that the opinion has become 

 general that it is dangerous ever to manure an orchard, and hence nearly 

 all neglect to furnish the needed food for tlieir ti^ees when they come into 

 bearing. 



Having been constantly "cropping the soil" among their trees 

 during the years of their growth, it becomes somewhat deteriorated, and 

 when the trees begin to bear crops of fruit, they draw still more heavily 

 upon its resources; and because additional food is not supplied, they 

 become checked in growth, and a more ready prey to the bark lice and 

 borers. I will cite two cases, which \vill show both the trouble and the 

 remedy. The one is at Farm Ridge, La Salle County. I quote from 

 my notes taken in the orchard : 



"Orchard planted in 1851. Trees cultivated for three years, then 

 ground seeded to timothy. Soon commenced bearing, and bore tolerably 



