STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. G5 



lorm the tops at a height of from 3 to 3j£ feet, believing this to be the best for all 

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PEACH BORERS. 



This pest is no longer a pest to me, after a period of three or four years, during 

 which time I follow the old practice of removing with a knife, in April and Sep- 

 tember of each year. I regard this as the only safe method during the period as 

 above named. Alter this period I adopt the banking system. Have practised this four 

 years, and am fully satisfied with its efficacy. Hank up to the height of from 8 to 10 

 inches, adding a little each successive spring, and you may rest assured that your trees 

 will not sutler from the depreciations of the peach borer. Mr. President, in what I have 

 written, I have neither theorized or drawn upon science, to prove or disapprove anything 

 that I have recommended or condemned in my own practice, or that of others. 



I have eudeavored to give simply a plain statement of my own views and observa- 

 tions derived from years of experience, an experience too, that has partaken some of 

 success, and much of failure. I stated in the beginning of this paper that I should 

 refer to one or two other subjects. I had reference to Insects and Transportation. I 

 do not refer to these with the view of giving instruction or of suggesting remedies, but 

 only in so far as they affect all our efforts in elevating our standard of cultivation, and 

 bringing it nearer and nearer to perfection. These subjects of transportation and in- 

 sects are truly causes of alarm and difficulty. They hang over us like a nightmare, 

 paralyzing our energies until we know not which way to look for succor. I believe it 

 is no exaggeration to say that fully one-half of all the failures, due to neglect, and con- 

 sequent premature decay and passing away of our peach orchards, are due to these 

 causes. It is therefore all important that these difficult questions receive our attention 

 with a view to their favorable solution, or else we shall be driven from the field in 

 despair. It cannot be expected, it is not in the nature of things, that men with an 

 atom of brains, will persist in devoting their time, talent, and very best effort, to the 

 production of a commodity, which has for its object the feeding of hordes of ravenous 

 insects, and the filling of the pockets of no less ravenous Transportation companies, 

 leaving to the producer barely a subsistance, and sometimes not that. It may be argued 

 by some that these very difficulties will only make the business more profitable to 

 those who shall remain in it, lessening the amount raised, and increasing prices in pro- 

 portion. But I wish to see no such result. It is our business as fruit growers to raise 

 fruits for the millions, and not for the rich alone. 



The Curculio and Plum Gouger are the only insect enemies to the fruit of the Peach, 

 of which we stand in much dread. We shall never be able to cope with them success- 

 fully, until we have a perfect knowledge of their habits, from the time they leave the 

 fruit in the larv;e state until they appear again the perfect insect. When once the 

 vexed questions relating to them are settled beyond cavil, we shall then be prepared 

 to attaek them in all their stages, and at all seasons with more success than now. 

 But how can we fear? Our mind reverts to those eminent gentlemen, who are heart and 

 soul engaged in this business. They call themselves Bug General*. This is proper, 

 but they are Generals in the enemy's camp. They are discovering to us the enemies of 

 our foes, the cannibal insects that prey upon them. They are in a sense cannibal them- 

 selves, for what more inveterate enemy have the bugs than they? Besides they 

 have under their instruction a vast army who, if they are not cannibals, desire to be 



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