HOW TO FIGHT THE INSECT. 



Inclucling a Discussion of Previous Recomniendations and a Detailed 

 Account of Our Extensive Experitnents Against It. 



For nearly a century and a half American ]ieach-growers have 

 been fightmg the peach-tree borer, and the proverbial Yankee 

 ingenuity has been freely exercised to devise methods to circumvent 

 the pest. The result has been that more tlian a hundred different 

 remedial measures have been recommended. We doubt if any 

 other American insect pest has had its life threatened with so many 

 different kinds of machinations. And yet peach-tree borers are now, 

 after being besieged for more than a century by such an army of 

 man's devices, apparently as numerous and destructive in most peach 

 orchards as in the days of our forefathers. 



We shall not attempt to discuss all of the inethods which have 

 been recommended, for, although we have made a critical and 

 extended search through our American insect literature, doubtless 

 some suggestions have escaped our notice ; and again such a dis- 

 cussion would require too much space, and much of it would be of 

 no practical value to peach-growers. Many methods will only be 

 mentioned in connection with some similar methods used in our 

 extensive experiments. 



Some early reoo7nmendations and experinnents. — In 1771 a paper 

 was submitted to the American Philosophical Society •■' On the 

 Nature of the Worms so Prejudicial to the Peach Trees for Some 

 Years Past and a Method for Preventing the Damage in Future " 

 (see the Bibliography, Cooper, 1771). We have found no methods 

 recommended for combating this pest earlier than this, and not hav- 

 ing access to this article, we are not sure of the nature of the method 

 then proposed. But apparently the same author stated in 1806 that 

 he had successfully used for many years a combination of the " dig- 

 ging out " and " mounding " methods, and that he had tested the 



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