236 Bulletin 17G. 



the least. Tar is about as cheap as any wash, bnt it is disagreeab's 

 stuff to manipulate. The results of our experiments would lead us 

 to believe that gas tar is the most effective application yet devised 

 for preventing the attacks of the peach-tree borer, and as our trees 

 suffered no injury from its use for three years on the same trees, we 

 think it may often be used with safety. Let the young trees get 

 thoroughly established and get to growing thriftily, and keep them 

 in this condition, and try the gas tar wash sparingly at first on a few 

 trees. 



So7ne miscellaneous washes. — In 1824, a wash of cow-dung leached 

 ashes, and plaster of Paris was recommended, but we doubt if this 

 would remain on the tree long enough and prove more effectual 

 than Hale's or similar washes. The same must be said of cow-dung 

 and clay which was reconnnended in 1827. In 1892, Brown recom 

 mended a wash made of Ihae, gas tar and soap / we have shown that 

 soap and lime are not preventives, and we believe they would neu- 

 tralize the preventive qualities of the tar in tJiis combination. A 

 wash of soft soap, corrosive sid>li7nate and wood alcohol was recom- 

 mended in 1893 ; it would be an expensive wash and of very doubt- 

 ful efficiencv. 



We are well aware that many other combinations have been 

 recommended as washes for the peach-tree boi-er, but we think that 

 they will be found to differ very little from some of those we have 

 tested or discussed. 



Some General Conclusions Regarding Methods of Fighting 



the Peach-Tree Borer. 



Although American peach-growers have been fighting the peach- 

 tree borer for a hundred and fifty years, the results from to-day's 

 methods of warfare are not strikingly different from those recorded 

 by Peters in 1806. Most of the applications now recommended 

 were devised nearly a century ago. 



Cultural methods. — Different cultural methods (p. 200) such as 

 budding on various stocks, irrigation, and cultivation seem to have 

 little or no effect upon the number of the borers. But to make a 

 success of peach-growing it is usually necessary to thoroughly culti- 



