524 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



found a flat-headed borer in an apple tree that was not injured in some 

 way before. 



Mr. Burton spoko of another thing, making the trees lean to the south- 

 west, so the body of the tree is sliadcd and the sun doos not strike it, so 

 as to scald the hark. Tliat is where the borer always gets in— where the 

 bark is scorched: :in(l if the tree is shaded so as to prevent that, you will 

 largely pi-event tlie depredations of the borer; but most people do not do 

 that. We have foniid tliat a wasli of soft soap or lye and carbolic acid, 

 put on the trees about the last of May or the first of June, and applied 

 two or three times during the summer, is very efficacious in preventing 

 the attacks of the apple tree borer. You take soft soap and reduce it so 

 that it will flow nici'ly, with a brush, but make it good and strong, and 

 add two or three ounces of crude carbolic acid to a bucketful, and apply 

 with a brush to the trunks. And that applies to the peach borer, as well 

 as to the apple borer. 



Another insect that works on the trunk and branches of trees, espe- 

 cially the plums, is tiie flat-beak beetle, that bores little pinholes through 

 the bark of the large branches, sometimes getting down into the trunk, 

 and lays its egg in those holes, where the larvpe feed on the inner 

 bark, sometimes girdling the inner bark. When that gets too bad, the best 

 remedy is to cut the tree down and burn it; but that can be largely kept 

 out by keeping the tree in a healthy condition, for they almost always 

 attack trees that have been otherwise diseased or injured previously. 



Now for the sucking class. I do not know of anything better for that 

 class, as a general insecticide, than kerosene emulsion. I suppose prob- 

 ably all of you here know how to make it; you take ordinary coal oil and 

 water and spray well, and that kills by coming in contact with the insect. 

 That is used for plant lice and all soft-bodied insects. Many, like the cat- 

 erpillars, that can be killed by poisons, can also be killed by kerosene 

 emulsion. I might say there are two classes of sucking lice— the plant lice 

 lepresenting one class and the bark lice representing another. Of course, 

 there are others; we have the green aphis and the bark lice among the 

 suckers. The green aphis or the plant lice may be held in check largely 

 by kerosene emulsion, but the bark lice need something stronger. Take, 

 for instance, the San Jose scale. I have seen a good deal of that, and I see 

 you have some here. I got this branch out in the country this morning. 

 That M'ants something strong, like whale oil spray, and that applied 

 strongly in the winter time, or a salt, lime and sulphur wash, which is 

 used so extensively in California. It needs something very strong, in 

 order to penetrate the scale. These armoi-ed scale insects, while young, 

 are very active, and the young crawl about tlie branches until they find a 

 suitable place, and then penetrate the bark with their tiny beaks and 

 suck their food from the bark, fastening themselves to the bark, the 

 females of this class never moving again, but attaching themselves 

 firmly to the branch or trunk of the tree, usually the branch, after a time 



