No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 503 



Get the borers out of the trees by cutting, piercing, or injecting, 

 and then keep them out by painting the trunks of the trees not later 

 than the middle of June each year with pure white lead and raw 

 linseed oil, or with boiled lime-sulphur solution, or with the com- 

 mercial preparation known as Tree-Borer Paint, which is really a 

 commercial lime-sulphur wash with adhesive qualities, which sticks 

 like paint. Two coatings' of this material during the summer, ap- 

 plied about the middle of June and the middle of August, should be 

 sufficient to keep the borers out of the trees. We have tried white 

 lead and linseed oil on our own peach as well as apple trees, and 

 have found no evidence of injury to any of the trees from painting 

 with it. TVe recommend prevention of tree borers as being far more 

 important than any remedy after they have entered. 



* * * The Flat-headed Apple-tree Borer is also a serious pest 

 of apple, pear and quince. It is not the larva of a Long-horn Beetle, 

 but belongs to the Buprestids or Metallic Beetles, so called because 

 the wings have a very decided metallic lustre when seen in a certain 

 light. The life history of the Flat-headed Borer is similar to that of 

 the Bound-headed, the egg being laid on the bark about mid-summer 

 by the adult beetle, the little larva boring through the bark and feed- 

 ing beneath it and reaching its maturity in its cell or tunnel from 

 which it cuts a hole while 3'et a larva, and makes its exit after it be- 

 comes mature. It then transforms into a pupa and remains quiet 

 during the winter to come forth as an adult beetle in the spring 

 tfme. The remedies are exactly the same as for the Round-headed 

 Borers, and the preventatives are also identical. It would pay well 

 to paint the trunk of apple, pear and quince trees for borers, mice 

 and rabbits. 



* * * There are certain twig borers- which are at times to be 

 found boring in the twigs of fruit trees. Oftentimes the hole is to 

 be seen going downward from the axil of a leaf stem or fork of a 

 small twig. This hole has been made by a wood-boring beetle or its 

 larva, the examination should at once be made for the pest. When 

 the twig looks yellow or wilts or shows signs of dying it should be 

 cut oft' and split open, and if a borer be found present, it should be 

 destroyed. By watching carefully the evidences of the presence of 

 such insects, they can be found and their accumulation in such 

 numbers as to become a plague can be avoided without much 

 trouble. 



The Twig Girdler is a beetle which cuts off the twigs for the nour- 

 ishment of the young which come from eggs laid in the twigs. This 

 beetle is to be destroyed by gathering and burning the twigs in Sep- 

 tember. As a rule it is not very abundant, but it may sometimes ap- 

 pear in destructive numbers. 



* * * The Bark Beetles or Shot Hole Borers are among the 

 most conspicuous pests of this State and are often thought to be 

 among the most destructive, but as a matter of fact they are not 

 so injurious as is supposed, for the reason that they attack only 

 trees that are dying and thus merely hasten their death. When a 

 tree has recently died it can oft(ni be seen full of holes, looking as 

 though it had been shot into by a shot gun carrying fine shot. This 

 is why they are called "Shot Hole Borers." There is no remedy for 



