20 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



Augur ever examined the roots of his trees, to see if there 

 was any trouble about them ? 



Mr. Augur. Not particularly. I did suggest to a gentle- 

 man who went with me to the Hudson taking a glass and 

 making an examination to see if the peach aphis had any- 

 thing to do with it. I feel pretty sure that we have not been 

 troubled in that way ; but I have not examined otherwise 

 than with the naked eye. 



Mr. E. E. Dayton. Mr. Augur says his peach orchard is 

 on one of the highest hills of the State, 625 feet above the 

 river. I have a peach orchard that is 1,440 feet above tide 

 water. I would like to ask him if he thinks that is high 

 enough for a peach orchard ? 



Mr. Augur. I should say that would do. I will give in. 



Mr. Croffut. Mr. Augur referred to the time when 

 peaches were grown so largely in this State tiiat they were 

 fed to the pigs. I have picked up a great many bushels and 

 fed them to the pigs. I set out an orchard of a few trees 

 Avhen I was quite a young man, as people generally do at that 

 time, and they grew very nicely indeed. At last they were 

 attacked by what we call the yellows, I suppose ; the leaves 

 began to curl up. I knew there must be some cause. I went 

 to work and dug around the roots of the trees, and the next 

 day, when I examined between the trunk of the tree and the 

 fork of the root, I discovered a gum exuding. On making a 

 close examination, I found that in that gum there was a worm, 

 and he was a pretty lively one, too, for that situation. It was 

 perhaps three-eights or half an inch long; a little white, wiry 

 looking worm. I discovered that these worms worked into 

 the bark and partly girdled the trees. I continued to watch, 

 and 1 found that when a tree was completely girdled by these 

 worms, it was used up. I then took a composition of lime, 

 red lead, and potash and put it around the tree, in order to eat 

 this gum and destroy it, and those trees did very well for sev- 

 eral years, and grew, some of them, to be at least six inches 

 through, until they got to be too old to be of any use and 

 passed away. Since that time, I have been differently situa- 



