secretary's budget. 417 



sickly and dyin^ trees, but I have positive proof that this is a mistake, 

 as they have killed three year old cherries, plums and peaches that 

 presented a most luxuriant growth and healthy general appearance. 



The full grown insect, a minute cylindrical beetle about one-tenth 

 of an inch long and one thirteenth ot an inch in diameter, issues from 

 the bark the latter part of August through holes so small as to be 

 nearly imperceptible, over which the cuticle closes after the insect's 

 exit. The beetles continue to appear on the surface until freezing 

 weather. In about four days after their appearance, they bore a hole 

 back through the bark, the full size of the perfect insect. All the ma- 

 terial they thus remove passes through them, their castings being 

 merely the borings, yet it is not for the purpose of obtaining food that 

 they gnaw these apertures, but to provide a place in which to deposit 

 their eggs, and also to furnish a receptacle for their dead bodies. 



After the female insect has deposited her eggs in the bottom of 

 this hole, into which she fits so snugly that it is difficult to extract their 

 bodies, she dies, forming a perfect shield for the eggs. As no traces 

 whatever of the dead insects are discoverable the following season, I 

 am led to the conclusion that their bodies serve as the first food for 

 the young larvae. 



On the approach of warm weather the following spring, the eggs 

 hatch ; the larva^ begin to feed on the alburnum, and radiate in jogged 

 lines in all directions from their breeding place for about an inch in 

 circumference. They are so numerous under the bark that they un- 

 dermine it completely. But the insects and the holes in the bark are 

 so small as to escape attention until the mischief is done and the tree 

 dies, yet the jets of gum on the surface are plainlj' visible and cannot 

 ■escape the attention of the observer. • 



As a remedy, carbolic soap and diluted potash, used alternately, 

 liave given satisfactory results. They should be applied to the trees 

 in April, and again in August and September. A. J. Caywood. 



WESTERN PEACHES. 



The peach tree in the West has had a hard time of it, and to a 

 large extent has given up the ghost. In Michigan, as is well known, 

 the yellows played havoc with the orchards, encouraged by the mis- 

 taken policy of not giving a heroic treatment at once and destroying 

 the trees as rapidly as the disease made its appearance. But the 

 Michigan peach growers finally got down to business, encouraged by 

 the laws of the State — if the word encouragement may be permitted 



H R— 27 



