602 State Board of Agriculture, <fec. 



says tliat in a public park in St. Louis, a paint composed of 

 soap, lime and a little Paris green, proved very effectual. 

 This was brushed over the trunk. Riley, justly I think, rec- 

 ommends the use of soap or any alkaline wash, as prefera- 

 ble to scraping the bark, for the reason that if a tree is thor- 

 oughly scraped, the bark left is more or less scratched, and 

 often these injured spots afford excellent places for the borer 

 to deposit its eggs. It has sometimes been found that such 

 places were well stocked with borers the next season. If 

 scraping is done at all it had better be done very early in 

 the season. Of course, a slight scraping, that removes only 

 the loose scales of the bark, without in any way injuring the 

 tree, is not harmful, and such a preparation of the tree for 

 the soap or lime wash would be useful. 



In the Mississippi Valley, a small beetle, Ainphicerus 

 bicaudaUis, Say., has done considerable mischief to apple 

 trees, by boring into the twigs just above one of the buds, 

 and after reaching the center of the twig it follows it for an 

 inch or more. This beetle is of a brown color, a little less 

 than one-tenth of an inch long. The surface of the wings 

 and thorax is rough. The injured twigs perish. This pest 

 has never been found in New England, so far as I know. 

 The only remedy against such depredators is to cut oft' the 

 infested branches as soon as discovered and burn them. 



The roots of apple trees are attacked by several species of 

 Aphis. Roots infested with these insects are very apt to 

 rot, and may be thus destroyed until the tree perishes. One of 

 these, Eriosoma j)y'^^'> Fitch, forms galls on the roots just 

 below the surface. When young it is pinkish, like many 

 other allied species, but as it grows older it is darker, more 



