ORCHARDS. 193 



"As Winter approaches, the young borer descends as near 

 the ground as its burrow will allow, and doubtless remains in- 

 active till the following Spring. On approach of the second 

 Winter it is about one half grown, and still living on the sap- 

 wood; and it is at this time that these borers do the most 

 damage, for where there are four or five in a single tree they 

 almost completely girdle it. In the course of the next Sum- 

 mer, when it has become about three-fourths grown, it gener- 

 ally commences to cut a cylindrical passage upward into the 

 solid wood, and before having finished its larval growth, it in- 

 variably extends this passage right to the bark, sometimes 

 cutting entirely through a tree to the opposite side from which 

 it commenced; sometimes turning back at different angles. It 

 then stuffs the upper end of the passage with sawdust-like 

 powder, and the lower part with curly fibres of wood, after 

 which it rests from its labors. It thus finishes its gnawning 

 w^ork during the commencement of the third Winter, but re- 

 mains motionless in the larval state till the following Spring, 

 when it casts off its skin once more and becomes a pupa. 

 After resting three weeks in the pupa state it becomes a 

 beetle, with all its members and parts at first soft and weak. 

 These gradually harden, and in a fortnight more it cuts its 

 way through its sawdust-like castings, and issues from the tree 

 through a perfectly smooth, round hole. Thus it is in the 

 tree a few" days less than three years, and not nearly two 

 years as Dr. Fitch suggests. I have come to this conclusion 

 from having frequently found, during the past Summer, 

 worms of three distinct sizes in the same orchard, and Mr. 

 D. B. Weir, of Lacon, Illinois, had previously published the 

 fact,* while a correspondent to the Country Grentleman, of 

 Albany, N. Y.,t who says he has large experience with this 

 borer, sent to the editors specimens of all three sizes, which 

 he calls Hhis year's, two and three old worms.' The individ- 

 ual from which I drew my figures, and which was taken from 

 a crab apple tree, went into the pupa state on the 14th day 



* Prairie Farmer, Chicago, April 20, 1867. 

 t Country Gentleman, September 12tli, 1867. 



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