502 



THE YELLOWS. 



given me plants every spring these five 

 years !" So away she goes, begging roots 

 here, bulbs there, a few seeds, a slip of this 

 plant, a cutting of that, a root of another; 

 and by night she has got a heterogeneous 

 heap of thirty or forty kinds. They all go 

 through the violence of being punched 

 into the earth; take a gallon of water for 

 their first drink; the one-half die in the 

 act of transplanting, the oLher half linger 



unthought of, and die at their leisure along 

 the season ; for the flower-monger, good 

 soul, got over her paroxysm the first hot 

 day that came sweating into the garden, 

 and will trouble herself no more till the 

 next vernal begging season returns. 



We say, once more, in closing, do no- 

 thing that you do not do well. One good 

 plant is worth a prairie full of starved and 

 stinted thing's ! 



THE YELLOWS, CAUSED BY AN INSECT. 



BY MISS MORRIS, GERMANTOWN, PA. 



Although the various agricultural journals 

 throughout our broad land, have teemed 

 with articles on the disease called " The 

 Yellows of the Peach Tree," I believe a 

 small beetle, named in Harris' Catalogue 

 Tormiciis liwiinaris, has never, until latelj r , 

 been suspected as the cause of that destruc- 

 tive malady. 



I will not presume to say that it is the 

 sole cause of the decline of the peach tree, 

 for I am aware that unhealthy soil, late and 

 hard frosts, the large borer, JEgeria, and 

 too profuse bearing, will all injure the 

 trees and cause death ; but I believe the 

 little Tormicus will be found to produce 

 that disease, which is believed by many to 

 be infectious. 



Though the Tormicus limi?iaris, in its 

 perfect state, has long been known to sci- 

 ence, its habits in the grub or larva? form 

 are little known, and few have been led to 

 search for them in the bark of the peach 

 tree, where they may frequently be found 

 in incredible numbers. They are so mi- 

 nute that only a close observer would see 

 them ; but, like the itch insect in the hu- 

 man family, they produce disease, and fre- 

 quently death. 



When a peach tree is infested with the 

 Tormicus liminaris in sufficient numbers to 



cause disease, the tree will throw out great 

 numbers of sickly shoots in August and 

 September; at this time the grubs may be 

 found securely feeding in the sap vessels of 

 the under bark of the tree, effectually pro- 

 tected from all external injury by the haid 

 outer bark. 



Too minute to attract attention, these 

 little creatures do their work secretly and 

 surely, uninjured by any of those applica- 

 tions that have so frequently been recom- 

 mended ; for however beneficial these nos- 

 trums may be in other diseases to which the 

 peach tree is liable, they will be found of 

 no avail in this ; as any remedy sufficiently 

 powerful to kill an insect so well defended, 

 will also destroy the life of the tree ; and their 

 numbers and minute size preclude the idea 

 of destroying them with a probe, as in the case 

 of the common peach borer, the iEgeria. 



The Tormicus passes into the beetle form 

 in August, when most of the insects quit 

 the parent tree, and seek a more healthy 

 home for their future progeny. The eggs 

 are then deposited in the bark, where they 

 remain unhatched until the following sum- 

 mer, when they come into life, and, unsus- 

 pected, begin their work of destruction. 



It will now be seen why the disease, 

 caused by the Tormicus, has been consider- 



