190 PLUM. 



various changes, to be adopted as Xylehorus. With regard to 

 a convenient popular name, that of " Shot-borer," which has 

 become established here, appears as convenient as any for use 

 with ourselves. There are manifest objections to the use of 

 the names of " Apple-bark Beetle " and of " Pear Blight," as 

 referring to only a portion of the trees attacked. " Ambrosia 

 Beetles " is an excellently distinctive scientific appellation- 

 referring to them as a fungus-forming class, and also for those 

 who by knowledge and microscopic power can trace out this 

 peculiarity within the workings of the beetles. 



But although other beetles form shot-hole-like borings 

 through the bark, still this habit is sufficient to draw atten- 

 tion to the mischief which is going forward in our Plum 

 orchards, and for the present for popular use we do not seem 

 to have any more convenient plan than for this species and 

 X. saxeseni, mentioned below, to share for orchard use the 

 name of " Shot-borers." 



Prevention and Kemedies. — One of the most plainly ser- 

 viceable of these is cutting down and burning the infested 

 portions of all trees — Plum, Apple, or otherwise — found to be 

 undergoing attack, taking the shot-hole-like perforations in 

 the bark and the wood dust thrown out as a guide, to some 

 degree, for investigation of the nature of the mischief going 

 forward within. Where the trees attacked are still young 

 (that is, still only, as was the case at Toddington, about 

 three-quarters of an inch across the stem), the only course to 

 be advised is to cut them down as soon as they are found to 

 be infested, and to burn the part containing the beetles. It 

 is no waste, for in the case of young trees the beetle-borings 

 are rapidly fatal. 



For treatment to prevent beetle attack to the growing trees, 

 the only generally available measures appear to be those 

 suggested by Mr. J. Fletcher, Dominion Entomologist of 

 Canada, for use in the Nova Scotia Apple orchards, namely, 

 of coating the trees with some wash or mixture which will 

 not hurt the bark, but will prevent the beetle getting in or 

 getting out. One application advised for trial is a thick coat 

 of whitewash with some Paris-green in it. 



Another is the thick soft-soap wash known as "Saunders' 

 Wash," thus noticed: — " Soft-soap reduced to the consistence 

 of a thick paint by the addition of a strong solution of 

 washing-soda in water is perhaps as good a formula as can 

 be suggested ; this, if applied to the bark of the tree during 

 the morning of a warm day, will dry in a few hours and form 

 a tenacious coating not easily dissolved by rain." * 



* Report of Entomologist, Department of Agriculture, Canada, 1887, p. 28. 



