112 PEACH. ROOT — THE BORER. INFESTS THE PLUM ALSO. 



thus forming a kind of cell the cavity of which is considerably 

 larger than the body of the worm inhabiting it. The smaller 

 worms have no such cells, but lie promiscuously in the gum %r 

 between it and the root. Although from their habits they would 

 seem to have no particular use for it, these worms, like those of 

 their order generally, spin a silken thread as they crawl about, 

 which is of sufficient strength to hold them suspended in the air 

 when one drops from a stick on which he is placed. 



When ready to enter its pupa state the worni crawls upwards 

 to the surface of the ground, and there forms for itself a follicle 

 or pod-like case of a leathery texture, made from its castings, held 

 together by dry gum and cobweb-like threads. This follicle is of 

 a brown color and oval in its form, with its ends rounded; it 

 is about three-fourths of an inch long and over one-fourth in dia- 

 meter, but is variable in its size, being sometimes but half an inch 

 long. Its inner surface is perfectly smooth and of the color of 

 tanned leather. It is placed against the side of the root, often 

 sunk in a groove which the worm appears to have gnawed for 

 this purpose, with its upper end slightly protruding above the 

 surface of the ground. But if the earth has been recently stirred 

 so as to lie loose around the root, the worm will commonly form 

 its follicle an inch or more below the surface. 



Among the means whereby to grow the peach securely from 

 the depredations of this worm, Dr. Harris, in his discourse before 

 the Pomological Society (page 9), suggests that of grafting it upon 

 plum stalks, saying when it is thus reared he believes it is never 

 injured by the borer. Unfortunately for the success of the plan 

 proposed, the root of the plum is attacked by this same borer, 

 in which it appears to thrive equally as well as in the peach 

 root. My friend Mr. J. E. Gavit, of Albany, who is a close 

 observer, recently assured me of this as an item of information 

 which he presumed I would be reluctant to credit, not supposing 

 I had myself already noticed the same fact. Some young plum 

 trees in my grounds were found to be dead this past spring, and 

 on rooting them up, the peach borer was discovered to be the 



