CLEAR-WINGED MOTHS. 59 
is said to be very effectual in killing them; it should be used 
very hot, and after the earth has been removed, so as to in- 
sure its reaching the culprits before it cools. Among the 
preventive measures, much has been written in favor of 
mounding the trees, banking the earth up around the trunk 
to the height of a foot or more, and pressing it firmly 
about the tree. Some allow the mounds to remain perma- 
nently; but the better plan seems to be to mound up late in 
the spring or toward midsummer, and level off the ground 
again in September, after egg-laying has ceased and the 
moths have disappeared. This treatment is said to make 
the bark very tender and liable to injury during the winter, 
and it is reeommended by some to defer its application until 
the fourth year, by which time the bark will have become 
sufficiently thickened and hardy to endure the treatment 
without injury. Placing around the roots a bed of cinders, 
ashes, or lime, plastering the base of the trunk with mortar 
or clay and covering it with stout paper, coating the tree 
with an application of soap or tobacco water, have all had 
their advocates; but the weight of testimony is in favor of 
the removal of the larve with the knife late in the autumn 
or early in the spring, and subsequently mounding the trees 
in the manner already described. 
‘““Another remedy proposed is to cover the trunk with 
straw in the following manner: Scrape the earth away 
from the collar, place a handful of straight straw erect 
around the trunk, fastening it with twine, then return the 
soil, which will keep the ends of the straw in their place. 
The straw should entirely cover the bark, and the twine be 
loosened as the trunk increases in size. Trees so protected 
are said to have remained uninjured while all around them 
’ 
have suffered from the borer.’ 
