58 : 
Archdeacon McMurray.—Are you troubled any with borers? A number of years 
ago I planted seventy trees from Ohio, and those worms destroyed all my trees. 
The Szorerary.—I have been troubled with them, but not so much of late, I pre- 
sume that the trees you got from Ohio had the borers in them, and as you did not notice 
them and did not get them out they destroyed the trees. If the borer is in the orchard 
the only way is to go with a knife, and wherever you see any castings or wax oozing 
from the root you may be sure there is a borer, and by removing a little earth you will 
soon find a hollow place in the bark, and can easily find the larva of this borer and 
destroy it. This should be done every summer. But [ have been very successful with 
the method I have described in the paper ; that is, by going over my peach orchard early 
in June and heaping up the trees with earth. It takes very little time and where the 
orchard has been plowed up it is very little trouble to heap a mound of earth around 
every tree, and that will effectually keep out the borer, because the moth deposits the egg 
at the collar of the tree. If it deposits it higher the bark is too dry and it is not likely 
the borer will hatch out, and if it does it will not do any great mischief. I leave these 
mounds there during the summer; the moth deposits its eggs during June, July and 
August, and it is during those months the protection is needed. 
Mr. Nicnou.—Is that a distinct insect from the apple borer ? 
The Secretary.—-Yes. The peach borer, I believe, will live sometimes two years, 
but generally only one ; it will remain in the tree from one to two years before it trans- 
forms into a chrysalis. The parent of a peach borer is a moth; the apple tree borer 
is a beetle. 
Mr. Morris.—I quite agree with the paper read by the secretary, with the excep- 
tion of what he says as to varieties. I do not think he has mentioned the most profit- 
able ones at all, that is Wager and Mountain Rose. I agree with him as far as the 
Marly Crawfords are concerned. I have planted five thousand of them in my time, but 
would not now; plant another. I do not think, as the secretary has said, that too much. 
can be said in favor of early cultivation ; the only orchards having any fruit this year, 
that I have seen, are those which have been early cultivated. 
Mr. Service.— Which is the most successful, the yellow or the white? 
The Secretary.—I think, asa rule, I have got more fruit from the white fleshed, but 
with the exception of one variety, the Wager, I have not tried it sufficiently long to say 
much about it. Last year it was a most abundant bearer. 
Mr. Nicnou.—I have found coal ashes very valuable, not only for the borer ; it is 
an excellent mulch for young fruit trees, and is a protection against drouth and mice. I 
have applied it heavily, and although there is no fertilising matter in it I have seen no 
bad effects from it. 
Mr. Morris.—I would ask the secretary if he does not think trees with long trunks 
are more subject to disease and borers than short stemmed ones ? 
The Szcretary.—I do not know whether it has any effect as far as the borer is con- 
cerned, but I am strongly in favor of low-headed peach trees and keeping them 
down pretty low. I believe in low trees in the first place, and I keep them down after- 
wards by constantly cutting them back. I think a very great mistake is made in the 
method of pruning peach trees all through this section of the country. It is not only the 
trunk, but all the limbs from the trunk are bare for so many feet; you have just tufts of 
branches away out at the ends of these limbs, and as a result there is very little new 
growth from such pruning, and the trees very soon die of old age. I know that is 
the great fault of the growers at Grimsby. I do not think the trees are so produc- 
tive as when kept down. The object of the borer, of course, is to get into the 
root, and as long as we have heap of earth or anything to prevent his finding his way 
to the root of the tree I do not think ‘ would much matter about the height of the 
tree, 
Mr. Brntups.—Do you think the mound of earth prevents them ? 
The Secretary.—It prevents their reaching the spot they want to get to. 
