38 AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGY. 



contact with it whilst it remains in the egg, or infantile state, on 

 the outside of the tree, for after having penetrated to the interior, 

 no superficial application can effect it. The various substances 

 placed around the root of the tree, such as ashes and sand, the un- 

 covering of its base during winter, and covering again for the 

 summer, are also pronounced by Mr. Worth, from his experience, 

 to be inefficient and even injurious to the health of the tree. 



" The best plan of guarding against the ravages of the insect, 

 which I have found, is to examine the trees early in the month 

 of July ; take a bricklayer's trowel, and opening the ground 

 around the trunk, the lodgment of the insect will at once be dis- 

 covered, by the appearance of gum, and it can readily be de- 

 stroyed ; one person can thus examine more than a hundred trees 

 in less than half a day, and very few, if any, of the insects will 

 escape. But in order the more effectually to destroy them, I 

 would advise, that from the first to the middle of August, some 

 swingling tow, a piece of hairy hide, (the hair inside, but turned 

 over at top,) or some other coarse thing of six or more inches in 

 width, be tied close around the trunk of the tree, the under edge 

 to be a little covered with earth, so as to prevent any passage be- 

 neath • about the middle of September remove the bandage, and 

 immediately give the whole trunk of the tree a covering of soft 

 soap or lime-wash, well brushed on, that no spot from the head 

 to the root may remain untouched. Perhaps a decoction of to- 

 bacco, or some other wash, might do better ; even hot water would 

 be effectual, where the tree was sufficiently hardy to bear the ap- 

 plication ; or it may be, that the wash would answer the purpose 

 without the bandage, but where the bandage is dispensed with, 

 the wash ought, I think, to be applied about the first of Septem- 

 ber, or I should have great confidence in a bandage of tobacco 

 leaves or stems ; it should be kept on from the first of August to 

 November, and could do no damage by being continued, provided 

 it was not tied so close as to cramp the growth of the tree. 



" But there are causes of decline other than that of the insect, 

 and the principal one is the not stirring of the ground ; I appre- 

 hend, that the disease called ' yellows' is often thus occasioned. 

 Last year my peach orchard was considerably affected ; and the 

 ground had not been ploughed for three years, and had become 

 quite covered with grass. In the spring of the current year I 



