46 FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF 



sect. But even where the soap preventive is used in the month of 

 May, it is always advisable to examine the trees in the fall, at which 

 time the young worms that hatched through the summer may be gen- 

 erally detected and easily cut out without injury to the tree. Par- 

 ticular attention should also be paid to any tree that has been injured 

 or sun-scalded, as such trees are mostliable to be attacked. Mr. Wier 

 who has had considerable experience with this insect, thus describes 

 bis method of doing this work, in the article already alluded to: 



"I will suppose that I have a young orchard of any number of trees, 

 say a thousand, the second season after planting, about the last of 

 July, or during the first halt of August, with a common hoe, I take all 

 the weeds and other trash, and about an inch of soil, from the crown 

 of the trees ; then, any time from the first to the middle of September, 

 with a pocket-knife, examine carefully the stem of each tree; the 

 borer can readily be found by the refuse thrown out of the hole made 

 on entering ; this refuse of a borer, of the same season's growth, will 

 be about the size of a pea, and, being of a glutinous nature, sticks 

 around the mouth of the hole, and can rapidly be seen ; older ones 

 throw out coarser chips that fall to the ground. [As already shown 

 these chips are not thrown out by the borer, but are forced out by 

 swelling.] When one is found, take the knife and cut him out. If an 

 orchard is carefully examined in this way each year, there need be 

 but few, if any borers missed, and as they are more easily found the 

 second fall of their growth, and can have done but little damage at 

 that time, we would never receive any serious injury from them. 

 Now, it is no great task to do this ; a man will clear the litter and soil 

 from around a thousand trees, in a day, and can take the borers out 

 in another day. I will agree to do both jobs carefully in one day's 

 time. A great undertaking is it not ? " 



He also has observed that some varieties of the apple-tree have a 

 greater immunity from the attacks of this borer, than have others ; on 

 account of the young larva, when it is first hatched, being drowned 

 out by the sap, but he does not mention any particular varieties other 

 than those that are the "more vigorous and late growing." 



THE FLAT-HEADED APPLE-TREE BORER— Chrysobothr fcmorata, Fabr. 



(Coleoptera, Buprestida'.) 

 (Fig. 15.] _ [Fig. 16.] 



This borer which is represented in the larva 

 state at Figure 15, may at once be recognized by. 

 !| its anterior end being enormously enlarged and 

 flattened. It is paler than the preceding, and 

 makes an entirely different burrow. In conse- 

 quence of its immensely broad and flattened 

 head, it bores a hole of an oval shape and twice 

 as wide as high. It never acquires much more than half the size of the 

 other species, and is aim >st always found with its tail curled com- 

 pletely round towards the head. It lives but one year in the tree and 



