44 



increased so prodigiously as to overspread almost completely a whole 

 limb. So closely indeed at this period does it resemble a mere vege- 

 table growth, that when, as often happens, it is located round the base 

 of a young apple-twig or apple-spur, scarcely any but the acute eye 

 of a field-entomologist can distinguish it from the natural wrinkles 

 and creases of the bark. Again : these scales, after the eggs under- 

 neath them have hatched out, and the young larva^ have dispersed them- 

 selves in various directions, still adhere to the bark for years, and 

 even 13 or 18 months after the eggs have hatched, present exactly the 

 same external appearance as they did in the first instance. Henca 

 nothing is more natural than for an inexperienced person to suppose, 

 that these old dead last year's scales, with no eggs whatever under 

 them, are scales which were alive but yesterday, and which have been 

 killed, eggs and all, by some ridiculous and useless wash, which he 

 has been recommended, on what he supposes to be the highest au- 

 thority, to apply to them. Moreover, as I shall afterwards explain, 

 there is a minute and almost microscopic Mite (Acarns), that preys 

 most extensively ujxjn the eggs under the scales during the autumnal 

 and early spring months, not only in the West, but also in the East; 

 and this opens anotlier door for error and delusion. Some quack 

 nostrum is applied — a few dozen scales are lifted, and the eggs under 

 almost all of them are found to be shriveled up to nothing — and then 

 hey presto! the conclusion is jumped to, that it was the quack nos- 

 trum, not the Cannibal Aiite, that had killed the eggs, and the wonder- 

 ful discovery is paraded immediately in the nearest Agricultural Jour- 

 nal. Lastly, at one particular time of the year, as I shall afterwards 

 show, a very slight degree of friction with a stiff brush M-ill destroy 

 these Bark-lice — horse, foot and dragoons. Xow see what follows from 

 this fact. Some worthless Patent Wash is applied to the infested limbs 

 with such a brush at this particular period — it is in reality the brush, 

 and not the ivash, that destroys the Bark-lice — and yet the cozened 

 fruit-grower firmly believes, that it is the Ghand Infallible Never- 

 tailing ANTi-BArxK-LOusE SPECIFIC that has done the business for 

 them, and the papers ring with certificates of the great reliability of 

 the newly-discovered nostrum, sold by all Druggists and Patent Medi- 

 cine Venders at the low price of $5 per pint. 



It would be easy to fill a volume with the history of the different 

 remedies that have been published against this miserable Bark-louse. 

 Lime-washes, soda-washes, tobacco-water, dry ashes, tar, fish-brine, 

 potash-washes, sulphur-washes, co!iimon brine, solutions of soap, solu- 

 tions of quassia, solutions of aloes, the ammoniacal fumes of sheep- 

 manure, and combinations of two, three and four of the above ingre- 



