75 



which, at hrst siglit, has much the appearance of mouldiness. It is, 

 doubtless, true that, according to Dr. E. S. Hull, of Alton, South 

 Illinois, "it crawls upon the branches of the trees, during the sum- 

 mer, and is distributed broadcast through the orchard by the force 

 of the winds, retiring underground and congregating about the roots 

 on the approach of cold weather;" (Agr. Rep. Mo., Append., p. 451;) 

 and that, as Wm. Carpenter, of Cobden, South Illinois, informed me, 

 "it occurs in young trees in the nursery, two or three feet from the 

 ground, but only," as he thought, "in damp weather." But I my- 

 self saw three or four wingless specimens, subsequently taken by Mr. 

 Carpenter ofE the trunk of a good-sized apple-tree during the long 

 drought of the autumn of 1857, which I carefully compared with 

 similar specimens captured by myself on the roots, and found to be 

 identical. Moreover, in December of the same year, Mr. W. C. Flagg, 

 of Alton, South Illinois, sent me, alive and in excellent order, quite 

 a number of specimens, gathered at that unseasonable period off the 

 trunks of good-sized apple-trees, which, on the most careful compari- 

 son, differed in no respect from the root-feeding individuals. Mr. 

 Flagg, however, informed me that "it is found more generally on 

 the surface of the ground, where there has been straw or some such 

 substance heaped around the tree." Still, all such cases as these 

 are evidently the exception, and not the rule; and there can be little 

 doubt that the great bulk of this species live underground, and that 

 it is on the roots that they are to be dreaded, and on the roots that they 

 are to be fought. 



As long ago as 1848, Mr. Fulton, of Chester Co., Pennsylvania, 

 found this insect and the knotty swellings produced by it to be so 

 abundant on nursery trees in his neighborhood, that thousands of 

 young trees had to be thrown away, and it became difficult to sup- 

 ply the market. (Downing's Horticulturist, III., p. 394.) M. L. 

 Dunlap C^'Kural"), in a letter to the Cliicago Tribune, (in August 

 1858,) writes nearly as follows: — "In the orchard of Dr. Long, near 

 Alton, the 'Woolly Aphis' mfests the roots in immense numbers, and 

 by sucking up the sap destroys the trees, which in its effect has much 

 the appearance of dry rot. Dr. Long erroneously attributes the death 

 of his trees to water standing about the roots." Mr. Jordan, one of 

 the St. Louis nurserymen, informs me that at this present day he is 

 greatly troubled with it on his land, so that he finds it difficult to get 

 enough of clean roots to graft with. According to Dr. Hull, "it is 

 one of the worst enemies against which our apple-trees have to con- 

 tend, and is much more common in our region than is generally sup- 

 posed." {Agr. Rep. Mo. Append, p. 451.) In the summer of 1867 



