The Canadian Horticnltnrist. 



167 



and have it"; that is to say, you 

 can't let your woodpecker eat your 

 white birches and preserve liim and 

 them ! Happy thow^hl — blaze away 

 at him with Itlank cartridf^e and keep 

 him on your neighbor's lots, so as to 

 be able to admire him over the fence! 

 Not a bit of good, my dear Madam 

 or Sir. After fifty shots or so he will 

 begin to enjoy the fun ; will bring 

 over his whole family, and will en- 

 camp on your premises for the season. 

 Several sleepless nights of thought 

 will make you decide to shoot him, 

 using fine shot so as not to injure 

 the bark of the tree ; but when you 

 have killed him you cannot — as a 

 self-elected member of the Audubon 

 Societv — wear him on your hat as an 

 ornament. If however — waiving all 

 considerations — you determine-on so 

 doing, )'Ou will be perpetually 

 haunted by a fear that he might 

 resuscitate himself and peck a little 

 hole in vour head to see what is 

 inside. Supposing that he did and 

 found sap instead of brains ; where 

 on earth could you " hide your dim- 

 inished head?" and Echo answers 

 — where ? " 



Peaeh Yellows. 



Now that tliis mysterious disease 

 is being made a stud}' by so man}- 

 practical and scientific horticulturists, 

 we hope that some Solution \\\\\ be 

 forthcoming, and an effective remedy 

 discovered. We have already re- 

 ferred to Prof. Erwin Smith's elabor- 

 ate preliminary Report, which shows 

 clearlv the symptons of the disease, 

 and the history of its distribution, 

 but nothing definite concerning its 

 nature ; and also to the theory held 

 b}' several cultivators in Massa- 

 chusetts that it is a result of true 

 starvation, for want of a sufficient 

 supply of potash, and that by liberal 

 applications of this substance the 

 tree can be saved. Now we have 

 another theory, this time from Vir- 

 ginia, by Mr. W. H. Massey, who 



says he believes the Yellows is caused 

 by the black aphides upon the roots. 

 These, he claims, destroy the small, 

 hair like appendages of the roots, 

 and thus interfere with the absorb- 

 tion of a sufficient amount of those 

 mineral matters upon which the per- 

 fection of the assimilative substance 

 in the foliage depends, and a yellow- 

 ish, sickly color is the result. He 

 claims that of a large number of 

 affected trees examined, he has never 

 found one which was not covered b}' 

 millions of black aphides destroying 

 every young and tender rootlet. 



Let our peach growers give this 

 matter their attention and report the 

 result. 



Canning Fruit. 



As the season for Fruit Canning is 

 again at hand, the ladies who read 

 this journal may be interested in the 

 following table from an old paper : — 



The Plum Cureulio. 



Experiments in progress at Cham- 

 paign, 111., go to show that this in- 

 sect feeds upon the plum leaf, botli 

 by eating and sucking. It has little 

 choice between the plum itself and 

 the plum leaf, and also feeds upon 

 the blossom and the leaf of the peach 



