OF GENERAL INTEREST. 



Borers Injuring Trees 



PROF. H. L. HUTT, ONT. AGRI. COLLEGE, 



I have been planting trees and find occasion- 

 ally that insects and dry rot get under the bark, 

 and sometimes have almost girdled the .tree, so 

 that when I cut away the decayed part round 

 to the good bark it left a great patch of wood 

 bare. I have covered this with soft bees-wax, 

 as the only thing I could think of. — (R. Holmes, 

 Toronto, Ont. 



I am inclined to believe that the trouble 

 with your newly transplanted trees is caused 

 by borers. There are several kinds of 

 these, the two most common being the flat 

 headed and the round headed borers. The 

 eggs from which these hatch are usually 

 laid in the southwest side of the tree near 

 the ground, and as soon as they hatch the 

 young larvae eat through the bark and feed 

 just beneath the bark for one or two sea- 

 sons, sometimes entirely girdling the tree. 

 When fully mature they bore deeply into 

 the wood and pass the pupa or resting state, 

 from which they emerge in the perfect 

 form as beetles. 



Where one has only a few trees to pro- 

 tect, a good plan is to encase the lower por- 

 tion of the trunk of the tree with fine wire 

 netting, which prevents the beetles deposit- 

 ing their eggs. Another plan used in or- 

 chards where there are many trees to be 

 protected, is to wash the trunks of the trees 

 with soft soap, to which a sufficient quan- 

 tity of crude carbolic acid has been add'ed to 

 give it a strong smell and make it repulsive 

 to beetles. This should be applied the lat- 

 ter part of May or in early June, at 

 intervals of two weeks, at which time the 

 beetles are depositing their eggs. This, of 

 course, is a preventive measure. 



If the borers have already gained en- 

 trance to the tree, the only plan is to cut 

 them out wherever dead bark indicates their 

 presence, and it is well to cover the injured 

 part with a coating of heavy lead paint. It 

 is not wise to use tar or any black substance 

 of that nature aoout the trunk of the tree, 

 as it absorbs so much heat as sometimes to 

 seriously injure the tree. 



One Method of Growing Celery 



u pARIS Golden," said Mr. Geo. Ben- 

 1 ner, of Burlington, to The Horti- 

 culturist in a recent interview, " is the celery 

 commonly grown in this section. I start 

 early celery in the greenhouse about Febru- 

 ary 15 and transplant it into flats. About 

 May 15 or May 20 the plants are set out and 

 the crop is ready for use about July 12. 



" I get a better crop from rows than from 

 solid beds. I use level culture and get just 

 as good a crop with less labor than is neces- 

 sary when planting is done in trenches. 

 Then I blanch with boards instead of with 

 dirt. There is no trench to dig, and no 

 piling of dirt around the plant and pulling 

 it away again. With a lo-inch board on 

 each side, wire hooks to hold them together 

 and some dirt along the bottoms to keep out 

 the light the blanching is done in about 10 

 days. 



" Compost is the best fertilizer for celery. 

 I put it on in the fall and then do not need 

 to plow in the spring. The ground must 

 be cultivated frequently and not allowed to 

 get solid." 



Bees in the Orchard 



" In fruit plantations," according to Mr. 

 H. R. Rowsome, of Burlington, " bees do 

 not have very much to do with fertilization. 

 Cold, long continued rains wash the pollen 

 out, thus preventing fertilization. 



" If cold wet weather comes after the 

 fruit has set a great percentage of the fruit 

 often falls. This is especially noticeable 

 with cherries. The stems rot off about the 

 middle, letting the fruit drop. With cur- 

 rants, stems and all fall. In some seasons 

 as high as 50 per cent, of the crop is lost 

 from this cause." 



If mushrooms were sufficiently brought 

 before the public in a city like Toronto they 

 should find a ready sale. — (Percy Casborn, 

 Deseronto, Ont. 



