5G6 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



" Well," said he, " because that is about the 

 distance." 



"Why, look here, Charlie. Your place — 

 at least the place I went to in the night — is 

 away off in thai direction, and it is certainly a 

 good big mile from here." 



Charlie was contrary, however. He declar- 

 ed he ought to know about the matter, for he 

 had lived several years right near his mother. 



After breakfast I said, "Now, Charlie, I 

 want you to go out in the direction you say 

 your place lies, and find it for me within twen- 

 ty rods of where we are." 



Well, Charlie was quite right. Sure enough, 

 right close by, was the little home where I had 

 rapped on the door so persistently, but with- 

 out effect, the night before. It made me 

 think again of a land of enchantment. Some 

 of our older readers will remember that that is 

 the place where I found a pony that had been 

 tamed and civilized by feeding him bread and 

 honey. Some sad changes had taken place 

 during the years that had passed. My genial 

 friend was gone to the great unknown beyond. 

 The bees did not prosper as they did years be- 

 fore ; and, in fact, the frost had ruined things 

 generally in that neighborhood. Thedeseit- 

 ed homes where I could not find anybody to 

 wake up the night before were one of the re- 

 sults of that memorable freeze. 



That day Charlie very kindly took his horse 

 and buggy and carried me around among the 

 celery-growers. On page 252, March 15, you 

 will find an account of our visit. Now. here 

 is the wonderfully strange and inconsistent 

 thing that astonished me all over Florida. 

 This great discovery in the way of growing 

 celerv is right in the very neighborhood of 

 these deserted plantations ; and notwithstand- 

 ing the enormous profits experts are making 

 with the favorable soil and artesian water, land 

 may be bought for almost a song all around in 

 that locality. 



There is another strange thing about Flori- 

 da. There are vacant houses and deserted 

 farms here in Ohio ; but usually, before they 

 f>re vacated, the place has run down and looks 

 forbidding. In Florida the places will have 

 every evidence of being occupied and cared 

 for ; but investigation shows the owner has all 

 at once dropped every thing and gone. There 

 is going to be a change in Florida, no doubt — 

 in fact, great changes have been made already 

 in many of these deserted places. When peo- 

 ple learn how to avoid the disastrous results 

 of the sudden changes in temperature, then 

 things will be started on a firmer basis. 



THE APPLE-TREE BORER ; HOW TO CIRCUM- 

 VENT IT ; ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT 

 THE TRAP LANTERN. 



The inventor, or one of the inventors, of the 

 trap lantern, sends us the following : 



THE APPLE-TREE BORER. 



There are two species of apple-trte borers— one 

 known as the flat head, that tores into the body of 

 the tree; the other the round-headed borer that enters 

 the tree near the surface of the ground. 



In over 2000 acres of apple orchards we have had no 

 trouble with body borers for many years. I learned 

 how to eliminate the body-borer in the summer of 

 1874. Mj' father, the late Hon. Ira 8. Haseltine, plant- 

 ed a pioneer orchard of 90 acres, consisting of more 

 than 100 varieties of apples, and a large number of 

 varieties of pear.>> and peaches. While working in 

 this orchard I discovered that the body-borers were in 

 the trees that had been sun-scalded or injured on the 

 south and southwest side. I therefore bent limbs 

 and twisted suckers so as to shade the trunk or body 

 of the tree. These trees had all been headed high in 

 the nursery. We notified the nurserymen who ex- 

 pected to suppl)' us with future nursery stock to head 

 their trees low, and raised nur.sery slock ourselves for 

 additional orchards, and headed or limbed the trees 

 near the grouud, for three reasons: 1. To prevent the 

 body-borer from entering the tree ; 2. To prevent the 

 winds from tipping the tree so easily ; 3. To make 

 apples one-hall cheaper to gather. In plantitg these 

 trees we leaned some of them a little to the south- 

 west to protect the body until the head or top was 

 sufficiently large to shade it thoroughh-, and also 

 from the fact that our prevailing winds are from the 

 southwest, and would otherwise lean the trte in the 

 oppo.'ite direction. In this way we have enti: ely 

 eliminated the body-borer and made strong, vigorous, 

 healthy trees. 



The root or round-headed borer was not so easily 

 dealt with. It is the most destructive orchard-pesi. as 

 it giidlcs the tree ; nd kills the orchard if not re- 

 moved. Until I invented my moth-catcher we used a 

 jack- knife and wire to extract them, as the only sure 

 means to prottct the trees. Many washes have been 

 recommended, some tritd. But until we di>covertd 

 that we could catch the beetles, as the Department of 

 Agriiulture at Wa.'-hingion, D. C. in their bulle.iu 

 No. 32. July 1, 18i*S, page 7, says : "' They are attracttd 

 to a light at night to some extent, ard some m^et 

 their end in this way," we had still to use the jack- 

 knife and wire to get out the old stock of worms, as 

 the larva of the beetle stays in the tree about three 

 years, and we did not discover how to catch the stiip- 

 ed parent beetle or bug until last year. Thisboier- 

 beetle lays eggs in the month of June, and later. 

 Therefore, now is the time to catch it. 



S. A. Haseltine. 



The suggestions in regard to leaning fruit- 

 trees to the southwest as a remedy for borers 

 are all right. I have followed almost exactly 

 the plan outlined for years. Trees that are 

 allowed to be tipped over toward the north- 

 east by the prevailing winds are almost sure 

 to have sun-scald, and, later on, borers. I 

 find young basswood-trees very susceptible 

 to sun-scald, if they are allowed to tip over 

 so the sun strikes directly on their bodies, 

 almost at right angles, in the middle of the 

 afternoon. Pull them over by some efficient 

 means so that the foliage of the tree will 

 shade the trunk till the sun is nearly down, 

 and they will recover all right. The sugges- 

 tion about the moth-catcher referred to in the 

 last part of the article, I am not so sure of. 

 Just now, however, Mr. Haseltine sends me 

 the following from Prof. Stedman : 



I can recommend the Haseltine moth-catcher to 

 gardeners, farmers, and horticulturists for catching 

 the following injurious insects; The moths of the 

 striped worm in corn, cotton, and tomatoes (corn or 

 boll worm); June or May beetle adults of the white 

 grubs ; tent caterpillar moths ; pickle-worm moth in 

 cucurbit ; army-worm moth ; cut-worm moth ; fruit- 

 leaf roller-moth, adult of the worm that eats apple, 

 pear, peach, plum, cherry, quince. 



J. M. Stedman, Entomologist. 



Experimental Sta., Columbia, Mo., June 18, 1901. 



Now, I must confess I am not enough of an 

 entomologist to decide whether the above list 

 includes the beetle that produces the borers 



