270 THE APPLE CULTURIST. 



and thrifty, bark lice cover almost every twig. Dr. Fitch, 

 entomologist of the State of New York, writes of the Apple- 

 bark Louse (Aspidiotus conchiformis) that 



" The Apple-bark Louse makes its appearance as a little brown scale, one-eighth 

 of an inch long, the shape of an oyster-shell, fixed to the smooth bark, resembling 

 a little blister. This scale is the dried remains of the body of the female, covering 

 and protecting her eggs, from a dozen to a hundred of which lie in the cavity un- 

 der each scale. These eggs hatch the latter part of May, and the young lice dif- 

 fuse themselves over the bark, appearing as minute white atoms, almost invisible 

 to the eye. They puncture the bark, and suck the sap from it. The females soon 

 fix themselves and become stationary. They die, and become overspread with a 

 substance resembling fine blue mould, which wearing off, the little oyster-shaped 

 scale again appears in July. They sometimes become so multiplied that the bark 

 of the trunk and limbs is everywhere covered and crowded with them ; and if the 

 tree is weakened by borers, fire blight, or other disease, these bark lice, thus mul- 

 tiplying, kill it." 



Numerous remedies have been suggested for the Bark 

 Louse, among which are the following : The bodies of the 

 trees and large branches are scraped, if covered with rough 

 bark, and afterwards smeared with thin soft-soap applied 

 with a swab. Some have used equal parts of pine-tar and 

 linseed-oil boiled together, and applied when warm and thin. 

 We have employed equal parts of pine-pitch and linseed-oil, 

 or tallow mingled together by heating, which was applied 

 with a swab. If there is much rough bark on the trees, it 

 must all be removed ; and if the surface is shaved smoothly 

 before the material is applied, all the better. We never 

 find bark lice attached to thick and tough bark. They 

 must have tender and thrifty bark, which they can punc- 

 ture, in order to extract the sap. If the young and tender 

 bark be thoroughly soaped, and a smooth surface formed, 

 without being protected by liquid pitch, all the soap will be 

 removed during a heavy rain, and the bark lice will be 

 provided with just such quarters as they desire; but the 

 covering of pitch and linseed-oil will form a varnish which 

 will thoroughly exclude every thing that is ever found ad- 

 hering to the bark of apple-trees. No borer will ever at- 

 tempt to deposit an egg in the bark that is varnished. As 



