Seo. 12.] ENTOMOLOGICAL. 221 



would be, " Died j'oung — attacked by borers — the disease exhibited in yel- 

 low leaves — speedy death followed." 



This boring worm is produced from eggs deposited at the foot of the tree 

 by a wasp-shaped moth, of a steel-blue color, with an orange rinw about tho 

 abdoineii. Sometimes the eggs are placed in wounds, or between forks but 

 generally in the bark, close to the ground, where the worms can easily pene- 

 trate into and devour the inner bark and wood just below the surface. 



Sometimes a vigorous tree will retain life year after year, with these worms 

 gnawing at its vitals. Sometimes the tree is girdled and destroyed in a single 

 summer. There appears to be a succession of broods in a single season. , In 

 the latitude of Xew York city, the moths come out in June and July. Nec- 

 tarines and apricots are also attacked by the same insect. The plum wood 

 appears too hard, and peaches engrafted on plum stocks sometimes succeed 

 where, if upon their natural roots, thoy would never bear fruit. Tliese 

 borers, when full-grown, are about an inch long, colored yellowish white, 

 with an amber-brown head. The clnysalis is brown ; it is formed in a case 

 made of the gnawings of the worm, which it glues together around its body. 

 The moth expands wings an inch across, transparent and veined, and bor- 

 dered blue in the male, and dark blue upon the female's upper wings, and 

 her body is belted with orange. 



The remedies, as preventives or cures of the peach-tree borer, are numer- 

 ous. Dr. Harris, the great American entomologist, says : 



" Eemove the earth around the base of the tree, crush and destroj- the 

 cocoons and borers which may be found in it and under the bark, cover the 

 wounded parts with the common clay composition, and surround the trunk 

 with a strip of sheathing-papcr nine or ten inches wide, which should extend 

 two inches below tho level of the soil, and be secured by strings of matting 

 above. Fresh mortar should then be placed around tlie root, so as to con- 

 fine the paper, and prevent access beneath it; and the remaining cavity may 

 be filled with new or unexhausted loam. The operation should be performed 

 in the spring, or during tho month of June. In the winter the strings may 

 be removed, and in the following spring the trees should again be examined 

 for any borers that may have escaped search before, and the protecting ap- 

 plications should be renewed. Tlie ashes of anthracite coal have also been 

 recommended to be put into the cavities made when the earth has been re- 

 moved from around the trunks when searching for the worm ; and if the 

 truidvs arc thoroughly searched throe or four times a year, especially in the 

 earth near the roots, and the grubs and chrysalids dug out and destruycii, 

 these insects would soon cease to be as injurious as they arc at present." 



Tiie following conversation in the Farmers' Club conveys some useful in- 

 formation upon this important subject: 



SoLOx lioBiNSON Tcad a letter from the Kev. J. S. "Weishampel, Sen., Bal- 

 timore, Md., upon the use of hot water to kill insects upon trees, llo alludes 

 to a letter reail here some weeks since, about scalding wheat, and then says: 



" Tliis scalding process destroys the egg of the fly, and tho same process 



