06 THE APPLE. 



trees which suffer from this insect, is dug and well pulverized to 

 the depth of five inches in October, and a good top dressing of 

 lime applied as far as the branches extend, the canker worm 

 will there be almost entirely destroyed. The elm, and linden 

 trees in many places, suffer equally with the apple, from the at- 

 tacks of the canker worm. 



The Bark-louse, a dull white oval scale-like insect, about a 

 tenth of an inch long, (a species of coccus,) which sometimes 

 appears in great numbers on the stems of young apple and pear 

 trees, and stunts their growth, may be destroyed by a wash of 

 soft soap and water, or the potash solution. The best time to 

 apply these is in the month of June, when the insects are 

 young. 



The Woolly aphis (aphis langinera,) or American blight* is a 

 dreadful enemy of the apple abroad, but is fortunately, very 

 rarely seen as yet, in the United States. It makes its appear- 

 ance in the form of a minute white down, in the crotches and 

 crevices of the branches, which is composed of a great number 

 of very minute woolly lice, that if allowed, will increase with 

 fearful rapidity, and produce a sickly and diseased state of the 

 whole tree. Fortunately, this insect is too easily destroyed. "This 

 is effected by washing the parts with diluted sulphuric acid ; 

 which is formed by mixing $ oz. by measure, of the sulphuric 

 acid of the shops, with 7^ oz. of water. It should be rubbed 

 into the parts affected, by means of a piece of rag tied to a stick, 

 the operator taking care not to let it touch his clothes. After 

 the bark of a tree has been washed with this mixture, the first 

 shower will re-dissolve it, and convey it into the most minute 

 crevice, so as effectually to destroy all insects that may have 

 escaped." (Loudon's Magazine IX. p. 336.) 



The Apple worm (or Codling moth, Carpocapsa pomonana, of 

 European writers,) is the insect, introduced with the apple tree 

 from Europe, which appears in the early worm-eaten apples 

 and pears, in the form of a reddish white grub, and causes the 

 fruit to fall prematurely from the tree. The perfect insect is a 

 small moth, the fore-wings gray, with a large round brown spot 

 on the hinder margin. These moths appear in the greatest 

 numbers in the warm evenings of the 1st of June, and lay their 

 eggs in the eye or blossom-end of the young fruit, especially of 

 the early kinds of apples and pears. In a short time, these eggs 

 hatch, and the grub burrows its way till it reaches the core ; 

 the fruit then ripens prematurely, and drops to the ground. 

 Here the worm leaves the fruit and creeps into the crevices of 

 the bark and hollow of the tree, and spins its cocoon, which 



* It is not a little singular that this insect which is not indigenous to this coun- 

 try, arid is never seen here except where introduced with imported trees, should 

 be called in England the American blight. It is the most inveterate, enemy of the 

 apple in the north of France and Germany. 



