40 



every summer, will effectually protect the tree from 

 being girdled at its most vital part ; and although the 

 insects may occasionally attack the unprotected trunk 

 and hmbs, the injury will be comparatively slight and 

 never fatal. Scalding water, and also soap-suds, poured 

 round the root, have been highly recommended, both 

 for destroying the grubs and for restoring the vigor of 

 the tree. This remedy, from its simpUcity, is deserving 

 of further trial. The peach-tree borer is entirely dis- 

 tinct, in all its stages, metamorphoses, and habits, from 

 that which perforates the apple-tree. It is a whitish 

 caterpillar, furnished with legs. Soon after it is hatched, 

 it penetrates the cuticle, and lives upon the inner bark 

 and alburnum or new wood, being often involved in 

 great quantities of gum which issue from the w-ounds. 

 During the winter it remains torpid ; but in the course 

 of the spring it resumes its operations, and sooner or 

 later constructs a cocoon from grains of the bark ce- 

 mented by a glutinous matter, becomes a chrysahs, 

 eventually bursts open its cocoon, and is changed 

 to a four-winged insect. It deposits its eggs upon the 

 bark of the tree near the root, soon after its ultimate 

 metamorphosis is completed, which has been observed 

 to take place from the middle of July to the last of 

 September. In the " American Entomology " of Mr. 

 Say, this insect is correctly figured and described by 

 the name oi^geria exitiosa. 



None of our fruit-trees are so long-lived as the pear, 

 and none have been so free from insect assailants. 

 The slug of the saic-fly, as already mentioned, occa- 

 sionally robs it of its fohage, and a minute wood-eating 

 insect has lately preyed upon its limbs. The latter 



