132 PEACH CULTURE. 



couragingly tedious to a planter who had ten thousand 

 trees to examine in a few days. 



WASTE WATER FROM SALT-WORKS has also been men- 

 tioned with favor by some. We have never used it, or 

 seen it used, but we feel safe in recommending its trial 

 in moderation, when at hand ; care ought to be exercised 

 in its application, especially to young trees, as these acrid, 

 mineral liquids often prove injurious, and sometimes 

 fatal, to vegetable life. With this caution, let it be tried 

 whenever it will be economy to use it. The difficulty in 

 the application of all liquids is to reach the borer. It is 

 often so deeply burrowed in the wood of the tree as scarcely 

 to be found, even with knife and punch, and is perfectly 

 secure against water, except it be a deluge. 



OIL, DIFFUSED IN WATER, and applied with a syringe, 

 has been recommended as a protection against all noxious 

 insects, the borer among the rest. It is affirmed that a 

 single drop of sweet oil, applied to the back of a wasp or 

 hornet, produces almost instant death ; and that a very 

 small quantity is sufficient, when diluted, to destroy myr- 

 iads of insects. It is said it closes up the breathing-pores, 

 and the insect dies for want of air. However destruc- 

 tive it may be to wasps and hornets, we can not, with- 

 out further trial, conclude that it will be equally so to 

 the borer, whose habits of life are so entirely different. 

 The one delights in sunshine, moves on wings, and lives 

 in air, while the other burrows into the solid wood, where 

 light never penetrates, and seals himself up hermetically 

 with impervious gum. Still, the smell of the oil, espe- 

 cially of coal oil, m'ay be useful in keeping off the fly or 

 moth, if applied at the season it deposits its eggs. 



SHEATHING THE TREE WITH PAPER, STRAW, OR CLOTH, 

 anything that will prevent the embryo worm from ob- 

 taining a lodgment in the bark of the tree, has been tried 

 with success; and, if attended to in the proper time, 



