98 DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS OF VICTORIA: 



process of grubbing out, be detached from the roots, and 

 will doubtless exist for a long time in the soil. All 

 affected parts of the tree, both root and branch, should be 

 at once destroyed by burning, and, if possible, in the 

 holes from which the trees have been extracted. 



The somewhat hasty plan of rooting up affected trees is 

 to be deprecated, as with a little care and exercise of judg- 

 ment many trees, even if badly affected by disease of most 

 kinds, may be restored to health and bearing again, and in 

 the case of this weevil scourge in particular, too much stress 

 cannot be laid upon the value of preventive measures. 



As this insect, whilst in the perfect or beetle state, is 

 now known to feed upon the foliage of the tree, spraying, 

 if the fruit on the tree is not either ripe or ripening, must 

 be resorted to. To do this, use Paris green, Blundell's 

 paste preparation, in the proportion of 1 Ib. to 200 gallons 

 of water. This should be applied with a spray-pump 

 not a syringe, which distributes the material too unequally, 

 and also wastes a deal of it during the operation. If your 

 cherry trees are infested, wait until your crop is gathered, 

 then spray at once, and in the case of apples and pears it 

 will be found a most advantageous precaution. 



Root pruning is also highly to be recommended. 



Where wattle trees especially are growing near an 

 orchard, these should be carefully examined for the per- 

 fect specimens of this beetle ; and the writer of these notes 

 is one who does not approve of the hasty and so-called 

 heroic measures so often recommended to fruit-growers 

 and others whose trees are affected by blight. Keep your 

 orchard clean and well looked after. Away with all 

 prickly-acacia hedges, which are but breeding places for 

 noxious insects of many kinds, to say nothing of harbors 

 for rabbits, sparrows, hares, and other pests of the farmer 

 and fruit-grower in the colonies. The whitethorn, so 

 justly prized for its beauty and utility, is, when not very 

 carefully kept, a great harborer of the dread mussel- 

 scale, &c. It would seem almost " heretical " for me to 

 say it, but a good substantial barbed- wire fence is, un- 

 doubtedly, in nine cases out of ten, in the long run by far 



