FRUIT CULTURE. 1G9 



the orcliard,biit that in no case must it be at the expense of the 

 pear crop. 



Not until this year did I learn that the borer attacked the 

 pear — the same, 1 think, that attacks the apple. Many of my 

 trees have been weakened by this ; and I have reason to believe 

 that I have lost many from the same cause. 



I have also found my trees injured by a small louse, that 

 without care, will not be observed ; it belongs to the same genus 

 as the common scale louse, so often seen on apple trees, and I 

 have found its habits to be much the same. The eggs are 

 hatched about the middle of May, and by the last of August or 

 first of September the female may be found in apparently a 

 chrysalis state, covered by a thin membrane, and by a miscro- 

 scopic examination will be found filled with eggs. They will be 

 readily found on the butts and limbs of trees. They arc about 

 one-tenth of an inch in length, and nearly the color of wood 

 ashes. Both the insect and eggs are scarcely visible to the 

 naked eye, but can readily be seen with the aid of a common 

 magnifying glass. The best way to destroy them is by rubbing 

 the trees, when they are just hatched, with a coarse cloth; *tliey 

 are then easily destroyed. 



I have also lost some fruit by the leaf-blight, so called. This, 

 I am quite sure, is caused by the fungus that starts on the upper 

 side of the leaf; at first, only a small black speck that seems to 

 take root in the leaf, under the epidermis, and spread to a con- 

 siderable extent, until several of them cover almost the entire 

 leaf, when it soon withers and drops. What produces this, or 

 why it attacks one tree and not all, I am unable to say. I 

 have found less of it, however, on trees that have had the best 

 culture ; and I am quite sure that keeping the ground clean 

 and stirring it often, is the best means to prevent the pest. 



I have also had my trees somewhat injured by an insect whose 

 habits I have in some measure learned. It is found early in the 

 spring, at work on the buds ; its presence is known by a black, 

 crusty substance, collected on the buds and the ends of the 

 limbs. Tins substance is exuded matter from the insect ; wlien 

 first exuded, it is clear, but soon becomes black and turns hard. 

 I think the insect found in the spring is the female ; she soon 

 commences to lay her eggs, and by the time the tree starts, has 

 a large family to commence work ; they appear to feed on the 

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