CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT 



saw dust, which is thrown out by the worm; here 

 you may introduce your chisel, and follow his track. 

 Cut the bark smooth, and when you have cleansed 

 the tree of all the insects, (of which there are some- 

 times as many as twenty to be found,) plaster the 

 wounds over with a little clay, and when it is dry, 

 restore the earth to its place. The operation should 

 be renewed the succeeding season, to make the 

 work complete. In peach trees the ins^ \& traced 

 by the gum ; but as this is also produced y bruises, 

 it is not infallible. 



SAMUEL G. PERKINS, ) ^ 



JOHN PRINCE, \ Committee. 



Note. If the frost be out of the ground, we re- 

 commend to farmers to perform the spring cleans- 

 ing as early as March and April. 



Boston, April 16. 



Having so happily discovered a method of de- 

 stroying this pernicious reptile, it still remains ex- 

 tremely desirable to devise some means by which 

 its successful attack upon the tree may be prevent- 

 ed. We are unacquainted with the natural history 

 of this worm, but it is highly probable that is the 

 progeny of the fly which deposits its eggs in the 

 bark of the peach tree. Whether this be the fact, 

 or whether it derive its existence from some source 

 in the earth, it is reasonable, from its habit, to sup- 

 pose that the soil or mould is congenial to its nature, 

 and that native instinct directs it to enter the tree, 

 for its future residence and support. The most ob- 

 vious mode of prevention, therefore, which reflec- 

 tion has suggested, is the following. Early in the 

 spring, let the soil from around the trunk of the 

 tree be removed, down to the roots, and fill up the 

 vacant place with some substance that would prove 

 obnoxious to the fly or worm, or that would infalli- 

 bly resist its powers to penetrate the bark. Among 

 the substances which appear most likely to prove 



