tS3o.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



341 



2. The Borer. 3. The Caterpillar. 4. The Ame- 

 rican Blight. 



1. Canker is a disease ascribed to various causes. 

 Some ai tribute it to poorness or wetness of the soil; 

 others to the trees being exposed in a bleak situa- 

 tion to frosts and cold winds; but the most proba- 

 ble cause is external injuries sustained by apply- 

 ing ladders in gathering the fruit, leaving dead 

 branches remaining on the tree, and by injudicious 

 pruning. Where trees thus receive large wounds, 

 decay frequently commences in those parts, and 

 gradually extends until the tree dies. Wherever 

 therefore wounds have been made, whether by 

 pruningor otherwise, they should be protected from 

 the air and moisture by a thick coat of paint or of a 

 mixture of tar and brick dust. Where canker has 

 actually commenced, either in apple or other fruit 

 trees, the only remedy is to cut away, (with a 

 drawing knife or other suitable instrument,) all the 

 affected parts, protecting the freshly cut surface 

 with a coating of paint, wax, or other similar sub- 

 stance. Canker is sometimes caused by pruning 

 in the spring while the sap is in rapid circulation, 

 as it then oozes out. upon the wound, causing it to 

 turn black and producing decay in the branch. 



2. The Borer is an insect which perforates the 

 wood at or a little below the surface of the earth. 

 They may be taken out by means of a slender bar- 

 bed wire, which can be introduced into the hole for 

 this purpose. Where the hole is too crooked for 

 this, soap suds, or a strong decoction of tobacco, 

 injected into it, will destroy them. Whatever 

 mode is adopted to destroy them, the operation 

 should be repeated several times during the sum- 

 mer, in order completely to extirpate them. 



3. The Caterpillar has heretofore been the 

 most formidable enemy to the apple tree in west- 

 ern New York. It first makes its ap.pearance in 

 the spring, just as the leaf buds begin to open, 

 when it is not the tenth of an inch long, and no 

 larger than a cambric needle. It is then very ea- 

 sily destroyed by means of a brush dipped in some 

 caustic or poisonous solution, as of lime, soap, or 

 tobacco. It is destroyed with less ease as it in- 

 creases in size. When fully grown it is two inch- 

 es long and a quarter of an inch in diameter. It 

 then spins a cocoon and passes to the pupa state, 

 and in the latter part of summer comes out a brown 

 miller. It then deposites its eggs near the ends 

 of the smaller branches, in the form of a band or 

 broad ring round them, each ring of eggs contain- 

 ing about five hundred. These may be cut off and 

 destroyed at any time during the autumn or win- 

 ter. Every ring of eggs thas destroyed, will pre- 

 vent a nest of caterpillars the next season. 



4. The American Blight, (so called,) is caused 

 by the Aphis lamata, a small insect, so thickly co- 

 vered with fine white hair as to appear enveloped 

 in fine cotton; hence it is sometimes, and more ap- 

 propriately, termed white blight. In England, 

 apple trees have been greatly injured and some- 

 times destroyed by it. The insect is described as 

 furnished with a fine bristel-like beak, with which 

 it pierces the bark and abstracts the nourishment 

 from the cambium or newly formed sap wood. 

 The sap wood being thus wounded rises up in ex- 

 crescences over the whole surface — this limb grows 

 sickly, the leaves turn yellow, and the branch 

 perishes. Branch after branch is assailed in turn, 

 until they all become leafless and the tree dies. 

 The insect spreads from tree to tree, by being car- 



ried on the wind by means of its long cottony tun's 

 of hair. It, is easily destroyed on young trees, 

 and those older which have been recently attacked, 

 by coating over with a painter's brush, the affect- 

 ed parts, with a mixture consisting of equal parts, 

 by weight, of rosin and fish oil, melted together 

 and applied warm. This prevents the escape of the 

 insects and stifles them. The operation should be 

 performed early in the season, or as soon as the 

 hoariness occasioned by the insects, appears on 

 the branches. As this insect has as yet been in- 

 troduced into this country in but small numbers, it 

 becomes important to watch it closely, and destroy 

 it now at the outset before it becomes extensively 

 spread. The application of soft soap has been re- 

 commended for its destruction when it first appears 

 on trees from infected nurseries. 



The canker worm is perhaps the most destruc- 

 tive insect to apple trees which has infested Ame- 

 rican orchards, but it appears to have been hither- 

 to confined to certain parts of the country only, 

 particularly of New England. It ascends the 

 trunks of the trees in the spring and in a short time 

 destroys all the leaves of the tree, and thus even- 

 tually causes its death. The most common meth- 

 od is tarring daily the body of the tree, during 

 the season of its activity, and thus preventing its 

 passing up the tree. 



Quince. 



The most formidable, and perhaps nearly the 

 only enemy to the quince, is the Borer, which at- 

 tacks the tree in the same manner as that of the 

 apple. The same remedy is to be applied. It is 

 said that the borer ma}" be excluded by inclosing 

 the lower part of the trunk in tan or unleached 

 ashes during the spring months. Grafting the 

 quince above ground on pear stocks, will also in a 

 great measure save it from the attacks of the bo- 

 rer, as the pear is rarely touched by it. 



Pear. 



The pear, in common with the apple and other 

 trees, is liable to occasional attacks from the cater- 

 pillar, and sometimes from a few other insects; 

 but its great and peculiar malady is the Fire 

 Blight. This first affects trees generally during 

 the early part of summer, sometimes later, cau- 

 sing the branches and leaves suddentyto turn black 

 and die. It is attributed to a very small insect 

 QScolytus pyri) which eats a small circular ring 

 under the bark, round the branch, thus cutting off 

 the upward flow of the sap. W here the insect 

 has been discovered, it has been some inches be- 

 low the affected part. The only remedy is to cut 

 off the diseased branch immediately, at some dis- 

 tance below, and commit it to the fire. This course 

 when faithfully' and unremittingly pursued has 

 been found entirely effectual in preventing the ra- 

 vages of this formidable enemy of the pear. Some 

 attribute the blight to other causes than the work 

 of an insect, but all agree that the only effectual 

 cure is to cut off and burn the limb. 



Plum. 



The principal enemy to the plum, as well as to 

 all smooth stone fruit, is the Curculin. This is a 

 small beetle or bug, about a quarter of an inch 

 long, (its head and thorax resembling at first 

 glance, a long beak, serving at once to distinguish 

 it,) which punctures, and deposites its egg in the 

 young fruit. A worm proceeds from this, which 



