NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



453 



The proportions may be by weight, ten ounces 

 of arsenic (oxi/de of arsenic,) five ounces of white 

 bar soap, and one ounce of gum camphor ; the 

 arsenic and soap melted together over a slow fire, 

 and the camphor added when the mixture is near- 

 ly cold. Since my communication on the subject, 

 I have been informed that at the Patent Office, at 

 Washington, the Taxidermists use, instead of ar- 

 senical soap, a preparation of about an ounce of 

 arsenic in a gill of camphorated spirits. By the 

 latter term, I understand, a saturated solution of 

 alcohol with camphor gum. Add the arsenic and 

 shake them up together in a bottle. I should 

 think this preparation might be more convenient 

 than arsenical soap. It is applied with a brush in 

 the same way as the other. 



I am glad to notice that this interesting subject 

 is attracting attention. 



Yours truly, Henry F. French. 



Exeter, August 30, 1852. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 THE OAK PRUNER. 



BY PROF. T. W. HARRIS. 



Siuon Brown, Esq. : — Dear Sir, — In my late 

 communication on the Oak Pruner, I forgot to 

 state that Professor Peck gave to it this very ap- 

 propriate English name in the year 1819, when 

 lie described and figured it under the scientific 

 name of Stenocorus putator also. Pruner and pu- 

 talor, indeed, mean the same thing, the latter be- 

 ing the Latin for the former. I think it probable 

 fch-at the apple tree, of which you sent to me a 

 piece of the lower cut end, had been pruned off by 

 the same kind of insect. The fact that it worked 

 on this tree was new to me ; but I recollect to 

 have seen young pear trees, in a nursery, cut much 

 in the same way, and perhaps by the same insect. 

 It seems that the borer did not quite finish his 

 work before the top of your apple tree fell over 

 without coming to the ground ; and he did not, as 

 usual, retire into the hole in the upper portion, 

 but was found in the lower or standing part of the 

 tree. You inquire whether, "finding that the top 

 part would not take him to the ground, he de- 

 scended in order to go through another trial." It 

 is possible this was his intent. Perhaps, howev- 

 er, by reason of a high wind the top went over be- 

 fore he was quite ready for it to fall, and before he 

 had prepared to secure himself in the upper part. 

 He seems to have had a harder job than usual from 

 tbe beginning. You may remember I stated that 

 the parent beetle lays her eggs singly, close to a 

 leaf, a spur or a twig, and that the borer worm, 

 when hatched, penetrates at the same spot direct- 

 ly into the branch. In this particular case, the 

 borer seems to have found himself, when first 

 hatched, on a small twig, growing out of the 

 main branch. He entered the twig, followed that 

 down, and then had to change his direction in or- 

 der to pass into the main branch or stem. In this 

 way, we may presume, his efforts were nearly ex- 

 hausted before he had made a suitable burrow for 

 his lodging in the stem ; and that, meanwhile, his 

 instincts impelled him to cut off the stem, because 

 the time for cessation from labor was at hand. I 

 hope I succeed in making myself understood. In- 

 sects differ from most other animals in being limit- 

 ed in their several stages of life to definite periods 

 of time, beyond which their operations cannot be 



extended. If, therefore, from any cause, an in- 

 sect be much delayed or hindered in its duty, it 

 has to leave it unfinished or imperfectly done, 

 when the proper time for it has passed away. If 

 you look into an old caterpillar's nest, you will 

 sometimes find that some of the caterpillars, in- 

 stead of leaving the tree and hiding themselves in 

 snug quarters elsewhere when about to make their 

 cocoons, remain in the nest, and make their co- 

 coons there. This is because they- were sick and 

 weak ; and when the time came for them to go, 

 they had to stay behind and secure themselves on 

 the spot as well as they could. 



Mr. Henry F. French, of Exeter, N. II., has 

 sent to me a small branch from an elm, which he 

 says has been "cut off by an oak pruner or some 

 similar rascal ;" and that Ids "oaks, near by, are 

 badly cut to pieces by them." He saw the limb 

 fall on the 15th instant, and secured the insects by 

 plugging their holes. My opinion on the case he 

 requests may be communicated to you. A portion 

 of the limb is dead ; but the cut end is living, 

 though diseased. The dead part has been very ir- 

 regularly and circuitously bored just under the 

 bark ; and near the bottom of the dead part there 

 is a small round hole made transversely clean 

 through the limb, apparently by a shot. Now 

 this limb, besides and after being injured by the 

 shot, has evidently been bored by more than one 

 insect. Indeed, there are now two borers in it or 

 in the fragments of it ; one in a living twig, com- 

 municating with the bore in the cut end of the 

 branch, the other in the smaller dead portion. — 

 They are both alike, and are shorter than the oak 

 pruner, and otherwise differ therefrom. I do not 

 think these borers would have been found here, if 

 the limb had been entirely sound. The oak prun- 

 er, the apple tree borer, and many others, are 

 found only in sound or living wood ; but there are 

 some which attack only diseased or dead wood, 

 and these in the elm seem to be of the latter kind. 

 What the particular species may be, I am unable 

 to tell. They would doubtless, in due time, have 

 been transformed to long-horned borer beetles of 

 some kind or other. Some prunings of my apple 

 and peach trees, taken off two years ago, have 

 been used for pea-brush, and for supports to to- 

 matoes. This summer they are found full of bor- 

 ers, which have worked precisely like those of Mr. 

 French's elm. They often cut off twigs from the 

 size of a pipe-stem to the thickness of the little 

 finger. Their burrows are mostly under the bark 

 and very circuitous at first, but afterwards go into 

 the pith when the twig is to be cut off. Some of 

 of them are in keeping to show what they will- 

 turn to. Yours respectfully, t. w. h. 



Cambridge, August 23, 1852. 



Remarks. — We feel under increased obligations 

 to Dr. Harris for his kind replies to our notes and 

 to that of Mr. French. Explanations of the hab- 

 its of these curious, but somewhat destructive an- 

 imals, are to us exceedingly interesting,, and no 

 doubt will be so to most of our readers. When 

 Bacon said that "knowledge is power," he un- 

 doubtedly meant that it was a power over these lit- 

 tle insects as well as over the winds and waves in 

 navigating the ships of commerce or controlling 

 the steam that impels us with such velocity. A 



