252 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



FEBRTTARY 20, 1S33. 



A DISCOURSE 



Delivered before the Massacbusclls Horlicultural Society, on 

 the Celebration of its fourth Anniversary, October 3, 1832. 

 By Thaddeus William Harris, M. D. 

 [Concluded, from page 244.] 

 Apple-trees, throughout our country, are sub- 

 ject to the attack of a borer, a native insect; nor 

 is there any one so extensively and constantly 

 prevalent. Notwithstanding the exertions an- 

 nually made to banish it from the orchard and nur- 

 sery, year after year it makes its appearance. The 

 reasons of this are to be found in the economy of 

 the insect, and in individual neglect, neither of 

 which has excited sufficient attention. The com- 

 mon use of the term borer is deceptive and incor- 

 rect ; but, when coupled with that of the (ilant 

 upon which it preys, is admissible. There is, in 

 fact, an immense number of kinds of insects, all 

 agreeing in their habits of boring the trunks and 

 limbs of trees, but differing essentially from each 

 other in appearance, periods, and metamorphoses, 

 and as much in their choice of food. No one ever 

 reared the JEgeria exitiosa from the apple-tree 

 borer, nor could the latter subsist in the pe;icli- 

 tree. Certain species of borers are confined 

 absolutely to one species of plant, while other .sjie- 

 cies live indiscriminately upon several plants of 

 the same natural family ; but there are few or 

 none which exceed these limits. The borer of 

 the apple-tree, or, in other words, the striped 

 Saperda,* lives, in the larva state, within the 

 trunks of several pome-bearing plants, such as 

 the apple-tree, quince,f medlar, and ths near allies 

 of the last, the June-berry, and choke-berry bush, 

 with other species of Crania. Indigenous pliints 

 of this last genus are its natural food, the perfect 

 insects being fomid upon their leaves, and the 

 larv!e in their stems. This Saperda, tifter its final 

 change, leaves the trunks of the trees to fulfil the 

 last injunctions of nature. It is then furnished 

 with ample wings beneath its striped shells, that 

 give to it considerable powers of flight, which il 

 does not fail to use iu searching for the tender 

 leaves and fruits of plants, upon which for a sliort 

 period it subsists, in seeking a mate, and in select- 

 ing a proper place for the deposition of its eggs. 

 Many orchards suffer from the neglect of their 

 proprietors ; the trees are permitted to remain, 

 year after year, without any pains being taken to 

 destroy the numerous and various insects that in- 

 fest them ; old orchards, especially, are overlooked, 

 and not only the rugged trunks of the trees, bill 

 even a forest of unpruned suckers around them, 

 are left to the undisturbed possession and per- 

 petual inheritance of the SaperJa. Did this slov- 

 enly and indolent practice affect only the owner 

 of the neglected domain, we should hive no reason 

 for complaint; but when the interests of the com- 

 munity are exposed by the harboring of such hosts 

 of noxious insects, which annually issue from their 

 places of refuge and overspread the neighboring 

 country, when our best endeavors arfe thus frus- 

 trated, have we not sufficient cause for serious ac- 

 cusation against those who have fostered our as- 

 sailants? No plants are more abundant in our 

 forests aiid fields, that the native medlars or aronias, 

 that originally constituted the appropriate food of 

 the striped Saperda. Taking into view, therefore, 

 the jirofusion of its natural food, its ample means 

 of migration, and the culpable neglect of many of 

 our farmers, we cannot be surpristd that this in- 



♦ SupenU bwilt.ihi. Siiy. 



t Also the Hawthorn and Mountain Ash of the same family. 



sect is so generally and constantly prevalent. On 

 the means that have been used to exterminate it 

 I shall make but few remarks. Killing it by a 

 wire thrust into the holes it mhabits, is one of the 

 oldest, safest, and most successful methods. Cut- 

 ting out the larva, with a knife or gouge, is the 

 most common practice ; but it is feared that these 

 instruments have sometimes been used without 

 sufficient caution. A third method, which has 

 more than once been suggested, consists iu plug- 

 ging the holes with soft wood. To this it has 

 been objected, that the remedy is applied too late, 

 or after the insect has issued from the tree. Now 

 this is a gratuitous assumption, and made without 

 adverting to the habits of the insect. The pres- 

 ence of the borer is detected by the recent castings 

 around the roots of the tree ; and upon examina- 

 tion it will be found, that these castings proceed 

 from a hole or holes, and that they are daily 

 thrown out by the insects to give themselves room 

 in their cylindrical biirrows, as well as to admit 

 the air. Before comi>leting its last metamorpho- 

 sis, the borer gnaws, from the other end of its 

 tube, a passage quite to the bark, which, however, 

 it leaves untouched until the month of June, when, 

 having become a winged insect, it perforates the 

 covering of bark, and makes its exit from the 

 tree. It cannot turn in its burrow, nor does it 

 ever leave it at its lower orifice. Those persons, 

 who have recommended plugging the holes, never 

 contem|)lated sto|)ping any but those where the in- 

 sects enter, and from whence they expel their ex- 

 crementitious castings. By what I have seen of 

 this practice I am persuaded, that, if done at an 

 early period of the insect's life, it will be followed 

 by successful results. 



Some of the remaiks made ui)on the immunity 

 enjoyed by this Saperda and upon its powers of 

 migration, will apply to many other noxious in- 

 sects; and hence it becomes a serious question, 

 what further steps shall be taken to .secure the 

 productions of the garden, orchard, and field, from 

 llieir ravages. As an essential pre-requisite, every 

 opportunity should be employed, and every facility 

 aftbrdeil, for obtaining a thorough knowledge of 

 Kntomology. Vain will be most of our attempts 

 to repel the threatened attack or actual invasion of 

 these crcejiiiig and winged foi^s, unless we can 

 detect them in their various disguises, and discover 

 their places of temporary concealment. Those 

 who would undertake to investigate the history of 

 insects, should go to the task with minds previous- 

 ly disciplined by habits of close observation and 

 discrimination, and stored with the results of 

 others' labors in this department of science. Art 

 is too long and life too short to permit or justify 

 unaided devotion to any science. If a liberal and 

 enlightened community make the demand, our 

 public institutions will no longer be without the 

 works of those who have preceded thj rising gen- 

 eration in these scientific pursuits ; and the first 

 principles of Entomology will no longer be omitted 

 among the elementary studies of the young. Let 

 us look to all branches of Natural History, and 

 discover, by a more intimate knowledge of them, 

 wherein through ignorance we have gone astray, 

 and let us, if possible, retrace our steps. Were 

 the services of the feathered race sufficiently known 

 and duly appreciated, the exterminating war now 

 waged against them would cease. But it is not 

 to birds alone that we are indebted for diminish- 

 ing the numhcrs of noxious insects ; various 

 quadrupeds, reptiles, and fish contribute to keep 



them iu check, some living partially, and others 

 entirely upon insect food. Among the advantages 

 that may be expected to arise from associations 

 like yours. Gentlemen, is the adoption of univer- 

 sal and simultaneous efforts to repel and destroy 

 noxious insects. Should your own example and 

 influence be ineffectual, it is not unreasonable to 

 expect legislative aid. If in the season appointed 

 for the annual visitation of each destructive kind, 

 it were to become an object of pursuit and exter- 

 mination, and if every proprietor were obliged to 

 destroy the more common insects on his own 

 grounds, our gardens, nurseries, orchards, and 

 fields would no longer be despoiled of their best 

 productions. The animals that assist in keeping 

 the insect tribes in check, deserve and sliould 

 receive protection, and may well be permitted to 

 glean from our abundant harvests their scanty re- 

 muneration. 



When their merits are better understood, we 

 shall be in no danger of mistaking our friends, of 

 the insect race, for the foes whose ravages we 

 deplore. Of insects that are indirectly beneficial 

 to us, may be mentioned those that remove animal 

 and vegetable nuisances. Through the unremitted 

 exertions of these little scavengers, all oflensive 

 animal substances and decayed vegetation are re- 

 duced to their primitive elements, and incorporated 

 with the soil, which is thus rendered more fertile, 

 while the air above it becomes pure and salubri- 

 ous. Others are the lions, the tigers, the exter- 

 minating animals of prey, of the insect world ; 

 livin;^" wholly by rapine, and chiefly too upon those 

 insects that are destructive to vegetation, they ap- 

 pear destined to restrain their ravages, and are 

 therefore to be accounted benefactors to ourselves 

 and to the u.seful animals that depend upon the 

 products of the soil for support. Besides being 

 the appropriate food of many beasts, birds, and 

 fishes, and being useful to the sportsman by aflbrd- 

 ing him various tempting baits as well as lines for 

 bis hooks, insects are' actually employed by man 

 us nutritious and palatable articles of sustenance 

 in many parts of the world. It has been remarked, 

 that " probably a large proportion of insects were 

 intended by Providence for food, and that, if we 

 will not cat them, it is unreasonable to complain 

 of their numbers." To insects are we indebted 

 for many valuable drugs employed in medicine 

 and the arts, and to them also for materials for 

 clothing, unrivalled in richness and durability by 

 any animal or vegetable fabric. 



In addition to the obvious and salutary influ- 

 ence which insects are appointed to exert in keep- 

 ing within due bounds the luxuriance of vegetation, 

 they are of immense importance to plants in dissem- 

 inating the fi^rtilizing principle of blossoms. This 

 principle, a yellow dust, called pollen, is brought 

 through the agency of insects that frequent flowers, 

 into immediate contact with the organ which con- 

 tains the yet unformed or infertile seeds, that after- 

 wards expand and are brought to perfection. With- 

 out this agency many plants would never mature 

 their fruits, and others would yield no fertile seeds. 

 Notwithstanding all that has been said to the con- 

 trary, it is evident that the bee was as much made 

 for the blossom, as the blossom for the bee. Are 

 not the beauty and harmony of the creation, and 

 the mutual dependence of its various portions, 

 strikingly exemplified in the relations subsisting 

 between insects and plants? Allured by the at- 

 traction of flowers, insects confer an immediate 

 benefit upon them by ensuring the fertility of their 



