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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



to continue the species the next season. Another 

 pest to the orchardist is the worm that destroys so 

 much of our fruit. Mr. F. said he could perceive 

 no difference between this apple worm and that 

 which destroys the plum. The best way to destroy 

 them is to pick up the fruit as soon as it drops, and 

 feed it to hog^ or cattle, or let the animals run in 

 the orchard. There are three or four generations 

 of this insect in one season. 



E. W. Bull said, whale oil soap is a complete 

 preventive of the borer. His neighbor, J. B. M., 

 rubbed soap on a tree that was badly infested, and 

 killed the borers. There is a bark louse which is 

 very common, appearing something like the half of 

 a grain of wheat divided lengthwise, and glued to 

 the bark of the tree. A strong wash of the whale 

 oil soap will kill them. The aphis on the young 

 branches may be destroyed by bending the branch- 

 es and dipping them into a solution of whale oil 

 soap. The woolly aphis may be killed with a brush 

 dipped in the same liquid. Mr. B. thinks the 

 beetle that lays the egg producing the apple worm 

 is not identical with the curculio, or plum weevil. 

 The grub is larger. He has found that cotton bat- 

 ting tied tightly around the trees, entangles the 

 curculio as it ascends the tree in cool weather. In 

 warm weather, it readily flies into the tree. They 

 may be caught by spreading a sheet under the tree, 

 and then giving the tree a sudden shake, which 

 causes the insect to drop upon the sheet. Mr. B. 

 thinks the curculio is rapidly increasing in num- 

 bers. He supposes that in their flights they follow 

 the prevailing winds. They fly low. A fence ten 

 feet high, around a garden in Cambridge, has most- 

 ly kept them out. The rose bugs should be col- 

 lected and put into scalding water. Soap suds will 

 not kill them. Nothing will eat them but the 

 king-bird and the peewink. A row of rose bushes 

 on the windward side of an orchard, will be, to 

 some extent, a protection, as they prefer the rose 

 bushes, and may more readily be collected from 

 them and destroyed. He has waged war against 

 them for many years, and now they are not so 

 abundant by far as they were a few years ago. 

 The canker worm, he said, had not yet been very 

 troublesome away from the seaboard ; at least, not 

 in this immediate neighborhood. But they are 

 sometimes found here, probably brought along by 

 carriages upon which they had dropped. He had 

 found them on one of his elm trees, a few years 

 ago. He put a brood of chickens under the tree, 

 and they ate the worms greedily, as they dropped, 

 or were shaken down by the wind. He thinks the 

 hen and her young brood may be made valuable 

 auxiliaries to us against the various insect tribes. 

 Tarring is, in his opinion, an unsightly remedy, and 

 after all, not effectual. A portion of the canker 

 worm moths come to perfection, and lay their eggs 

 in the autumn ; and these eggs will stand the se- 

 verest frosts, without injury to their vitality. But 

 the greater part of the moths do not appear till the 

 next March. Their eggs are hatched in the early 

 part of May. The worms feed till about three 

 weeks old ; then they begin to descend and burrow 

 in the ground, where they undergo their transfor- 

 inations. John Lowell spaded the ground under 

 his trees late in the autumn, and spread lime as far 

 as the branches extended, and by this means saved 



paste, and rub it on our trees, it would be service- 

 able. It has been found to keep off the borer. 

 He has tried potash lye, and given it up. An old 

 tree, that has rough, thick bark, can bear a strong 

 lye, but smooth young bark is too tender for it. 

 He uses whale oil soap instead ; this is perfectly 

 safe, and quite effectual — except on rose bugs. 



Dr. Reynolds said, some orchardists have been 

 unable to raise apples, and supposed there was 

 some deficiency, or some bad quality in the soil ; 

 but on examination, found there was sufficient rea- 

 son in the ravages of the borer. On using diligent 

 care to remove and prevent that pest, there was no 

 difficulty in raising fruit. The borer beetle depos- 

 ites its eggs in June and July. In August, if we 

 scrape off the outside bark, we can find and destroy 

 the young worms, without injury to the tree. The 

 grubs live in the bark a good while, eating the in- 

 ner half of the bark, and making a considerable 

 cavity. This enables the woodpecker and chicka- 

 dee to find and eat them. After a few weeks, they 

 work their way into the wood. Some continue in 

 the larvjc state only one year; but the greater 

 number from two to three years. They some- 

 times work through and through small trees, com- 

 pletely honeycombing them. One gentleman had 

 found thirty of these grubs in a single tree. Mr. 

 Dickinson, of New York, says a piece of soap put 

 into the crotch of a tree, will keep off the borer. 

 We cannot reach the borer with a syringe, because 

 he stops up the hole behind him with his chips. 

 If we take a strip of bagging and tie around the 

 bottom of the tree, about the last of May, the in- 

 sect will lay its eggs in that, and the larvae, when 

 hatched, will die for want of nourishment. The 

 plant lice are often carried on young trees from 

 nurseries. They were carried to Wisconsin on two 

 small sweet apple trees, and from that small begin- 

 ning, spread rapidly over the State. The shell 

 louse produces from ten to thirty eggs in the 

 spring; these are retained under the shell of the 

 parent, are hatched in May, the mother perishing, 

 and leaving her shell as a shelter for her young 

 brood. An alkaline wash will destroy them. — 

 Some species of the louse feed on the leaf, others 

 on the bark. It is yet a mooted question, he said, 

 whether the apple worm, and that which infests 

 the plum, are identical. The apple worm is larger, 

 but is similar in its habits ; and perhaps the food 

 makes the difference. Many of the worms leave 

 the apple before it falls, sometimes passing through 

 the various stages, and producing a new generation 

 in the latter part of the season ; but more general- 

 ly remaining in its sheltering cocoon till the next 

 spring. The apple worms are increasing rapidly, 

 and fears are entertained by some, that we shall 

 by and by be obliged to give up the culture of the 

 apple. The old remedy for the canker worm was 

 a strip of sheep skin with the wool on, wound tight- 

 ly around the tree. There are several methods of 

 preventing the ravages of the curculio. It may be 

 done to some extent, by syringing the tree with an 

 alkaline wash, or by throwing quick lime over the 

 tree when wet with dew or rain a few times, while 

 the fruit is small. Dr. R. said,? that in one season 

 recently, his plums were all destroyed. The next 

 year, by using lime, he saved a bushel of good 

 sound plums. He thinks tarring the trees will pre- 



