SECRETARY'S REPORT. 141 



years. I have applied it to nests of the tent-caterpillar, the 

 apple-tree pest, and effectually dislodged them. I have poured 

 it around the roots of vegetables, attacked l)y various maggots, 

 and prevented their ravages without injuring the plant in the 

 least perceptible degree. I am fully satisfied that a large num- 

 ber of noxious insects, especially those infesting our root crops 

 and fruit trees, may be successfully treated with this oil in the 

 crude state, or with a soap made from it and diluted with water 

 to the same extent as that prepared from whale oil ; namely, for 

 trees of thick bark, a pound of the soap to a gallon of water, 

 and for leaves and roots, the proportion of water may be 

 increased to five gallons. 



Upon the bark of various fruit and shade trees, arc found 

 minute scale-insects belonging to the genera Coccus, Lecanium, 

 and Aspidiotus. In the spring, about a week after the bursting 

 of the leaf buds, their eggs are hatched, and the tender young, 

 spreading over the tree, commence sucking the sap. A thorough 

 painting of the bark, with the petroleum or its soap, for two or 

 three days after the escape of the young, will be found an infal- 

 lible remedy. The borers of the apple, quince, and peach, may 

 be prevented from laying their eggs by the same application, or 

 if already laid, these niaj^ be destroyed in tlie same manner. 

 It is highly desirable that an extended and thorough trial be 

 made of this substance upon different crops, throughout the 

 State, and that reports be furnished to the State Board of its 

 effects, its proper strength, and mode of application, in order 

 that we may obtain additional facts, and circulate the results 

 more widely. I shall proceed to give a concise account of some 

 of our native insect enemies, their history, and mode of attack, 

 with suggestions as to the best methods of repelling them. 

 Among our fruit trees, we find the apple attacked by a number 

 of insects of different groups, varying in the locality of their 

 ravages from the roots beneath the soil to the extremities of the 

 branches, the leaves, and fruit ; some of them subsisting solely 

 on this tree ; and others, common to the pear, the quince, and 

 even to some forest and shade trees. 



When the leaves turn to a paler or yellowish hue, without any 

 perceptible cause, and the tree seems to be enfeebled, a removal 

 of the earth immediately about the roots, will frequently discover 

 numbers of minute plant-lice or aphides. This is the plural 



