44 FACT NUMBER THREE. 



in the mild weather of Autumn, more especially where the 

 the tree is protected from the cool winds, swells it to tactual 

 bursting- and frequently to full bloom. 



This enlarged bud, being subsequently exposed to the 

 rains and frosts of the season, which frequently succeed each 

 other in almost the same hour, is frozen up, and the germ of 

 the future fruit perishes in the icy embrace. This dead 

 germ, turns black immediately, and thereby proclaims to 

 every close observer, and almost upon the very heel of the 

 first exposure, the extent of the ravages committed in this be- 

 half on the next year's supply of the peach crop. 



3d. The Peach Tree Insect. This is a species of Worm, 

 which somewhat resembles a small, White Grub. It is 

 probably known among fruit growers generally as the Peach 

 Tree Worm, for it has long been felt through all the old 

 States of the Union, as a deadly despoiler of the fair pro- 

 mise of the peach orchard. 



Close observation has discovered that this worm comes 

 from an Egg deposited both at the root of the tree and in the 

 fruit of the tree, during the Summer season ; not by a fly, as 

 was long supposed, nor by a large, glossy, black and titter- 

 ing Wasp, as many have imagined, but from a longish, black 

 Bug, the last change which the little White Grab, — the 

 Peach Tree Worm,— undergoes, and in which stage, it is 

 evidently well prepared to do its mischief and propagate its 

 species. 



In the grub form, however, it is as far from being harm- 

 less as it is from being idle. It has been caught a thousand 

 times, girdling the tender seedling stock, and rioting in 



