180 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the trees fail, and they will fail. Apples will cost more than 

 they are worth, raised there. 



Mr. Earle. — How is it with the Porter apple ? 



Mr. Clement. — That is an exception. It will grow where 

 other apples would not. 



Mr. Earle. — Will not the Roxbury Russet grow in a sandy 

 soil ? 



Mr. Clement. — The Roxbury Russet grows best in a strong soil. 

 I look upon the borer as the greatest enemy to the apple. We 

 have a great deal of difficulty in keeping the borers in check, so 

 as to raise any trees at all. In our nurseries we have to 

 examine our trees every year. We do it in August. We find 

 the young borer just under the bark, and entering it, in July 

 and August.. When the weather has been dry for a short time, 

 we find a little pile of chips that the borer has thrown out. We 

 cut them out with a knife. The best remedy is to encourage 

 the birds. I was much interested in Mr. Samuels' address yes- 

 terday, particularly his allusion to the woodpecker. I have seen 

 that bird pecking around where a borer is at work, and run his 

 tongue in and hook him out. 



Mr. Davis. — Harpoon him. 



Mr. Clement. — Yes, that is it exactly ; and they do it pretty 

 lively sometimes. But these birds are becoming scarce. I wish 

 to encourage the woodpeckers, and bluebirds, and pe-wees, and 

 other birds, to come into my orchard and live there. Nothing 

 provokes me so much as to see boys, and, much more, men, 

 going around with guns and shooting the birds. The pe-wees, or 

 Phebes, come every year to my barn and make their nests there. 

 They take all the flies and millers they can find. The number 

 they destroy is incalculable, for they do it very rapidly. 



In answer to a question, Mr. Clement said he had never seen 

 the canker-worm in his locality. There were a few in the town 

 of Dracut last season. 



Prof. Chadbourne. — I would like to ask about the wood- 

 pecker destroying the borer. I have never seen the woodpecker 

 working right down near the ground, where we find the borer. 

 The apple-tree borer, which does so much mischief, pierces the 

 tree close to the ground, as it were, between wind and water. 

 I have never seen any evidence that woodpeckers destroy that 

 kind of borer. 



