102 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



into the burrow until the insect is impaled. In many cases, if 

 the bark and wood around the hole be cut away with a knife, 

 the borer will be exposed to view, when it may be destroyed. 

 It is important that all the holes be thus probed, and that every 

 borer be killed. The following paragraph from the " Fruit Cul- 

 turist " gives further directions for the suppression of this pest : 



" Dig out thoroughly and destroy every worm that can be 

 found, with a jackknife, chisel and knitting-needle ; then, in 

 the earliest possible time in the spring, inclose the tree with 

 two thicknesses of hardware paper, dipped in whale-oil soap or 

 gas- tar, partially dried, 12 or 15 inches wide, from the roots up, 

 and loosely tied top and bottom with bass matting. This will 

 require about twenty minutes to a tree, and will last one season." 



The codling moth is also well known, its larva boring un- 

 sightly holes through the apple in different directions, causing 

 the fruit to drop to the ground, and rendering it unmarketable. 

 There is no method of preventing the deposit of the eggs by 

 the parent moths, but there are means by which their numbers 

 may be greatly diminished. Fires built around the orchard in 

 the evenings of the latter part of June and early in July will 

 attract and destroy the moths in numbers ; and all the windfall 

 fruit or other apples lying on the ground should be gathered at 

 once and fed to the hogs. This practice, if followed up, will 

 very greatly tend to keep these insects in subjection. 



Among the insects attacking young vegetation, a very gener- 

 ally known species is the striped cucumber-beetle, (often called 

 the striped bug.) Various remedies have been tried against its 

 devastations, but I believe nothing, except a protection for the 

 young vines or other plants attacked, by a gauze or millinet 

 screen, has proved effectual, although a solution of one pound 

 of whale-oil soap to four gallons of water, scattered plentifully 

 over the plants from time to time, has been quite successful. 

 Particular care should be taken to apply this after a rain storm, 

 and it is essential that the under surfaces of the leaves be well 

 moistened with it. Lime, plaster of paris, wood ashes, pepper, 

 &c., have been recommended, but the above seem to be the only 

 ones that can be at all relied on. 



Cut-worms are also a serious pest in many localities. As 

 they live, during their larva form, beneath the surface of the 

 ground during the daytime, their presence is rarely detected 



