Notes and Gleanings. 35 



quality, that everybody and their relations will go into the country next year and 

 cultivate fruits, and subscribe for " The American Journal of Horticulture." 

 RiDGEwooD, N.J. A. S. Fuller. 



The Apple-Borer {Saperda bivittatd). — Few persons are fully aware of 

 the injury done by this pest among the apple and quince trees, both in the 

 orchard and nursery. In the older States they have become quite numerous, 

 especially in sections where there are many old and neglected apple-trees in the 

 mowing fields and pastures. It is a quiet, silent enemy, but yet one that has 

 the power to, and often does, ruin young orchards. These borers are the larvae 

 of a beetle called Super da blvittata, which is found about among the apple and 

 other trees during the month of June. It is active in the night-time, when it 

 deposits its eggs on the bark near the ground. These eggs soon hatch, and de- 

 velop a fleshy, yellowish-white grub, with a small, brownish head. This grub, or 

 worm, soon eats or cuts its way through the bark of the tree into the solid wood, 

 working upwards, and pushing out its castings as it goes, which are scarcely dis- 

 cernible at first, but become more so as the grub increases in size. The beetle 

 will sometimes lay its eggs in the crotch of a tree, or even under the rough bark, 

 along the body of the tree, where the eggs hatch, and the grubs work into the 

 tree. Sometimes they work downwards the first year into the roots of the tree, 

 and the second year work upwards ; and sometimes they work nearly round a 

 tree, almost girdling it. Generally the second year, but sometimes not until the 

 third year, they work upwards and outwards near the bark of the tree, and here 

 undergo a change, and become a beetle, when they gnaw a round hole through 

 the bark, and come out, to follow in the same course of the many generations 

 that have preceded them. It is during the months of June and July that the eggs 

 are laid ; and the active operations of the insect are wholly in the night, keep- 

 ing quiet by day. Apple-trees that have been cut down and examined show that 

 the borer had completely riddled the tree for a foot up from the roots, which has 

 often been the cause of the death of the tree. A great many young apple, quince, 

 mountain-ash, thorn, and other trees, are injured or ruined by these insects, often 

 being so completely girdled as to be blown off by the wind." It is, perhaps, one 

 of the worst enemies that the orchardist has to encounter ; and the inquiry natu- 

 rally arises, " What can be done to abate the evil ? " The most effectual way to 

 prevent it is to keep the rough bark scraped off" the apple-trees, that they may 

 find no convenient place to deposit their eggs ; and then, armed with a stout, 

 sharp-pointed knife, and a flexible wire, examine the trees once every ten days 

 or two weeks for a month or two after the beetles have laid their eggs, and occa- 

 sionally all through the season, and with the point of the knife pick out the little 

 grubs ; and, where they have entered the wood too far for that, run the wire up 

 the hole, and punch them to death. Some recommend plugging the hole ; 

 others, the use of camphor put into the holes ; and still others recommend a 

 gouge with w'.iich to dig t'.iem oat : but this last ii severe practice, trees often 

 being injured as much from the too free use of this instrument as they would 

 have been by the grubs. The knife and wire are the very best tools. The cast- 

 ings can readily be seen, especially if the examination be made after a spell of 



