304 A;pple and Peach Tree Borers. 



Saperda in the more flattened shape of the larva, and its larger head, 

 so that it is often called the " hammer-headed borer," and also in its 

 habit of extending its ravages higher up the trunk, and even on the 

 larger branches of the tree, as mentioned by J. M. B. On this account 

 the methods of preventing its ravages usually recommended for the 

 Saperda^ applied only to the base of the tree, are of but little avail for 

 the Ckrysobothris, and the remedy found so effective by J. M. B,, I am 

 convinced w^ould prove just as much so, if the most troublesome part 

 of it, covering the ground with ashes and lime, was entirely omitted, 

 'using only the alkaline wash on the trunks and large limbs of the 

 trees, or on the trunks only, where the insects are not very bad. I think, 

 too, it would be an improvement in his remedy to apply the wash about 

 the first of June, as the eggs are mostly deposited the latter part of May, 

 and repeat it, if thought necessary, a month or so later. Washing in 

 this way with soft soap, thinned with an equal quantity of water, has 

 often been used with good success. Lye, of wood ashes or potash, of 

 moderate strength, I have found equally efficient both for the apple and 

 peach borers. 



A better remedy still for both these troublesome insects, I have been 

 using for the past two years, especially on my orchard of three thou- 

 sand bearing peach trees, in a locality where borers are very abundant. 

 It is washing the base of the trees with carbolic soap-suds. I use at 

 the rate of a pound of the soap of the kind called " Carbolic Plant Pro- 

 tector," dissolved in six or eight gallons of water — a little weaker for 

 young trees. Five pounds of the soap in a barrel of water is sufficient 

 for a thousand ti-ees. The cost of the soap is only two dollars, and an 

 active lad can apply the liquid, with a pail and brush, to a thousand 

 trees in two days, if the orchard is not in a weedy condition, in which 

 case the weeds should first be removed from around the base of the 

 trees with a hoe. 



I apply this wash in July, after the eggs are deposited, and while 

 the young grubs, if hatched, are only in the surface of the bark, and 

 are at once killed by the liquid, which is quite penetrating, and sure 

 death to eggs, worms, aphides, scale-bugs, &c., and not at all inju- 

 rious to the trees, unless applied to the foliage or tender shoots, for 

 which purpose its strength should be only about one fourth the above. 

 I am experimenting with the article for a variety of other purposes, 

 of which I will report some day. 



