58 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Prof. jMaYnakd. The shoots turn brown and the leaves also. 

 The leaf blight attacks the leaf first, I suppose, and keeps increas- 

 ing until the leaves drop off, and pretty abundantly in hot, moist 

 weather. It is a very difficult matter to determine what the cause 

 of the disease may be in certain trees unless we know their history 

 — the treatment which they have been receiving. If they have been 

 highly cultivated and manured for a time, and then plant food has 

 been withheld for a year, and the land seeded down, that might 

 account for it. Or an excess ol manure may have caused a hasty 

 growth, which may have resulted in an injury to the tissues of the 

 tree, leaving them in condition for these spores to develop in the 

 following season. 



Mr. Starkett. I had a Barllett pear tree with the bottoms of 

 the leaves all covered with a dirty, slimy looking substance, and 

 the tree died, I don't know whether from tliat or some other cause. 

 Some of the trees in the vicinity of that one were similarly atfected, 

 although none of them died. I strewed some wood ashes over the 

 tree when the leaves were wet, thinking it would not do any harm. 

 Have you any information to give us about that? 



Prof. IMaynard. There arc two insects which injure the tree in 

 that way, one a very minute scaly insect and the other a slug about 

 a quarter of an inch to half an inch in length of a greenish slimy 

 appearance. The former may be destroyed by a solution of one 

 part of kerosene to two parts of soap which should be diluted with 

 25 parts of water and syringed over the tree. The latter may be 

 destroyed by the use of pyrethrum powder dusted over them or by 

 kerosene. 



Mr. Blossom. You speak of flat-headed and round-headed 

 borers. Do they both work at the base of the tree ? 



Prof. Maynard. Yes, generally within three feet of the ground. 

 The flat headed borer, the perfect insect, is of a steel color and has a 

 habit of snapping. You have seen the snapping beetles, when you 

 take them in your fingers they will snap. This is one of those snap- 

 ping beetles. They reproduce annually while the round headed 

 borer produces only once in three years, that is, it takes three years 

 for one round of development. It is impossible to get them by prob- 

 ing after they have been in the tree the first year, because they 

 have then made a turn in the tree. When the round-headed borer 

 enters the tree it leaves a hole the size of a small pencil. These 

 holes should be stopped up. There is a chance for moisture and air 



