STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 59 



to enter and the wood}' tissue around that point will deca}- very 

 rapidlj-. It is a good plan to use grafting wax to fill up the hole and 

 keep the air out, just as 3'ou would on any wound upon the tree. 

 The latter part of June is the best time to dig out the round-headed 

 borers. The flat-headed borers generally do not bore very much until 

 the latter part of the su miner. 



Mr. Hale. My experience has been with peach trees. "We have 

 quite a large number of them and the borers have troubled us some- 

 what, and we have relied on washing. Originall}' we made a wash 

 of strong soft soap, carbolic acid and lime, but of late years we 

 have had mope trees to wash and instead of using soap we have 

 taken caustic, potash and made a strong lye and added lime and 

 carbolic acid and put in a little white arsenic, which makes a handy 

 filling, and sometimes a little clay to make it adhere to the tree. We 

 wash early in May, moving a little of the top soil away from the 

 trunk so we can wash a little below the natural surface of the ground. 

 We apply it with a swab, striking into the branches and crotches of 

 the tree one or two strokes. Where we have washed our trees in 

 that wa}' not one in a hundred of them is ever attacked by a borer. 

 Occasionallj' we have left a row unwashed or a portion of a field 

 unwashed and then not more than one tree in a hundred would escape 

 from their attacks. Then we had to follow the professor's plan as 

 to those trees and go around two or three times and dig them out. 

 I think we save a good deal of money and labor, besides injury to 

 the trees, by applying this wash. If the borer gets in and you go 

 for him with your knife or a sharp stick or a wire it doesn't do much 

 harm, but occasionall}^ you don't find him ; and after you have 

 crawled around on your hands and knees all day digging out borers 

 you are apt to get a little careless and skip some. We formerly had 

 the idea which the professor has expressed, that the onl}' way to get 

 rid of them was to dig them out ; but it costs ten times as much as 

 the washing. And the washing leaves the bark smooth and clean 

 and with no chance for insects to conceal themselves. I would not 

 think of cultivating a peach orchard without an annual washing with 

 something to keep out the borers and smooth the bark, and I should 

 certainly try the wash on apple trees or any others that are troubled 

 with borers. Two applications would be better. You want to make 

 it strong and make it thick so it is almost a paste, and leave two or 

 three swabs full in the crotches of the trees where the rain will wash 

 it down. 



