Ins efts and Diseases. 153 



months after it hatched from the egg. In this state it lies through 

 the winter, and changes to its perfect form the following spring, but 

 often continues to lie dormant several weeks after its final change, 

 until the season becomes sufficiently warm for it to come abroad. 

 Awaking then into life and activity, it crawls upwards, loosening and 

 pulling down the chips and dust that close the upper end of its bur 

 row, till it reaches the bark. Through this it cuts with its jaws a 

 remarkably smooth round hole, of the exact size requisite "to enable 

 it to crawl out of the tree. The sexes then pair, and the female 

 deposits another crop of eggs." 



Remedies. It is nearly impossible to save a tree, unless taken 

 early. At the first, the insect may be cut out with the point of a 

 knife. If deeper in the wood, it may be extracted by a flexible 

 barbed wire, or punched to death in its hole by a flexible twig. To 

 prevent the insect from emerging and laying its eggs, it is doubly 

 important that this be done early in the spring ; but the trees should 

 be repeatedly examined at other periods of the year. 



Various remedies have been proposed to prevent the beetle from 

 laying its eggs in the bark. A mixture of tobacco water, soft-soap, 

 and flour of sulphur, applied to the bark in the form of a wash, or 

 soft soap alone used in the same way, has been attended with 

 partial success. The application should be made towards the end 

 of spring, and repeated for a few weeks if washed off by rains. 

 But the best and most perfect remedy is the examination of the tree, 

 and the destruction of the young insects as already described. 



The Apple-worm (Carpocapsa pomonella) attacks the fruit, by 

 entering at the blossom, and feeding at the core. In some years, it 

 has been so common, as seriously to injure the quality of the crop. 

 The best preventive is to allow swine or sheep to pick up the 

 wormy fruit as it falls, thus destroying the enclosed insect, and pre- 

 venting its spread. Sheep may be prevented from eating the bark 

 of the trees by rubbing the trunks with blood, which is easily done 

 with a piece of liver from the butcher. 



The following figures (Fig. 180) exhibit the apple-worm in its 

 different stages ; a, the larva ; , the same magnified ; c, the cocoon ; 

 r/, the pupa within the cocoon ; e,f, the perfect insects, known as the 

 " Codling moth ; " g, the young larva, just hatched, after having been 

 deposited within the calyx ; //, 2, k, /, the progressive work of the 

 larva within the apple, till it escapes. 



Aphis. Aphides, or plant lice, frequently infest the leaves of the 

 apple, pear, cherry, etc. When they appear in vast numbers, cover- 

 ing the surface of the leaves and twigs, they retard growth and injure 



