VI. DISEASES OF FRUIT-TREES. 



maggot a full third of an inch long, having a black head 

 and a greenish body. When the blossoms are not 

 abundant, and sometimes even when they are,, this 

 wretched thing feeds upon the roots or germs of the 

 buds, as well as upon the blossoms. It enters down into 

 the heart of the bud which has just bursted out into 

 little leaves, and you will see those leaves die in the 

 month of April, just as you will see cabbage-plants or 

 lettuce-plants die when attacked by the grub or the wire- 

 worm. Of a row of lettuce-plants, you are surprised to 

 see one lopping its leaves down flat upon the ground, 

 and the rest standing bolt upright ; but, if you take it 

 up, you will find, that a grub-worm or a wire- worm has 

 eaten out the heart of its root. Just in like manner does 

 this maggot destroy the buds of apple-trees ; and, as in 

 the case of a row of lettuce-plants, it, like the grub or 

 wire-worm, will, if let alone, go from bud to bud, from 

 one end of a branch to the other. The killing of the 

 buds by these maggots is one great cause of the canker 

 in apple-trees : they make a wound which descends down 

 to the very wood j I have, in numerous instances, 

 watched the progress of the wound, and have seen it 

 turn to complete and destructive canker. As to preven- 

 tion, in this case, I am not certain of the source of the 

 maggot j but I think it proceeds from eggs deposited 

 upon the bark during the previous summer, and clinging 

 there until the spring. What 1 have done, is, to wash all 

 the limbs and stout branches of the trees well in the 

 month of March with a hard-brush, soap, and tobacco- 

 juice ; and certain it is that my trees have not been in- 

 fested by these maggots since. If you find them at 

 work upon a tree, watch the flagging of the buds ; cut 



