64 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



ating did not at first suggest itself, ancU so we kept on, year after 

 year, removing a little of the dirt, perhaps not over half an inch 

 yearly. In a few 3ear3 we had thus formed a depression all about 

 the collar of the tree, and in many cases the roots had been laid 

 bare. The beetles continued to lay their eggs close to the depressed 

 surface, and it became yearly more difficult to find and extract the 

 borers. Not only would many escape detection, but when the outlet 

 of an excavation was deep in the basin, and thegaller\- ran upwards, 

 it was very difficult to insert a wire and drive it home. When they 

 got down so far as to work under the roots, then it was quite a 

 hopeless job. At the same time, experience had led to the convic- 

 tion that if the borer beetle could be induced to \ay her eggs high 

 enough on the trunk, the detection and destruction of ever}' egg or 

 larva in an early stage of growth would be, on smooth-barked trees, 

 a comparatively eas3' matter for a man with good eyes and patient 

 disposition. The mother beetle makes a perpendicular slit in the 

 l)ark, which, after drying, shows as a ragged-edged gash one-quar- 

 ter or three-eighths of an inch long, and beside this is a very slight 

 swelling in the bark, beneath which lies the leathery-skinned egg, 

 under the bark and next the wood, if the bark be thin, but if the 

 latter be thick, then beneath its outer layers. Press with your knife 

 handle or the flat of the blade on the bunch and you will hear the 

 snap of the bursting egg. This is the condition of things during 

 the latter part of the summer. In early autumn 30U can find the 

 young larva by the same mark, and it is not until a year has passed 

 after the laying of the eggs that the borer gets far away from his 

 cradle. Some time during this first year he ought to be found and 

 destroyed ; and the earlier the better, for, according to my observa- 

 tions, the period of his greatest mischief is when he is about a 3'ear 

 old, say in June and July. 



What are the means of compelling a borer beetle to la}' her eggs 

 high on the trunk? Probably a close wrap of cloth, cedar bark, 

 tin or stout paper would do it, but I have been warned that these 

 preventives have sometimes led to disappointment, the beetle get- 

 ting in behind them. Jiesides, it must be a good deal of trouble to 

 put them about the trees and remove them again for examination. 

 I could think of nothing that promised so great eflHciency combined 

 with economy, as a little mound of sand. An}' kind of dirt would 

 do as well as sand, were it not for the liability to be pushed away on 

 all sides by the swaying of the tree in the wind and packed so as to 



