Apples. 25 



reasonable doubt that winter apples could not be grown, 

 and to a profit, the case would be altered. As it is, it is the 

 worst kind of advice to give to fruit culturists, or to be 

 placed upon the records of a County Horticultural Society, 

 .and we hope to see it recalled at an early day. 



THE APHIS. 



While, as yet, apple trees in Colorado have not been 

 troubled with insects to any great, extent, there is no know- 

 ing how soon they may be attacked by the Aphis tribe. 

 Hence it will not be out of place to present the insect to 

 our readers, and give the remedies recommended, as we find 

 them in a treatise on insects injurious to fruit trees, issued 

 by authority of the California State Board of Horticultural 

 Commissioners. 



The Woolly Aphis, or Apple Tree Aphis, named Aphis 

 Mali by Packard, and by Figuier Myzoxle Mali, is thus de- 

 scribed : This insect is of a dark, russet brown color, with 

 the upper part of the abdomen covered with very long white 

 down. This species of aphis, according to M. Blot, can 

 only exist on the apple tree. Carried away and placed on 

 another tree it soon perishes. It does not attack the blos- 

 som, the fruit, nor the leaves, but fixes itself on the lower 

 part of the trunk, whence it propagates itself downwards as 

 far as the roots, underneath the graftings, etc. It also likes 

 to lodge in the cracks of the trunk and large branches ; but 

 it generally looks out for a southern and avoids a northern 

 .aspect. It is not active, walks very little, and its dissemin- 

 ation from place to place can only be explained by the 

 facility with which so small an insect can be transported by 

 the wind, its lightness being still increased by the down 

 which covers it." 



"The Mysoxyli Mali renders the wood knotty, dry, 

 hard, brittle, and brings on rapidly all the symptoms which 

 characterize old age and decay in trees attacked." 



