292 



THE POMOLOGIST AND GARDENER. 



1871 



I8 it Uie Twig Borer ? 



Ed. Pomologist and Garlener:— I send this 

 mail — incased in a cylinder of wood — specimens 

 of a " m-itter " that is making sad havoc with apple 

 trees at this late season. They attack them by bor- 

 ing into the heart and following it up or down 

 sometimes for several inches. They have every 

 appearance of the limb borer {Bostrichvs Ucandii- 

 tus) but I have never learned of them doing dam- 

 age so late in the season. They did not make their 

 appearance till quite recently and are thicker now 

 than ever ; any information, or especially any 

 remedy, will be thankfully received through your 

 columns or otherwise. 



A. W. Howard. 

 Tankton, Dakota Ter. 



Bemakks. — BosTBicHtrs BicAND ATus, of Say, — The 

 Common Twig Borer. — This Beetle is remarkable 

 for boring green wood in its perfect state, and not 

 in the larva; state. Almost every orchardist, par- 

 ticularly in the valley between the Alleghany and 

 and Rocky Mountains, is acquainted with the 

 results produced by the Twig Borer, done in the 

 monthsof May and June generally, in the apple twigs 

 about the size of a common goose quill. All of the 

 borers, we believe, that infest trees or shrubs, in 

 the larvffi state, bore with their heads upwards ; 

 this one however, in the jjerfect state bores usually 

 head downwards, and it is generally considered 

 that it does not do this kind of labor for the pur- 

 pose of propogating its species, but for food and 

 protection. They have been found in the sap- 

 wood of forest trees in mid-winter "alive and well," 

 in their perfect beetle state. When thus found, 

 they are generally in pairs — a male and a female. 

 It is thought by some naturalists that the insect 

 thus passes the winter, but we have never before 

 heard of them attacking the bodies of apple trees, 

 but at this we do not marvel, especially if the trees 

 are one, two or three years old nursery stock. 



1..,^ Their mode of breeding is yet 



\\»/y iV^ T to be discovered, consequently no 

 j)^Yn / \\ directions can be given to pre- 

 A I tv \^-X ■^^'^°' that mode of spreading. 

 ' Vl/\ The only means we know of to 



check them is to cut off and burn 

 all wood they are known to infest, which may be 

 readily distinguished by the holes they make 

 where they enter. In small twigs of the apple-tree 

 and the grapevine, we know they enter at the axil of 

 a bud and bore downward one or two inches. This 

 insect is not found in the New England States, or 

 New York, but exists in all the Western States. 

 The accompanying engraving gives a back view of 

 the female, and a side view of the male, the lines on 

 the left and right respectively showing the nat- 

 ural length of the insects. Besides being the 

 smallest, the male has two hooks or small horns on 

 each side of its tail. Color brown. 



(isalkmotis. 



Burying Trees— Not Heeling; In. 



Now is the time for taking up and burying trees 

 for spring planting. There arc so many advantages 

 gained in doing this, it seems strange to us that so 

 few obtain their trees from the nursery in the fall 

 instead of putting it off till spring. These advan- 

 tages have been so often enumerated that we will 

 not repeat them at this time. We have practiced 

 burying decidious trees — both forest and fruit — for 

 many years. If the work be done right, at the right 

 time, and in the right kind of soil, results will be 

 uniformly satisfactory. Heeling in, which strictly 

 means to bury the roots and leave the tops wholly 

 exposed to sun and wind , is often attended with in- 

 jury and loss of many tops. Bury root and branch 

 in a sloping position, with the roots from one to 

 two and a half feet deep, with a slight mound of 

 earth raised over them, and the tops just covered 

 with the dryer soil. Throw a few old boards or 

 straw over the whole pile after the ground is fro- 

 zen, to prevent alternate freezing and thawing. 

 Let the place of burial be such that water will not 

 accumulate around it. Trees thus protected from 

 the severity of our Western winters, when taken 

 from their winter quarters and properly planted 

 out, will start out more freely, and make more vig- 

 orous growth than if left standing in the nursery 

 and removed in the spring. 



Polk Connty Fruit and Horace Greeley. 



At the New Jersey State Fair which closed on 

 the 23d of September, Mr. Mark Miller of this city, 

 was awarded the Silver Medal for samples of fruit 

 exhibited by him. It will be remembered that Ho- 

 race Greeley, in his speech delivered at the late 

 District Fair here, intimated that if the Pomolog- 

 ical Exhibition lately held at Richmond, Va., had 

 been held elsewhere, Iowa would not have carried 

 off the first prize. We wonder if it would have 

 made any difference in Horace's opinion if it had 

 been held in New Jersey ? The New Jersey peo- 

 ple seem to think as much of our fruit as the Vir- 

 ginians did, Horace Greeley to the contrary not- 

 withstanding. In the report of their State Fair, by 

 the Newark Daily Advertiser, we find the following 

 mention of Mark Miller's fruit : 



" In fruit, Mr. Mark Miller, of Des Moines, Iowa, 

 has taken a Silver Medal for his Magnificent speci- 

 mens of Iowa fruit, which, {in the opinion of the 

 judges and Mr. T. P. Quinn, the Superintendent of 

 this department, could not be excelled." 



Now It may be a question whether " the judges 



