88 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Pope. I have never found more than two. Aud let me say that 

 iu some sections of this State the borers are never found. 



Prof. Harvey. Tt is an insect that infests the round wood in our 

 swamps and the sugar pear ; aud these belong to the rose family, the 

 same famil}' to which the apple tree belongs. It also affects pluin aud 

 pear trees ; it seems to affect the woody tissue of plants belonging to the 

 rose family. 



In regard to the other stages in the life historv of this insect, it lays 

 its eggs usually near the base of the tree, down close to the ground, aud 

 laj'S them one, or sometimes two, in a place. Mr. Pope, by his study of 

 these insects the last year or two in his orchard, is of the opinion that 

 the iusect bores a little into the bark and lays its eggs. The eggs 

 very soon hatch, aud the first year the worms work just beneath 

 the bark iu the sap wood. The next year they work more ex- 

 tensively into the sap wood, doing more damage. Then the third 

 year they bore deep into the wood and upward and outward to the bark. 

 In the fall they go back into the burrow, aud then in the spring change 

 into this resting stage and I'emain in that a short time, a few weeks, aud 

 then the beetle comes out. They bore out the bark so that just a thin 

 layer of the bark is all that is left, and this beetle gnaws that out a little 

 bit and escapes. Then the females lay their eggs again. 



Now, then, let us see in what way we can cope with these insects. By 

 examining the trees at the season when the eggs are laid, by learning 

 where these eggs can be found about the base of trees, very soon 

 a man will become so experienced that he cau destroy them with a 

 penknife without doiug any hai-m to the tree. If they escape you the first 

 season, then you will find that they throw out sawdust-like chippiugs from 

 the mouth of the burrow and you cau locate them by that. If you get 

 them the second 3'ear you will not have to dig very deep, but if you wait 

 until the close of the second year and then attempt to take them out you 

 will have to tear the wood of the tree quite a good deal to pieces. The 

 time to cope with this insect would be in the ego; form. The eggs are 

 near the surface and the insect has done no damage; and if you cau get 

 them at that time, by a close, careful watchfulness, you will be saved 

 much trouble. I will ask Mr. Pope to tell you just how he manages them. 

 Mr. Pope. The egg is laid, generally, through the month of July, or 

 the last of June. Prof. Harvey tells you that the best time to cope with 

 the insect is iu the egg stage, but a person has got to be considerably 

 experienced to be able to find that little egg^ especiallj'^ if the bark is 

 roughened a little. All the mark you will find on the tree is just a little 

 slit iu the bark, as if j-ou should run the point of a penkuife iu a quarter 

 of an inch. I think we must depend more on taking this just after it has 

 hatched, in the worm stage, before it has actually done any damage, but 

 just as it begins to throw out a thread of brown chippiugs. In some 

 cases it will be only a little moisture at first, a little thread forced out 

 through a tiny hole. They may have got just through the bark to the 



