64 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



Before I wrote the above account, Dr. FitcVi liml alsc) puhlislicd a liricf 

 notice of the opcMiitions of this beetle, in liis excellent lit'portu on No.riottif 

 Jngt'clfi, volume II., sectinn 12. lie says that if "occurs from Pennsylvania 

 to Mississi|)pi, but has never been met witii as yet in New York or New 

 England." To distinguish it from the other two borers which infest the 

 apple-tree — two-striped Sapo'cfa, common both east and west, and the apple 

 buprestis ( Chnjsvliolhris femorala, j which is peculiar to the west — I have 

 pro|M.)scd lor this insect the English name of the "Apple-twig Hurrr." 



Mr. Everett, being probably not familiar with the technical language 

 used by entomologists, calls his little enemy a "black fly." It is, how- 

 ever, not a lly, but a true beetle, belonging to the great order ColcoiAera, 

 or yiielly-backs, to which appertain the well-known horn-bugs, lightning- 

 bugs, cucumber-bugs, May-bugs, and rose-bugs, besides the two abovt;- 

 mentioned borers of the apple-tree. Moreover, although it is black under- 

 neath, its upper surface is not black, but a very dark chestnut brown. I 

 have nev(;r seen it so abundant as to do any material damage to apple 

 trees. Indeed, 1 question if its presence in small numbers is not rather 

 a benefit to the tree than otherwise, by acting in the numner of a summer 

 pruning. 



Blight on Pear Trees. 



Mr. E. G. Hunt writes from Emporia, Kansas, in relation to a discussion 

 in the Club upon blight on pear trees, as follows: " Some years since, where 

 I was raised in the central part of the State of North Carolina, the pear 

 tree was seriously ail'ected with the blight; my father's trees were very 

 much ii jurcd. A friend informed him that if he would bore a hole with a 

 lar'-e gindet into the body of the tree some inches, and till nearly full of 

 roll sulphur, and plug up close, cutting oil" the plug even with the bark, so 

 that it could grow over it, that a cure could be elfected. My father adop- 

 ted the plan, and the blight disappeared." 



Dr. Trimble. — The pear tree blight is not known in New Jerj^ey, but I 

 hope we shall frown down all attempts to destroy the blight by boring a 

 hole in the tree and filling it with sulphur, or driving a nail into the tree. 

 These foolish notions should not be for one moment tolerated. 



Mr. Solon Robinson. — I do not think that it is the business of this Club 

 to ridicule this or any other statement of a iact which may be made. This 

 gentleman says distinctly that the pear trees were iliscased, that a cer- 

 tain remedy was applied, and the disease disappeared. Now, who knows 

 wlu'ther it was cured by the sulphur or not ? It may appear to us very 

 ridicnhms that disease should be cured by hom<eopathic do.ses, but, ridicu- 

 lous as it is, it is nevertheless true. 



Dr. Ward. — The form of blight that has alTected the orchards in North- 

 ern and Western New York I have never seen in New Jersey, and 1 have 

 seen thousands of trees. The only way to test this moile <ii" cure by the 

 use t)f sulphur, is by actual experiment. We know that sidphur is used in 

 graperies with great success. AVe do know that the introdnetioii -.1' poison 

 into the animal syste-m in the minutest (piantity j)ossible to conceive, as 

 in the case of the; bite of a snake or rabid dog, or sting of a bee, produces 

 the most painful effect. Wc also know that the animal and vegetable 



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