1896.] 



ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 



109 



can be employed. If this is carefully applied it will last an entire season, 

 and if applied on infested trees below the surface so as to cover the points 

 beneath which the borers are at work, or where pupae are formed, it may, 

 under favorable circumstances, prevent the issuance of the adults. 



Briefly re-stated, the best method of dealing with this insect is to pre- 

 vent its entrance into the tree by means of a mechanical covering of any 

 kind. The covering should be put on early in May; it must be maintained 

 in good condition throughout July. 



Next after the borer the most important insects troubling peach trees 

 are plant lice, and in particular that species which has been described as 

 Aphis persiccs-niger. This insect lives during a large portion of the year 

 on the roots of the trees, but very often in the Spring, and sometimes in 

 the Fall, they may also be found in considerable numbers on the branches. 

 If they attack the branches in any numbers they usually gather near the 

 tips on the tender shoots with the result that these curl, the leaves shrivel 



and the spur is aborted. Of course no fruit matures on a shoot of that 

 kind nor on the twig from which it starts. On the roots the lice exhaust 

 the vitality of the tree and the latter turns yellow, becomes feeble and 

 eventually dies. Usually, it is then said, the tree had the "yellows." 

 This kind of trouble is more often found in light 'soils and is generally 

 more harmful where land is naturally poor. If, early in the season, black 

 plant-lice are noticed on the young shoots of the trees, and later the trees 

 are noticed as being weakly, an attack of root-lice may be suspected. 



The remedial measures to be adopted are of two kinds. Where the 

 insects are noticed upon the shoots, fish-oil soap, used at the rate of one 

 pound in six gallons of water and two ounces of carbolic acid added, 

 will usually prove satisfactory. In connection with this treatment a very 

 heavy top dressing of kainit should be made on the surface of the soil at 

 a time when it will wash into the ground readily. In other words, just 



