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received proper cultivation. Few person^ are a'vare to 

 what an alaiming extent this insect is infesting the nrclinrds 

 in vaiious localities. A tree becomes unhealthy, and 

 eventually dwindles and dies, (tften without the owner 

 having the least suspicion of the true cause — the gnawing 

 worm within. 



The female deposits her egg- dui'ing the month of June, 

 mo; tly at the foot of the tree; anrl the young hatch and 

 commence boring into the baik a fortnight afterwards. 

 They differ in no respect from the full-grown .specimen, 

 except in their minute siz'^ ; and they invariably live for 

 the first 3'ear on the sapwood and inner bark, leaving 

 shallow flat cavities, which they fill with their sawdust-like 

 castings. Although the holes are verv small, and are fre- 

 quently filled up yet the presence of the.se worms can be 

 generally detected, especially in .>oung trees, froui the bark 

 under wliich they live being darkened and sufficiently dry 

 and dead to contract and form cracks. During the winter 

 it remains inactive, but begins its work again in the spring. 

 On the approach of the second winter it is about half-grown, 

 and still living on the sapwood, and it is at this time that 

 they do most harm, for if there are five or six in a single 

 tree they ahnost gi?dle it. During the next summer it cuts 

 into the solid wood, and before it has finished its larval state 

 it invariably extciK^s its passage to the bark, sora<!times 

 cutting entirely through a tree to the opposite side from 

 which it comn^enced. It then stuffs the upper end of its 

 passage with sawdust-like powder, and the lower part with 

 curly fibres of wood, after which it rests from its labors. It 

 remains inactive in the larval state until the following 

 spring, when it casts off its skin and becomes a pupa. In 

 three weeks it appears as a beetle ; and in a fortnight more 

 it cuts its way through the sawdust-likecastings, and issues 

 from the tree through a perfectly round hole, having been 

 in the tree a few days less than three years. 



From this it is apparent that plugging the hole to keep 

 it in is on a par with locking the stable door after the steed 

 is stolen. The round holes are infallible pioof that the 

 intruder has left, v»'hile the plugging of any other hole 

 where the castings were seen will not affect him in the 

 least. - . 



Prof. Saunders, in liis " Insects Injurious to Fruits," 

 strongly recommends alkaline washes as a preventative. 

 Keep the base of every tree free from weeds and trash, and 

 apply a strong solution of soft soap, in which is mixed a 



