84 FIELD NOTE? ON APPLE CULTURE. 



into a compact and shining dark beetle, as represented in 

 figure 17. These beetles have a coppery lustre under- 

 neath, and I have heard them called " copper bottoms." 

 They vary in size. They are commonly about three- 

 fourths of an inch long. In the Middle and Western 

 States this insect is abundant. 



Dr. Asa Fitch first described the Flat-headed Borer in 

 1856 as attacking apple trees. Its appearance in apple 

 trees was at that time so recent that he could not obtain 

 much information concerning it. The insect had long 

 been known as attacking oaks, and it was probably the 

 destruction of these timber trees which caused it to 

 attack the apple tree. As late as Flint's edition of Harris' 

 Injurious Insects (1862) it was not known to attack apple 

 trees in Massachusetts, although it was not uncommon 

 on oaks, and it had been found "upon and under the 

 bark of peach trees." 



PREVENTIVES. 



The soap wash recommended for the Round-headed 

 Borer is equally effective here. 



I believe that the best preventives of the attacks of the 

 Flat-headed Borer are tidiness about the orchard and 

 good cultivation. I have observed that the borer nearly 

 always attacks neglected ti-ecs. Those which have stood 

 in grass for some years, and which have not been prop- 

 erly pruned, are especially liable to attack. A smooth, 

 clean, tidy bark is commonly an indication of thriftiness, 

 and borers do not attack it. If the trunk of the tree 

 crooks abruptly to the northward, the sun beats upon 

 :he more exposed point and produces an enfeebled condi- 



