84 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE. 
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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 tle 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 trees. Those which have stood 
in grass for some years, and which have not been prop- 
erly pruned, are especially able to attack. A smooth, 
clean, tidy bark is commonly an indication of thriftiness, 
and borers do not attuck it. If the trunk of the tree 
crooks abruptly to the northward, the sun beats upon 
the more exposed point and produces an enfeebled condi- 
