116 PEACH. ROOT THE BORER. REMEDIES. 



The female presents the following vaeieties: 



a. A slender transverse black line in the middle of the orange band tipon the suture 

 between the fourth and fifth segments of the abdomen. Common. 



b. The o Aer edge of the hind wings with a slender straw yellow stripe its whole 

 length. 



c. No vestiges of a straw colored stripe on the outer edge of the hind wings.', 



d. The space between the two inner veins of the hind wings nearly or quite covered 

 with blue-black scales, forming a stripe which divides the transparent disk into two 

 parts. Quite common. 



Various remedies have been proposed for protecting the peach 

 trees from this pernicious insect, by the numerous writers who 

 have treated upon this subject in our agricultural and horticul- 

 tural publications, such as raising a mound of earth around the 

 tree and removing "it during the winter season; pouring boiling 

 water around the root; placing around it a bed of cinder.s, of 

 ashes, of lime, &c.; surrounding it with a collar of mortar; en- 

 veloping the root and base of the trunk in matting or in paper. 

 There is much testimony showing that several of these measures 

 are, singly, a sufficient safeguard. Recently an article has been 

 going the rounds of the papers, stating that tanzy set out around 

 peach and other fruit trees would protect them against this and 

 other insects. Attention was said to be dliected to this remedy 

 from the fact of a large peach tree, upwards of forty years old, 

 being noticed as having a bed of tanzy growing around its trunk, 

 and the account states that upon setting out this herb around 

 several trees it grew thriftily, and it appeared that whilst sound 

 trees were preserved by it, unsound ones were renovated. Al- 

 though some editors have expressed themselves as skeptical with 

 regard to the efficacy of this measure, I am inclined to think it 

 merits a trial. That this herb is repulsive to insects generally I 

 Infer from the fact, that on sweeping it for injects only a very few 

 can be obtained, when a similarly dense growth of other weeds is 

 eertain of yielding to the collector quite a variety. This at least 

 has been my own experience. One of my cor:espondents, how- 

 ever, thinks he has captured insects as abundantly from this as 

 from other weeds. 



The hollow cavity extending down the side of the root of the 

 peach tree, which is formed by the peath borer, does not become 



