68 



THE GAKDENER'S ASSISTANT. 



furnished at the sides and tail-end with cottony 

 hairs of increasing length. Winged forms, both 

 males and egg-laying females, appear in July 

 and August, but are more plentiful onwards to 



Fig. 8-2.— American Blight {Schizoneura lanigera). 



October. The insect lives in colonies in the 

 crevices of the bark and on the roots of Apple- 

 trees, from whence it spreads to the young wood 

 in summer, and sucking the juices with its 

 pointed beak, causes the shoots to split open 

 and to form cankerous-looking wounds, in which 

 it lodges and increases the injury from year to 

 year. 



Remedies. — Avoid crowding the trees, and 

 prune or thin them, preferably in autumn, when 

 the fruit has been gathered, to promote clean, 

 healthy growth. Clear away dead bark, moss, 

 lichens, and whatever would afford shelter for 

 the insects, and burn them, The first raid 

 against the insects should be made in winter. 

 The affected parts should be well rubbed with 

 a half-worn brush, just kept moist with paraffin 

 or some of its preparations, methylated spirits, 

 fir-tree oil, Gishurst compound, or soft soap and 

 sulphur. In the latter case the proportions are 

 1 lb. of soft soap to h lb. of flour of sulphur in 

 7 gallons of water. A wash may be made by 

 pouring 4: to 6 gallons of boiling water on 1 lb 

 of tobacco; after the mixture is cool, add 1 lb. 

 of soft soap, and forcibly syringe the trees with 

 it. Soap-suds, at the rate of 5 lbs. of soap to 

 20 up to 40 gallons of water, make another 

 good wash. Syringe the trees with clean water 

 next day. To clear the roots of American 



Blight, remove the upper 6 inches or 8 inches 

 of soil, well wash or scrub the larger roots with 

 strong soap-suds, using plenty of the liquid to 

 saturate the surrounding soil. Cover up the 

 roots with fresh material taken from the middle 

 of the rows. 



Apple Mussel Scale (Mytilaspis pomorwm), 

 — The mussel-shaped scale is about ^ inch long, 

 pale-brown or gray, and, when numerous, is 

 highly injurious to the health of the tree. The 

 female insect under it has six legs, two antennae, 

 and two tail-like filaments at the end. The 

 male scale is smaller, oblong, tapering to the 

 head, but seldom seen. It gives rise to a minute 

 fly with two long, delicate wings. The eggs 

 are hatched about the end of May or the be- 

 ginning of June, and the larva remains active 

 only for a few days. It then settles down, 

 inserts its beak in the bark, sucking the juices, 

 and remains stationary for the rest of its life. 

 The scale gradually forms over it, and by the 

 middle of August the female louse is simply a 

 bag of eggs, which are laid under the scale and 

 remain there till spring, 



Remedies. — The bark of the trunk and branches 

 of the tree should be scraped in winter without 

 injuring it, and then washed with some of the 

 alkaline washes, such as concentrated lye of wood 

 ashes or coarse potash, put on with a brush. A 

 gallon of gas- water to 10 or 12 of water makes 

 another suitable wash. The larvae when newly 

 hatched out are easily killed. With that object 



Fig. 83.— Apple Mussel Scale {Mytilaspis x>omorum). 



in view, the trunk and branches of the trees 

 affected may be brushed over at intervals of 

 eight days about hatching - time with washes, 

 consisting of a gill of kerosene in 5 gallons of 

 water ; of \ lb. of soft soap in a gallon of water ; 

 of 3 to 6 table-spoonfuls of phenyle to 4 gallons 

 of water; or with soft soap reduced to the con- 

 dition of thin paint, with a strong solution of 

 washing-soda added to it. 



Mealy-bug (Dadylojrius adonidum). — When 



