234 



PEACH-TREE. 



numerous enemies. Of these, the acarus, chermes^ aphu 

 and thripsj (an insect hardly perceptible to the naked eye,) 

 are the most common, and are best expelled by water and 

 tobacco smoke. It is, however, the curcalio, or grub, (as 

 we call it,) that may, from its pre-eminence in mischief, be 

 regarded as the destroyer of the peach. Its attacks, ordi- 

 narily, begin in the stem, near the surface of the earth ; 

 and, if not arrested, will soon terminate in the roots, where 

 it riots on the. gum exuding from the wounds it inflicts. 

 The remedies resorted to in this case are, first, the appli- 

 cation of boiling water to the roots ; second, a similar ap- 

 plication of unslaked lime, in the proportion of one quart 

 to a tree ; third, removing the surface earth, and substitut- 

 ing for it tanners' bark ; fourth, removing the earth, as in 

 the preceding case, in the month of November, and expos- 

 ing the roots to the action of frost during the winter ; and, 

 fifth, encircling the lower part of the stem with straw, and 

 thus compelling the insect to begin his attack so far from 

 the ground, that he wdll be unable to avail himself of its 

 shelter before the coming on of winter. 



" The diseases of the peach-tree are as numerous, and 

 often as fatal, as the depredators just mentioned ; and are 

 known to horticulturists under the names of the honey-dew, 

 mildew, canker, spots, &c. The first of these yields to the 

 flour of sulphur, sprinkled over the tree ; but the most ef- 

 ficient cure for all of them is the removal of the soil about 

 their roots." — Armstrong's Treatise on Gardening, 



The following is from the Domestic Encyclopedia, last 

 Philadelphia edition : — 



" Peach-trees are liable to three casualties : 



" 1. The fly that deposits eggs near the root, and there 

 forms a Vv orm. 



" 2. The bursting of the bark by severe frosts in v/et 

 winters. 



" 3. The splitting of the limbs at the fork of the tree. 



" The fly, which is blue, (but not a wasp,) begins its at- 

 tacks about the middle of July, and continues its depreda- 

 tions until the middle of September. It wounds the tender 

 part of the bark, and generally at the surface of the ground, 

 there depositing its eggs, which hatch into worms, that 

 prey upon the mucilage and tender part of the bark, until 

 the communication between the root and the branches is 

 cut ofl*, causing the death of the tree. To guard against 

 this, raise a little hillock in the month of June, round tht 



