64 



THE APPLE. 



form early in June — flying in the night only, from tree to tree, after its 

 food, and finally depositing its eggs, during this and the next month, in 

 the collar of the tree. 



The most efiectual mode of destroying the borer is by picking it out 

 with the point of a knife, or, when it cannot thus be reached, killing it 

 by thrusting a flexible wire as far as possible into its hole. Dr. Harris 

 recommends placing a bit of camphor in the mouth of the aperture and 

 plugging the hole with soft wood. But it is always better to prevent 

 the deposit of the egg, by placing about the trunk, early in the spring, a 

 small mound of ashes or lime ; or by drawing away the soil an inch or 

 two deep at the base of the tree and wrapping with coarse hardware 

 paper, tying it, and then replacing the earth ; and where orchards have 

 already become greatly infested with this insect, the beetles may be de- 

 stroyed by thousands in June, by building small bonfires of shavings in 

 various parts of the orchard. The attacks of the borer on nursery trees 

 may in a great measure be prevented by washing the stems in May, quite 

 down into the ground, with a solution of two pounds of potash in eight 

 quarts of water. 



The Caterpillar is a great pestilence in the Apple orchard. The 

 species which is most troublesome to our friiit-trees ( Clisiocampa ameri- 

 cand) is bred by a sort of lackey moth, difi'erent from that most trouble- 

 some in Europe, but its habits as a caterpillar are quite as annoying to 

 the orchardist. The moth of our common caterpillar is a reddish brown 

 insect, whose expanded wings measure about an inch and a half. These 

 moths appear in great abundance in midsummer, fiying only at night, and 

 often buzzing about the candles of our houses. In laying their eggs 

 they choose principally the Apple or Cherry, and they deposit thousands 

 of small eggs about the forks and extremities of the young branches. 

 The next season, about the middle of May, these eggs begin to hatch, and 

 the young caterpillars in myriads come forth, weaving their nests or 

 tents in the fork of the branches. If they are allowed by the careless 

 cultivator to go on and multiply, as they soon do incredibly fast, they 

 will in a few seasons, sometimes in a single year, increase to such an ex- 

 tent as almost to cover the branches. In this caterpillar state they live 

 six or seven weeks, feeding most ferociously upon the leaves, and often 

 stripping whole trees of their foliage. Their effect upon the tree at this 

 period of the season, when the leaves are most important to the health 

 of the tree and the growth of the fruit, is most deplorable. The crop is 

 stunted, the health of the tree enfeebled, and, if they are allowed to re- 

 main unmolested for several seasons, they will often destroy its life, or 

 render it exceedingly decrepid and feeble. 



To destroy the caterpillar various modes are adopted. One of the 

 most efiectual is to touch the nest with a sponge, attached to the end 

 of a pole, and dipped in strong spirits of ammonia or naphtha from coal- 

 oil refinings ; the sponge should be turned slowly round in the nests, 

 and every insect coming in contact will be instantly killed. This should 

 be done early in the season. Or they may be brought down and 

 destroyed with a round brush fixed to the end of a pole, and worked 

 about in the nests. On small trees they may be stripped off" with the 

 hand, and crushed under the foot ; and by this plain and simple mode, 

 begun in time, with the aid of a ladder, they may in a large orchard be 

 most efi'ectually kept under by a few moments' daily labor of a single 

 man. As they do not leave their nests until nine in the morning, the 



