February, '15] DISCUSSION: preventing injury by peach borer 105 



problem. In order to prevent injury from this insect, it is necessary 

 to prevent the larvae from reaching the underground portion of the 

 tree. This is easily accomplished by encircling the trunk at the ground 

 with a flexible soil-covering mat which must be impenetrable to borers 

 and impenetrably sealed to the tree. 



Last March I began to devise a protector that would fulfill the re- 

 quirements and finally adopted a tarred felt mat, 16 inches in diameter, 

 with a hole in the center to conform to the diameter of the tree and a 

 slit from the hole to the outer edge. The soil is first mounded some- 

 what around the tree and the protector placed over this mound. The 

 slit edges are lapped and glued together with a viscous material and 

 the protector is sealed to the tree with the same material, completely 

 filling all openings, so that it is impossible for the borers to reach the 

 soil without crawling away from the tree beyond the outer edge of the 

 protector. The viscous material for effecting an absolute sealing to 

 the tree is an essential feature of the protector. I tried several sub- 

 stances and found the best to be a sticky preparation consisting, for 

 the most part, of a residuum from the partial distillation of coal tar. 



Beginning on June 9, 1914, I applied protectors to 250 peach trees 

 in my orchard at Hancock, Md., and the results were perfect except 

 where the mat was not properly sealed to the tree. An examination 

 on October 2 showed that of 40 Belle trees provided with protectors, 

 28 were entirely free from borers, 7 had one each, 4 had two each and 

 1 had sixteen. The protectors had broken loose from the trees where 

 a poor paste was used and this accounts for the successful entrance of 

 the borers in these trees. It also emphasizes the necessity of main- 

 taining an absolute seal between the protector and the tree. An aver- 

 age of 12 borers per tree was found in 15 unprotected trees nearby. 



In a block of three-year-old Elbertas 20 treated trees were examined 

 and 16 of them found free from larvae. The protectors had partly 

 cracked loose from the other four trees, admitting from 1 to 5 borers. 

 Twenty untreated trees in an adjacent row were examined and found 

 to be nearly ruined by borers. There was an average of 28 borers per 

 tree and 5 trees averaged over 40 per tree. This gave the protectors 

 about as severe a test as they could be subjected to. 



Now in justice to myself and others I should admit that, on Septem- 

 ber 30, I applied for a patent on this method of protecting trees against 

 borers. 



Mr. T. J. Headlee: Mr. Blakeslee, what did you use for sealing 

 the protector? 



Mr. E. B. Blakeslee: I used 'Hanglefoot," it was the best thing 

 I could find. I find the tanglefoot seems to retain efficiency under 

 ordinary conditions. It doesn't dry out. 



