ENEMIES OF THE APPLE TKEE. 



137 



Repeat the operation a week or fortnight afterwards, and whenever the 

 pest reappears. Do not forget that it is wise to cut off and burn any 

 young branches that are badly attacked. 



Large Apple trees should be submitted to a liming at the roots. As 

 soon as the leaves have fallen, remove the earth around the bole and 

 surface roots and replace it with lime or soot. The colonies of the pest 

 will then not be able to hibernate. 



Green oe Black Aphis. — Several kinds of aphis attack the young 

 shoots while they are still in a soft state and hinder the flow of the sap. 

 To remove these, either crush them with the hand, or sprinkle them with 

 nicotine or pyrethrum powder, or syringe them with a solution of soft 

 soap, and then wash them with ordinary water. Young nursery trees 

 being particularly liable to these attacks, it is well to thoroughly syringe 

 and moisten with water any buds or leafed branches that may be either 

 strongly or even only moderately attacked, and to repeat it if necessary. 



Hyponomeuta Padellics (the Small Ermine Moth). — To destroy this 

 insect, which appears to be becoming commoner every year, the web 

 containing a brood of caterpillars, which is not unlike a mass of cobwebs, 

 should be either crushed or burnt. Bombyx dispar (the Gipsy Moth) 

 may be destroyed by scraping off and burning the patches of eggs which 

 resemble small patches of amadou. They are laid on the shoots and 

 branches in places where they will be sheltered from the rain. Any shoots 

 which show by their leaves curling up and withering that they are attacked 

 by the caterpillars of Bombyx chrysorrliea (the Brown-tailed Moth) should 

 be cut off, placed in a basket and burnt, and shoots encircled by the rows 

 of eggs laid by Bombyx neustria (the Lackey Moth) should be treated in 

 the same manner. 



Cockchafers and their Larvae. — The vigorous killing of cock- 

 chafers in all places is the first stage of the struggle. 



The preliminary cultivation of the soil of the nursery or orchard, care- 

 fully carried out with a fork, will assist in the destruction of the larvae 

 in their underground haunts. Strawberry plants or salad plants planted 

 here and there in the infested field attract the grubs. As soon as a plant 

 fades, dig it up with a spade, which will remove it from the soil, with the 

 enemy still at its roots. This method is often necessary where the pips 

 of Apples or Pears have been sown in the nursery. 



The young seed-beds are equally subject to the attacks of the Court ilicrc 

 or 'Mole-Cricket.' Follow its burrow with a finger; when you have 

 traced the direction of its nest, give it, through a funnel, a few drops of 

 oil mixed with a pint of water. The insect will come out of its hiding- 

 place and die in the open air. 



Various weevils belonging to the following genera, Anthonomus, Apion, 

 Bhyuchites, &c, form a group of small beetles which are very difficult to 

 capture. 



Here, again, the careful dressing of the tree will help much to destroy 

 them. The different transformations undergone by these insects being 

 hindered, they will not be able to stand against the war waged against 

 them in the hiding-places where they take refuge. Remove the dead 

 bark from the tree, sulphur the stems and branches, cleanse not only the 

 infested Apple tree itself, but its surrounding neighbours, no matter what 



