596 
THE PEACH. 
Training the peach tree against walls or espaliers is but little 
practised in this country, except in the neighbourhood of Boston. 
Espalier tiaining, on a small scale, is however highly worthy of 
thcr attention of persons desiring this fruit in the colder parts of 
the country, where it does not succeed well as a standard. 
Everywhere in New-England excellent crops may be pro- 
duced in this way. Full directions for training the peach, with 
illustrations, are given in page 38. 
Insects and Diseases. For a considerable time after the 
peach was introduced into America, it was grown everywhere 
south of the 40° of latitude, we may say literally without cul- 
tivation . It was only necessary to plant a stone in order to 
obtain, in a few years, and for a long time, an abundance of 
fruit. Very frequently these chance seedlings were of excellent 
quality, and the finer grafted varieties were equally luxuriant. In 
our new western lands this is now true, except where the disease 
is carried from the east. But in the older Atlantic states, two 
maladies have appeared within the last twenty years, which, 
beacuse they are little understood, have rendered this fine fruit 
tree comparatively short-lived, and of little value. These are 
the Peach-borer , and the Yellows. 
The Peach-borer, or Peach-worm ( YEgeria exitiosa , Say), 
does great mischief to this tree by girdling and devouring the 
whole circle of bark just below the surface of the ground, when 
it soon languishes and dies. 
The insect in its perfect state is a slender, dark-blue, four- 
winged moth, somewhat like a wasp. It commences depositing 
its eggs in the soft and tender bark at the base of the trunk, 
usually about the last of June, but at different times, from June 
to October. The egg hatches and becomes a small white borer 
or grub, which eventually grows to three-fourths of an inch 
long, penetrates and devours the bark and sap wood, and, after 
passing the winter in the tree, it enfolds itself in a cocoon under 
or upon the bark, and emerges again in a perfect or winged 
form in June, and commences depositing its eggs for another 
generation. 
It is not difficult to rid our trees of this enemy. In fact, 
nothing is easier to him who is willing to devote a few moments 
every season to each tree. The eggs which produce the borer, 
it will be recollected, are deposited in the soft portion of bark 
just at the surface of the earth. Experience has conclusively 
its trunk, taken at some distance from the ground, is two feet and a half. 
It is known to 5e, actually , of more than 93 years' growth , and is believed to 
be more than 100 years old. It is still in perfect health and vigour. It 
is growing in strong soil, but it has been regularly subjected to a uni- 
form and severe system of pruning, equivalent to our shortening-in mode. 
Where can any peach tree, of half this age, be found in the United States 
naturally a much more favourable climate for it than that of France ? 
