No. 145.] 
725 
also, especially if a half pint of it could be injected into each of 
the holes which are frequently made by four or five worms in one 
young tree. But as these holes are commonly already stuffed 
full of sawdust-like matter and woody fibres, we see not how 
anything can possibly be injected until these are removed. And 
this solution, we are further told, must be injected “ into the hole 
where the borer has entered.” Now this hole is at first no larger 
than a pin, and often becomes wholly closed up in the course of 
a few weeks, so that, as Hood says, “ there a’n’t no Billy there” 
—the worm having opened another orifice through which to eject 
its castings. Yet the terms of the prescription are explicit and 
peremptory. Through the hole where the worm has entered the 
solution “ must be” injected. 
In the treatment of the Apple-tree borer, to use a medical term, 
there are two “ indications.” The first is, to protect the tree 
from attackj the second, to destroy the worm. And as we have 
simple, direct, and effectual modes for accomplishing both these 
purposes, there is no occasion for dwelling upon those which are 
of doubtful efficacy or inconvenient to be applied. 
Experiments amply show that alkaline preparations of suitable 
strength are most repulsive, nay, directly poisonous to most in¬ 
sects and their larvae, whilst upon vegetation they have an oppo- 
, site effect, promoting the health and accelerating the growth of 
plants. Of these preparations, one of the least expensive, one 
which is everywhere at hand, and of suitable strength for being 
applied freely to the outer bark of trees without danger of eroding 
or otherwise injuring its texture, is common soft soap. Many 
citizens from all parts of our State, who were present at the last 
annual meeting of the State Agricultural Society, will recollect 
the high encomiums passed upon this article, by the Hon. A. B. 
Dickinson, and his statement that a handful of it placed in the 
axils of the lower limbs was a sovereign prophylactic, repelling all 
insects from the tree. Although we cannot deem the application 
of this substance in this simple manner such a panacea as was in¬ 
timated—indeed, we are confident it could have no effect to pre¬ 
vent a moth or a plant-louse from alighting and depositing its 
eggs upon the distant leaves and twigs—yet against all those in- 
