3. THE PEACH. 
AFFECTING THE ROOT. 
Cankering and destroying the bark of the root and causing the gum to exude 
profusely'j a white cylindrical fourteen-jointed worm, with six true legsand 
ten pro-legs. 
The Peach-tree Borer. -®gena exiliosa, Say. 
With all the care and attention which can be bestowed upon 
the Peach tree, it is much more short lived at the present day than 
when the country was newer. What medical men would term a 
change of “diathesis ” appears to have taken place; some altera¬ 
tion in the soil or climate has occurred, whereby this valuable 
fruit tree cannot be grown so readily and successfully as formerly. 
Hon. John A. King informs me, that when the property which he 
now occupies at Jamaica, on Long Island, was purchased by his 
father, in the year 1816, there were growing contiguous to the 
farm mansion, peach trees which were thrifty and vigorous, 
although they were scores of years old and of such size that it 
was necessary to climb up among the limbs to gather the fruit. 
The fruit, moreover, was of a finer quality and a more delicious 
flavor than any which is met with at the present day. Upon the 
same ground he can now obtain but one fair crop of fruit; as soon 
as a tree has yielded this it produces no more, but rapidly dwin¬ 
dles and dies. The Messrs. Parsons, nurserymen at Flushing, 
confirm this statement. They say that four bearing years is the 
utmost that can be anticipated from this tree, and that to insure 
a supply of this fruit annually, it is indispensable that new trees 
be set out every year. They say there would seem to be 
some peculiar principle or quality in the soil favorable to the 
growth of the peach, which has now become exhausted upon 
