816 [Assembly 
thus forming a kind of cell the cavity of which is considerably 
larger than the body of the worm inhabiting it. The smaller 
worms have no such cells, but lie promiscuously in the gum or 
between it and the root. Although from their habits they would 
seem to have no particular use for it, these worms, like those of 
their order generally, spin a silken thread as they crawl about, 
which is of sufficient strength to hold them suspended in the air 
when one drops from a stick on which he is placed. 
When ready to enter its pupa state the worm crawls upwards 
to the surface of the ground, and there forms for itself a follicle 
or pod-like case of a leathery texture, made from its castings, held 
together by dry gum and cobweb-like threads. This follicle is of 
a brown color and oval in its form, with its ends rounded ; it 
is about three-fourths of an inch long and over one-fourth in dia¬ 
meter, but is variable in its size, being sometimes but half an inch 
long. Its inner surface is perfectly smooth and of the color of 
tanned leather. It is placed against the side of the root, often 
sunk in a groove which the worm appears to have gnawed for 
this purpose, with its upper end slightly protruding above the 
surface of the ground. But if the earth has been recently stirred 
so as to lie loose around the root, the worm will commonly form 
its follicle an inch or more below the surface. 
Among the means whereby to grow the peach securely from 
the depredations of this worm, Dr. Harris, in hi£ discourse before 
the Pomological Society (page 9), suggests that of grafting 1 it upon 
plum stalks, saying when it is thus reared he believes it is never 
injured by the borer. Unfortunately for the success of the plan 
proposed, the root of the plum is attacked by this same borer, 
in which it appears to thrive equally as well aS in the peach 
root. My friend Mr. J. E. Gavit, of Albany, who is a close 
observer, recently assured me of this as an item of information 
which he presumed I would be reluctant to credit, not supposing 
I had myself already noticed the same fact. Some young plum 
trees in my grounds were found to be dead this past spring, and 
on rooting them up the peach borer was discovered to be the 
