AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
243 
Hadrian, pleased with the honest man’s reply, 
said, “ Well, old man, if ever thou livest to see 
the fruit of these trees, let me know it. Dost 
thou hear, good old man 1” and with these words 
he left him. The old man did live long enough 
to see the fruits of his industry. The trees flour¬ 
ished and bore excellent fruit. As soon as they 
were sufficiently ripe he gathered the most choice 
figs, put them in a basket, and marched off to¬ 
ward the Emperor’s residence. Hadrian happened 
to look out of the windows of his palace ; seeing 
a man, bent with age, with a basket on his should¬ 
ers, standing near the gate, he ordered him to be 
admitted to his presence. 
“What is thy pleasure, old man!” demanded 
Hadrian. 
“ May it please your majesty,” replied the man, 
“ to recollect seeing once a very old man plant¬ 
ing some trees, when you desired him, if ever he 
should gather the fruit, to let you know. I am 
that old man, and this is the fruit of those very 
trees. May it please you graciously to accept 
them as a humble tribute of gratitude for your 
majesty’s great condescension.” Hadrian, grati¬ 
fied to see so extraordinary an instance of longev¬ 
ity, accompanied by the full manly faculties and 
honest exertion, desired the old man to be seated, 
and ordering the basket to be emptied of the fruit 
and .t_Q be filled with gold, gave it him as a pres¬ 
ent. Some courtiers, who witnessed this un¬ 
common scene, exclaimed, “ Is it possible that 
our great Emperor should show so much honor 
to a miserable Jew!” “ Why should I not hon¬ 
or him whom God has honored ?” replied Ha¬ 
drian. “ Look at his age, and imitate his example.” 
The Emperor then very graciously dismissed the 
old man, who went home highly pleased and de¬ 
lighted. 
-i --- 
Locust Tree Borers- 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist . 
The locust trees seldom attain much size in this 
part of the country, as they are so preyed upon 
by the borer, which often works its way into the 
solid trunk, but especially delights to bore through 
the smaller branches which it clips off in large 
quantities, and sometimes nearly covers the 
ground beneath with the trimmings. By the ad¬ 
vice of a friend of mine, I tried the experiment 
of boring a J-inch auger hole two feet from the 
ground in a couple of trees, filling it with sulphur, 
and plugging up tight with a piece of soft pine. 
The sap having already risen, I saw no difference 
in the appearance of my trees that season, but 
examining them each year, for three years in 
succession, I discovered no trace of a borer. On 
the fourth year, the strength of the sulphur being 
exhausted, as I suppose, I found a few traces of 
the pest. I then gave the trees another dose, and 
the present year will decide the results. 
Jamaica Plain Farmer. 
Massachusetts, June, 1858. 
Remarks. —Theoretically, we should have little 
faith in the above remedy, and we suspect that 
“ Jamaica Farmer’s” second trial will not cor¬ 
respond with the first one in supposed results. 
We also surmise that if he will remove the plug of 
pine wood, he will find the sulphur about as 
he left it four years ago. This is only a surmise, 
however, founded upon the fact that sulphur is 
not soluble in water, and also upon the considera¬ 
tion that the sap vessels, being cut off by the au¬ 
ger, the sulphur would not be drawn into the cir¬ 
culation. This, we say, is what we would infer 
from theory. It is not impossible, however, that 
within the living plant, the sap may dissolve small 
oort.ions of the sulphur, especially if in the powder¬ 
ed state and not in the form of roll brimstone as it 
has been sometimes tried ; and that even a small 
quantity of sulphur working into the sides of the 
auger-hole might be distasteful to the borer. We 
have received and seen accounts of what appear¬ 
ed to be well conducted and well attested experi¬ 
ments, though we have supposed that the results 
were chance coincidences, the departure of the 
insects being due to some other cause. We will 
also suggest that, should any one deem it worth 
while to experiment further, it is unneces¬ 
sary to bore the tree to the heart, as the main 
circulation of the sap is in the inner bark and 
outer or new wood; though it is possible that 
some of the sulphur may be carried into the pores 
of the heart-wood by capillary attraction.— Ed.] 
Apple Tree Borer.— Saperda bivittata. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist. 
In your February number we are treated to a 
drawing of the apple tree borer, accompanied with 
a few remarks by Mr. J. S. Keller, which are very 
acceptable as far as they go, but the history is so 
very brief that more is desirable as a guide in 
combatting this formidable enemy. 
Mr. Keller makes out the whole period of the 
saperda’s existence only one year. This is surely 
an error. Dr. Harris, a standard author, says: 
“ the larva state of this insect continues from two 
to three years.” 
Dr. Fitch, in his able report to the State As¬ 
sembly for 1855, has given us an excellent and 
full description of this insect and its habits, but 
he has most unpardonably omitted its chronology, 
which is clearly the main key to its destruction; 
for nothing can be more desirable than the entire 
plan of its campaign. 
For brevity’s sake I will omit the description of 
the saperda and its larva, for these may be found 
in periodicals innumerable, and take up its doings 
chronologically. 
Soon after the 15th of June, in this latitude, the 
saperda comes out through the bark of the apple 
tree from four to fifteen inches above the ground. 
Now, don’t let farmers imagine that this gimlet 
hole is its entrance, and so spend their time in 
probing it or in pouring boiling water into it, for 
the gentleman is not there. He is “out.” 
This handsome beetle, like other evil doers, now 
flies about in the darkness of night, for a month 
or more, and deposits her eggs, one in a place, 
not on the bark as some say, but in a crevice in 
the cuticle or outer bark, generally near the 
ground, or in the axils above. In a few days the 
genial rays of the sun hatch out of this little egg 
a solitary and minute maggot or larva, having no 
legs at any time. 
This little rascal commences feeding and gnaw¬ 
ing its way to the liber or inner bark, and after a 
week or two’s labor and growing it reaches the 
sap wood where it continues a long time, feeding 
on its soft surface and the cambium. It now 
cuts round and round in the soft wood, pushing 
its castings through small holes in the cuticle like 
fine saw dust. It sometimes feeds in this man¬ 
ner until about the first of October, forming a 
smooth, flat, irregular cavity, varying in size 
from a half to a whole dollar. 
He now begins to think about Winter quarters, 
and closes the doors through which he had eject¬ 
ed his castings, by plugging up all around them 
firmly with the same material. He then prepares 
for himself a bedroom by boring into the sap wood, 
until he has excavated a space large enough to 
receive him comfortably. Here he bends him¬ 
self into a graceful curve, and “ lays him down to 
sleep ” till Spring. 
September is the month in vhich to dislodge 
the enemy. Clear away the glass and rubbish, 
and brush off the dust from the body of the tree 
near the ground, and if the chap is there, you will 
find a dark colored spot on the bark, varying in 
size from that of a five cent piece to a dollar, or 
larger according to its stage of development. If 
you have any doubts of the presence of the larva, 
sound the part, by thumping on it with the handle 
of the knife, just as the woodpecker sounds it will) 
its beak. If it sounds flat or hollow he is there. 
Cut all around the dead spot, remove the bark and 
there you find him, unless a woodpecker has been 
there before you. 
In this situation, if not disturbed, the larva re 
mains till the next May or June, when he 
awakes and commences with increased vigor his 
career of destruction. He now bores directly into 
the duramen or heart-wood of the tree, stuffing up 
the former cavity with his castings. He frequent¬ 
ly passes quite through the tree and pushes out a 
heap ofhis chips upon the opposite side. He con¬ 
tinues to bore tortuously in all directions till Sep¬ 
tember, when he makes preparation for his change, 
by boring from the center of the tree upward and 
outward till about the close of the month, when 
he has reached the bark from 6 to 14 inches above 
the ground. If he reaches the bark sooner than 
he intended he tacks off and feeds inward awhile ; 
then puts upward and outward to the bark again, 
enjoying himself a little longer, and doing a little 
more damage. 
Having reached the bark, he bores through it 
to the cuticle, and commences tearing off the 
sides to make more room. He then turns head 
downwards, and packs his castings in the upper 
end of the hole firmly, to keep out the cold, and 
turning round to his former position, adjusts his 
bed, and once more takes a nap till Spring. In 
the latter part of May he revives and changes to 
a pupa state, and in a short time, comes out a 
saperda again. Soon after the 15th of June, he 
has acquired vigor, so as to be able to tear away 
the stuffing at the upper end of the burrow. He 
then bursts through the cuticle and comes forth a 
full-grown, vigorous and active miller, ready to 
generate a new race of enemies. 
Now for their destruction. If they have not 
been dislodged in September, we shall have a more 
difficult task during the next Summer. He has 
now worked his way into the duramen, boring it 
in many directions before he goes upwards to the 
close of his journey. To search for him with a 
chisel, knife or gouge may girdle the tree, and a 
wire probe or wooden one is not sufficient. I pre¬ 
fer to make six or a dozen probes of whalebone 
from an old umbrella. I make them from 6 to 12 
inches in length, about the size of a coarse knit¬ 
ting needle. Let the end be round and smooth. 
These are so flexible and elastic that they may 
be pushed in any direction till the insect is killed. 
If I am satisfied there is only one larva in a 
tree, and the Summer is far advanced, I prefer to 
shut him in, as less injurious to the tree, than to 
cut him out. For this purpose I stuff the burrow 
up with mud, and bind a thick woolen rag firmly 
around for a foot or so above the ground. 
Thus shut in he must perish. 
As a preventive I procure a lot of sixpenny 
muslin, tear it into strips about 4 inches wide and 
3 yards long. I roll these up tight for conveni¬ 
ence, and put them into a basket, with a few pa¬ 
pers of sixpenny pins, and a trowel. With my 
trowel I clear everything awmyjust to the earth, 
and wind around my bandage for a foot or so, pin 
it fast, and the work is done. 
This process is quickly performed. The arti¬ 
cles are cheap, and far more permanent than pa- 
