AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
279 
season, a greenhouse would probably an¬ 
swer the ends of cultivation better than the 
stove; at all events, the. plants should be 
kept in a dry cool atmosphere, from 40° to 
60°, not higher. The best time for potting 
is January, and the best material for that 
purpose is silver sand and sphagnum, well 
mixed with a portion of peat and potsherds, 
broken quite small. It is important to have 
plenty of drainage, and no fear need be en¬ 
tertained of excess in this particular. It has 
been customary at Chatsworth to place the 
pots in saucers which have been kept full of 
water during the whole of the summer sea¬ 
son. We do not, however, attach any im¬ 
portance to this practice. The plants will 
thrive equally well without saucers. Pitchers 
are usually formed in October, and continue 
perfect for three months. The number of 
pitchers on an individual plant .of S. Drum- 
mondi varies from 14 to 23. We have 
measured individual pitchers of this species, 
and find the maximum length 2 feet 3 inches, 
and the maximum girth at the lop, 6 inches. 
Flowers usually open in March and April. 
By removing the flower-buds as they appear, 
the succeeding pitchers become much finer.” 
—Paxton's Flower Garden. 
APPLE-TREE BORER. 
Having been for many years very much 
troubled with the borer in my apple trees, 
last spring I determined, if possible, to find 
out their origin, and I believe I succeeded. 
Allow me to give you an account of the 
transaction. 
I sawed off a small tree, which was badly 
eaten by the borer. I then split into it so 
far as to discover four borers, one of which 
was far more advanced in its state of exist¬ 
ence than either of the others, and which, 
I supposed, might come out that season in 
another form. I carefully preserved the 
tree until the 10th day of August, when I 
saw that the insect in the most advanced 
state was dead. I then, for the first time, 
took it out from the tree to examine it very 
particularly, that I might know its like, 
should I discover it alive. Its head, eyes, 
feelers and body, were perfectly formed—its 
wings, partly. Indeed, it was so far formed 
and perfect, that I had an accurate idea of 
the bug it had been destined to form, had it 
not been molested. I then went out among 
my apple trees for the purpose of finding its 
like. The third day I found the bug, and 
knew it to be the same at first sight. I 
brought it into the house, and put it with a 
smooth and fresh limb of an apple tree, 
under a glass. It readily fed on the bark. 
During the day it was very dull, but at night 
was exceedingly brisk and active. As soon 
as it was dark, it would commence piercing 
a row, about an inch in length, of very 
small holes through the bark, and then with 
its sharp teeth or cutters, which it seemed 
to use like a pair of shears, by putting one 
cutter in one hole and the other in the next, 
it, apparently with great ease, cut the bark 
from one hole to another, and so continued 
until it had cut each and every hole into the 
other. By this means, it made a perfect 
slit in and through the bark, the whole 
length of the row of holes, which, as I have 
before said, was about an inch in length. It 
would then make use of its tail as a pry, 
and with it raise up the bark so far as to 
enable it to deposit its eggs under it. In 
this way it continued to deposit from two to 
four egs every night, until the middle of 
September. My examinations of its opera¬ 
tions was by the light of a lamp, which did 
not disturb it at all. After I had seen it de¬ 
posit its eggs, as I supposed, I examined, in 
the day time, to see if I could find them. I 
had no difficulty in finding them—they were 
about the size of a pin-head, but considera¬ 
bly flattened. After noticing the marks on 
the limb under the glass, I could with ease 
discover all those marks that were made on 
my trees the last season by the bug; and by 
lifting up the bark, in every instance, find 
the egg. I could also find the places where 
the bug had fed on the bark of the tree, as it 
did on the limb under the glass. From what 
I have seen of the borer, I have no doubt 
that it remains in the worm state three years 
at least, and perhaps much longer, in the 
tree. I presume the egg is not hatched un¬ 
til the next season after it is deposited. 
During the last year the borer remains in the 
tree, it bores up through the wood, leaving 
nothing but a slight covering of bark over 
the hole, and remains there while it is pass¬ 
ing from the worm to the bug state. When 
transformed, it readily removes the bark and 
comes out, leaving a round and smooth hole 
behind, as large and in some cases larger 
than the largest nail-gimlet. It has by many 
been supposed that this hole is the one 
through which the worm enters the tree; 
but I am certain, from observation, it is not 
so—it is the hole through which the bug 
makes his exit from tho tree, while the hole 
below is the one where the egg was depos¬ 
ited, and through which the borings and other 
matters are cast out. 
The bug is seven-eights of an inch in 
length, white body and head, with three 
brown stripes from the top of the head to 
the extremity of the shell that covers the 
wings, leaving two white stripes between. 
The eyes of the insect are very black. I 
still have the insect in my possession, 
though his legs have fallen off, and he is 
otherwise somewhat mutilated. 
Thinking that the above facts, communi¬ 
cated to those whose leisure and attention 
are directed to such subjects, may be of use, 
in suggesting a remedy for the evil, has in¬ 
duced me to communicate the facts to you. 
As to everything above related as facts, you 
may rely upon them as such. I can not have 
the least doubt that I have discovered the 
origin of this troublesome insect, the borer. 
If a thick coat of lime be kept on the 
tree from the ground two feet up, from the 
time the bug comes out, which may be the 
first of July, though I think not until Au¬ 
gust, and be kept on until October, I think it 
will prevent the bug from troubling the 
trees. I washed some of mine last year in 
this way, and in no instance could I discover 
any trace of a bug on them. This wash 
will not kill those borers that are already in 
the tree, but I think it will prevent any more 
eggs being deposited so long as the trees are 
thoroughly coated with lime. This wash 
assists, also, in discovering the borers which 
have just commenced their existence ; for 
you will find the lime to be stained with a 
reddish color over the spot where the young 
borer lies, long before any borings are cast 
out. 
That you may have a perfect idea of the 
operation of the bug, I will here give you 
a specimen of the row of holes he bores, 
and of the cuts or slits from one hole to the 
other, thus : 
—o—o—o—o—o—o—o— 
Row of holes and the cuts 
from hole to hole. 
This row of holes runs with the grain of 
the bark, or up and down on the tree, al¬ 
ways on a smooth spot on the bark, so far 
as my observation has gone. One egg only 
is deposited in one of those slits of an inch 
long. A row of holes is made for every 
egg.—W m. B. Grant, in Maine Farmer. 
Gender Incorrect.— “ Off she goes,” said 
Mrs. Smith to her spouse, as they started 
by the railway from London Bridge. “You 
are wrong,” said Mr. Smith, “ for this is the 
mail train.” 
ON THE DISEASES OF PLANTS. 
BY M. F. E. GUERIN MENEVILLE. 
Some observations recently made, tend to 
confirm an opinion expressed lastyear, to the 
effect that the great epidemic from which so 
many plants, and vines more especially, 
have been suffering, is due, if not solely at 
least principally, to influences of tempera¬ 
ture. The observations upon which this 
opinion was based have become during this 
lastyear very numerous, and have beenrnade 
in the departments of the Var, Bouches du 
Rh6ne,Basses-Alpes, Vaucluse, Gard, Drome, 
Ardeche, Isere, &c. After having examined 
the epidemic in the Basses-Alpes during the 
whole time that the silk-worffis were hatch¬ 
ing, I determined to extend my inquiries to 
the ten departments just named, proceeding 
from the south northwards. I thus ascer¬ 
tained that the disease disappeared not only, 
as I had formerly ascertained, in proportion 
to the hight of the plants above the sea, but 
also in proportion to their northern situation. 
Neither in the Alps nor in Paris was there any 
disease. In the Alps, as in Paris, the disease, 
when it existed at all, was only to be found 
on plants sheltered by walls and exposed to 
the south or east, or on plants in smalltown 
gardens where, in consequence of the artifi¬ 
cial atmosphere, the disease made its appear¬ 
ance whatever aspect the plants had. I no¬ 
ticed it principally in fields of Saintfoin, on 
cereals, Melons, Gourds, Tomatoes, &c., 
Vines, Roses, Mulberries, Walnuts, and 
other fruit trees, and even on the Alders in 
our valleys. The Saintfoin, for example, 
after progressing admirably from December 
to February, languished, and became covered 
with Oidium to such an extent that the strong 
smell of diseased Vine which it emitted when 
cut, caused alarm, lest the crop should prove 
injurious to cattle fed upon it. All the corn, 
and especially that on well exposed hills, 
looked admirably at the same period of the 
year when vegetation ought to have been 
stationary, and the plants perhaps covered 
with snow; but the corn in the plains, in the 
large valley of the Durance, as well as that 
of the higher land in the department, re¬ 
mained small, low, and exhibited no unusual 
development. Later, during the months of 
April, May, and even June, the corn on the 
hills with fine aspects, and which was al¬ 
ready in ear and about to flower, became ex¬ 
posed to a low temperature and a cold damp; 
the plants became covered with rusty black 
spots, their leaves curled, and in spite of in¬ 
cessant cold rain, appeared to suffer from 
drouth. The corn in the plain, in cold soil, 
with harvest almost always a fortnight late, 
developed slowly, and as usual; the bad 
weather had no effect on it, and the harvest 
was good, while the corn on the hills and 
intermediate lands, although so fine in De¬ 
cember, January, and February, did not even 
yield the seed from which it sprung. A cu 
rious circumstance, showing that the disease 
of the corn is due to a too high winter tem¬ 
perature, is that all those growers who sowed 
their corn late had fair crops. The Mulber¬ 
ry trees were out early and exposed to all 
those cold rains which destroyed the early 
silkworms. Some of the trees were seen in 
full leaf as early as Easter. Later, all the 
leaves became covered with rusty spots, 
which I examined with great care. In some 
cases the disease was so bad that the leaves 
curled up and dried, and became utterly use¬ 
less as food for silkworms. Walnut, and 
many other trees were just as bad, their 
leaves also being covered with rusty spots. 
The Vine was worse than ever. The cold 
rains of May, caused the disease to appear 
a fortnight late, and this gave some hopes 
that the malady had, if not disappeared, at all 
events greatly decreased; but it soon ap- 
