AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
987 
fig- 1 - Fig. 2. Fig. 3 . 
Fig. I represents a Fear branch attacked by the Bark-Louse. The insect being concealed under the white scales. 
Fig. 2 represents the under side of one of the scales, with the eggs adhering, greatly magnified. 
Fig. 3 is a magnified view of the female bark-louse before depositing her eggs. 
DWARF PEARS WINTER-KILLED. 
A neighbor of ours once complained that he 
had repeatedly lost several first-rate pear-trees 
and was beginning to lose his faith in pear cul¬ 
ture. He gave them the very best care, manuring, 
pruning, pinching and all that, just as the books 
directed, and yet, after lingering a few years, 
many of his trees gave up the ghost. We went, 
one day, to look at his trees and to sympathize 
with him. About two rods from his rows of pears 
and on a rise of ground Was a large manure heap. 
Every Winter, he said, his garden was thrown up 
into ridges leading down in rows from the dung¬ 
hill to the trees. “There,” said we, “probably there 
in that pile of manure, is the enemy of your trees. 
The liquid manure runs down in those open drains 
all the year; but especially in Winter, and gives 
your trees too much of a good thing.” “I guess 
you are right,” said he, opening his eyes, “ Strange, 
I never thought of that before.” As we have 
heard no further complaints from him, we con¬ 
clude that he has removed his manure heap, 
and that his trees are succeeding better. 
TENDER SHRUBS —WINTER 
PROTECTION. 
Many of the half hardy shrubs, both evergreen 
and deciduous, (leaf shedding), and not a few of 
the foreign trees now undergoing acclimation, or 
naturalization, require a partial winter protection 
while young. Most of these grow more hardy as 
they increase in size and age. Various coverings 
are recommended to shield them, such as boxes, 
barrels, mats, straw, burying with earth, &c. 
Barrels and boxes answer a pretty good purpose, 
when inverted over low-growing plants, provided 
there are sufficient holes in the top or sides for 
ventilation. One of these placed over a hydran¬ 
gea in our grounds during the past winter protect¬ 
ed it sufficiently from the weather, but—smother¬ 
ed it, so that the branches decayed in the Spring. 
A good coating of straw is, upon the whole, the 
best protection, affording sufficient air to the tree 
or shrub, and turning off all water from the 
branches. If the plant or tree has straggling 
branches, they should be first drawn in and fast¬ 
ened with bands of straw or willow twigs, after 
which place stakes or poles around them in num¬ 
ber and length according to the size and hight of 
the specimen to be inclosed. These stakes 
should extend from the ground, and be tied to a 
point a little above the plant. Weave in a few 
willow twigs at points up and down the stakes to 
prevent the straw from pressing too closely upon 
the branches of the shrub. Begin at the bottom 
by standing long rye-straw, say one-half to three- 
fourths of an inch in thickness, is sufficieut 
around the bottom, passing twine around the up¬ 
per part to keep it in place. Place another circle 
above this, the lower end breaking joints or ex¬ 
tending a little below the upper part of the first 
covering. Proceed in this way till the top is 
reached. A single length of straw will often be 
sufficient. Double the top of this covering over, 
and tie it firmly as a cap to shed off rain. Twine 
should be wound around the whole at distances of 
ten inches or one foot to prevent heavy winds 
from blowing the straw about. Of course this 
covering is to be removed upon the approach of 
settled weather in the Spring. 
A cone of this kind neatly constructed along 
the borders or paths of the flower garden is far 
from being an unsightly object, and the protection 
to the plant is of the best kind. Evergreen 
boughs are sometimes placed about shrubs instead 
of the straw, and answer as a tolerable substitute. 
THE BARK-LOUSE OF THE 
PEAR TREE. 
BY A. O. MOORE, NEW-YORK. 
If in the month of October the vigilant cultiva¬ 
tor scrutinizes his young pear trees, he may be 
surprised by finding here and there an individual 
tree strangely covered on trunk and limbs with a 
white substance, which at first may seem to be a 
mould or mildew, such as would be engendered 
by a damp situation. Upon attempting to scrape 
this off, a claret colored liquid will smear the stem 
as if with blood. A close examination will show 
that this white substance is composed of small 
paper like scales. See the accompanying cut Jig. l. 
If a scale is removed carefully so as to expose the 
under surface, it will at this season be found to 
cover a minute dark red object, surrounded by yet 
smaller dust-like atoms. This is as far in our in¬ 
vestigation as the unaided vision will carry us. 
That indispensible pocket companion a good mi¬ 
croscopic lens will, however, reveal a family com¬ 
posed of a mother as seen at Jig. 3", with her nu¬ 
merous unhatched progeny consisting of from 
twenty to fifty eggs, (Jig . 2.) the breaking of which 
latter furnished the red fluid before noticed. 
The parent insect seems at this period to have 
lost all signs of activity, but a steady hand will 
enable us to see even as late as the month 
of November, slight contortive movements 
of the body. I have not, however, been able to 
discover anv means of locomotion, either legs or 
wings. A bristle like thread proceeding from the 
anterior extremity, serves to attach the insect to 
the tree, by which it often remains suspended 
even when the scale covering is removed. Some 
authors give us a description of two kinds of scale, 
one covering the male, and the other the female. 
Previous to the first of October, I have found the 
insect under the scale without the eggs, but by ar¬ 
ranging the light so as to produce a slightly trans¬ 
parent effect, the eggs may then be seen within 
the body of the parent, as at Jig. 3. 
At this time the insect appears almost lifeless, 
and probably it has already committed all the in¬ 
jury to the tree it is capable of inflicting : this in¬ 
jury consists, as we are informed, in the abstrac¬ 
tion of the juices of the tree by the insertion of 
the insect’s beak, and the accompanying wound. 
Around each minute paper domicil may be seen 
a discolored spot showing the nature ofthe injury. 
It is not unusual to see a tree of eight or ten feet 
in hight with every part of the stem and many of 
its branches whitened by this injurious insect. 
No tree thus attacked can be healthy. Its hark 
becomes rough and cracked, the young growth 
stunted and gnarled ; the tree is frequently thrown 
into premature bearing while the fruit will be. 
small, woody and flavorless ; until finally the tree 
falls a prey to blight or an August sun deprives it 
of the miserable remnant oflife. 
Trees situated in grass lands or otherwise neg¬ 
lected, peculiarly invite this sloven's pest. Slow 
growing varieties of the pear are more subject to 
it than the rapid growing kinds. Upon my own 
grounds among six hundred pear trees, the Seckle 
only is attacked, not one of that variety having 
entirely escaped. Young trees are more frequent' 
ly infested than those of over ten year’s growth. 
Some writers assert that the apple is also affected 
by the same insect, but no such case has yet fal¬ 
len under my observation. Any reader who finds 
upon his apple trees a Bark-Louse resembling the 
subject of this memoir will confer a favor by for¬ 
warding some of the affected branches to the edi¬ 
tor of the Agriculturist, or to the writer at 140 
Fulton-st. 
It may be interesting to know that this insect 
is related to the Cochineal of Mexico, which forms 
an important article of commerce, and produces 
that beautiful scarlet dye so useful in manu¬ 
factures. 
We wih now consider the means of destroying 
this troublesome insect. It is probable that the 
time in which the injury is committed, is during 
the Summer months, although the insect being net 
then invested with its paper-like covering can only 
be discovered with difficulty. The practice of 
washing the trunk and main branches of fruittrees 
with a mixture of soft soap and water, one part of 
the former to two of the latter, applied with a 
coarse cloth, using considerable friction at the 
junction of the branches with the stem, can not be 
too highly recommended for the health and gen¬ 
eral thriftness of the orchard. This application 
should be made in the Spring, before the swelling 
