DISEASES AND INSECT PESTS. 
D/ 
a few inches of the soil removed from the roots in the winter, and fresh 
earth applied in its stead. It is also a good plan to surface round the 
stems and roots with wood ashes, cement, burnt earth, and tanners’ bark 
fresh out of the steep. The latter proves fatal to most of the moths, 
caterpillars, or weevils that prey on the wood, bark, leaves, or fruit of 
the apple. Hand picking, thrusting an iron pin into their holes, 
plastering them in with nauseous or poisonous compounds are among 
the best remedies for the stem boring weevil {Bliynchites aUiariw), 
the caterpillar of the goat moth {Oossiis ligniperda), the apple borer 
{Saperda hivittata) , the caterpillar of the winter moth (Hyhernia 
hrimiata), and many others. 
The apple weevil that does most mischief, though there are several of 
them, is perhaps the one known to entomologists as the Anthonomons 
pomorum. This beetle, having slept in the ground or in a crevice 
of the bark throughout the winter, comes forth in the spring, just as the 
apples are in bloom, and hastens to deposit an egg in each flower bud. 
This egg is soon hatched into a small white grub, which eats up all 
the vital organs of the flower, fattens upon the future apple, and as soon 
as it has totally destroyed it, it is transformed into a beetle, strong 
enough to digest stronger food. Henceforth it preys on the leaves of 
the tree till autumn. At the fall of the leaf it either drops to the 
ground and hides away in the earth, or finds a winter’s shelter in the bark 
till next spring, when eggs are again laid in each flower bud and another 
crop destroyed. From this account of the life of the apple weevil it 
will be obvious that the white grubs may be squashed as they feast on 
the tender flowers, and that the cleaner and smoother the trees are 
kept the less storage for the weevil. Scrubbings and smearings will 
also clear off a good many, and surfacings of tan would possibly either 
kill the weevil or bother them to get through in the spring. It will also 
be obvious that by removing a few inches of the surface soil bodily and 
burning it, it would probably go hard with most of the 'weevils and 
other pests which had sought safe winter quarters under the sheltering 
boughs of the leafless apple trees. 
The apple maggot or codling moth {Carpocampa pomonellct) is the most 
destructive and provoking of all apple pests. It is bad enough to 
have the shoots eaten through by stem-boring weevils, the flowers 
devoured by the apple weevil, and the wood tunnelled in all directions 
by the wood leopard moth and apple borer; but it is even more 
tantalising to have the apples bored through by the above and other 
maggots after they reach a promising size. The moth of the apple 
maggot generally deposits its eggs in the eye of the apple, or near 
the stalk. Either place is chosen according to the position of the apple 
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