Vol. LXVI. No. 2984. 
NEW YORK, APRIL 6, 1907. 
°n rrea.io') 
i Kzvj 
WEEKLY, (fl.00 PER YEAH. 
A BUNCH OF FRUIT NOTES. 
Those Gummy Peach Trees. 
If those people who have been complaining about gum 
coming out of their peach trees will examine them 
closely they will find under 
the gum a lot of little holes 
in the bark, a little more 
than one-sixteenth of an 
inch in diameter, made hy 
what we call here “shot-hole 
borer,” and it is from these 
holes that the gum comes. 
An effectual remedy for 
these is to whitewash the 
trees wherever they appear 
with the following: Get 
tobacco stems at a cigar fac¬ 
tory. Put a full bushel into 
a kettle with two pails of 
water and boil till strength 
is extracted and until water 
is reduced to about four 
gallons. Into this put six 
pounds fresh stone lime and 
stir while slaking, and until 
it makes a rather thick 
whitewash. Into this put a 
lull gill of crude carbolic 
acid. When there has been 
two or three good rainy 
days and when the gum is 
softened, scrape off the 
loose bark and all the gum 
possible. An old hoe can 
be used for this, but better 
a regular tree scraper. When 
this is done wash the tree 
with the mixture, using a 
brush or an old broom so 
as to coat every part fully. 
If this is properly done no 
further trouble will be had 
from them for two or three 
years. All dead limbs and 
all wood trimmed from the 
peach orchard should be 
burned soon after taken 
from the trees, and not be 
left lying about, as these 
breed first in such timber as 
is dying and then spread 
into the healthy trees. A 
friend of mine had a peach 
orchard bordering on a 
bank over wdiich he threw 
the trimmings from his 1 
orchard, and before he was i 
folly aware of the damage 
being done these borers had 
ruined a strip of orchard 
next to this bank several i 
rods wide. 
J. S. WOODWARD. 
ARSENIC FOR SPRAY¬ 
ING.—In the horticultural 
issue you give the Kedzie 
formula for arsenitc of lime 
or soda, with directions to 
use carbonate (washing 
soda) for dissolving the ar¬ 
senic. You also mention 
that there will be a muddy 
deposit. For 22 years we have used several 100 pounds 
arsenic yearly in our business, which requires it to be 
perfectly dissolved, and wish to say that if your readers 
use hnglish or Belgian • refined arsenic, costing about 
the same as the American article, there will be 
posit or sediment, the liquid will be as clear as water. 
Further, if your readers will use a pound of the powdered 
lye, sold at all stores, to five pounds arsenic and quart 
water, putting on fire for five minutes, the whole will 
be perfectly dissolved, the heat generated by the dis- 
A MAPLE GROVE IN ORLEANS CO., N. Y. Fig. 133. 
EXTERIOR OF A MAPLE SUGAR CAMP. Fig. 134. 
solving lye will boil the material, which will then be of 
a clear syrupy consistency. Where there is any deposit 
in the mixture by using some brands of arsenic, it 
cannot be uniform in strength, as this deposit is the 
no de- result of clayey mixture or adulteration (which varies 
to a considerable extent in some brands) in the manu¬ 
factured arsenic. a. w. s. 
West Oxford, Ont. 
A LITTLE KNOWN STRAWBERRY INSECT.— 
The insect which injured Mr. Hunt’s strawberry 
bed, page 167, is doubt¬ 
less the Paria aterrima, 
popularly called Strawberry 
root-worm, as in the larval 
stage it lives in the ground 
and feeds upon the roots of 
the plants. The perfect in¬ 
sect is a little brownish- 
black beetle about half the 
size of an apple seed. They 
are very active at night, do¬ 
ing most of their feeding at 
this time, and passing the 
day concealed under lumps 
of soil or small stones. The 
foliage of the eaten plants 
has an appearance as if rid¬ 
dled by a charge of shot, 
and when numerous only 
the veins of the leaves and 
stems will remain uneaten. 
Probably they winter as 
beetles and either these sur¬ 
vivors or perhaps a new 
generation will be found be¬ 
fore fruiting time, but the 
limited number and the 
rapid foliage growth pre¬ 
vent much harm at this sea¬ 
son. In the following Au¬ 
gust a new brood appears in 
full strength. Theoretically 
they ought to respond to 
Paris-green treatment, but 
facts prove otherwise in my 
experience. An acquaint¬ 
ance who has had a life ex¬ 
perience in strawberry 
growing says that the only 
successful way of destroying 
them is by placing broods of 
small chickens throughout 
the field, with the hens con¬ 
fined of course. Fortunately 
we can keep them under 
control by attention to the 
plowing of the fruiting beds. 
I have had them to contend 
with at various periods for 
many years, and by giving 
them no opportunity to 
breed in old beds they will 
not be sufficiently numerous 
to do serious injury. It is 
also desirable not to use the 
same land uninterruptedly 
for strawberries for a series 
of years. To be sure under 
certain conditions it will be 
possible to frhit a bed two 
seasons with this insect upon 
your place, but in a major¬ 
ity of cases and as a gen¬ 
eral rule it will be much 
wiser to pick but one crop 
and plow immediately. The 
new bed should not closely 
adjoin the one fruiting, or 
it will be infested from the latter, as the plowing does 
not destroy them so much as it interferes with breeding 
and removes their feeding ground. They are probably 
transported in the roots of plants in either the larval 
or pupal stage. Perhaps thorough washing of the roots 
