4 
APPLE. 
acted thoroughly well in clearing them for some time, and the treat¬ 
ment can be repeated if needed. 
The regular washes may also be very serviceably applied by the 
help of powerful engines. On June 23rd, Mr. Thos. Reader, of Old Hay 
Farm, Brenchley, wrote me :—“ I have again been washing all my 
trees with a mixture per your direction, and have already found them 
greatly benefited. We use a horse-power machine, finding it im¬ 
possible to get through the work any other way.” 
For prevention of American Blight the great points are clean and 
careful pruning, removal of all rough stumps of boughs or cankery 
excrescences or torn and injured bark, which may harbour the blight 
beneath them, and keeping careful watch for the very first signs of 
appearance of Aphides, which may be easily known by the white wool. 
The kinds of applications that will destroy them are endless, and 
little, if any, additional information has been brought forward (or, 
indeed, has appeared to be needed) for the last few years as to treat¬ 
ment, excepting, perhaps, as noted by Mr. Reader, the use of horse¬ 
power for throwing the applications; but as both in the past and 
present year some inquiry has been made regarding the attack, and the 
history has not previously been entered on in this series of Reports, I 
have given the main points as shortly as possible. 
Those who desire to study the history and description of the insect 
in detail will find excellent information under the head of Schizoneura 
lanigera , in vol. iii. of ‘ Brit. Aphides,’ by G. B. Buckton, F.R.S.; and 
there is also a long and serviceable paper on this insect by Dr. Cyrus 
Thomas, in his 3rd Annual Report as State Entomologist of Illinois, 
U.S.A. The method of formation of diseased growth is given by 
M. Prillieux, in ‘ Comptes Rendus ’ for April, 1875, and in short form 
from the above paper at p. 789 of the first vol. of the ‘ Gardeners’ 
Chronicle’ for the same year; also in the 2nd Edition of my own 
‘ Manual of Injurious Insects ’ I give a paper on the American Blight, 
and means of prevention and remedy from my own observations, and 
other sources named. 
Apple Chermes, or Apple-sucker. Psylla mali, Schmidberger. 
The Psylla mali , the Apple Chermes or Apple-sucker, is a very 
small insect, usually of a bright green colour, about a twelfth of an 
inch in length of the body, and scarcely more than an eighth of an 
inch in length from the head to the tip of the transparent wings, when 
these are folded as they lie in repose. 
The figure on next page shows the Apple-sucker with its wings 
spread, also raised as in act of taking flight, and likewise the general 
appearance in the pupal state, with the wings still undevelope 
