The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-05-14
Spring Work In Orchards.

In localities where orchards are liable
TO be infested with canker worms the
trunks of the trees should now be pro-
tected either by patent protectors or
strips of tarred canvas or paper tied
about the trees. If the females are pre-
vented from crawling up the trees and
deposit;ng their eggs on the branches
much annoyance aud loss will be saved.
The apple-tree borer, troublesome
insect in some sections of the country,
should also be looked after. When the
borers have not been kept out of the
trees it will be well to examine each one
and destroy any of the pests that may be
found. There is no more effeetual
method of destruction than the old one
of inserting the end of wire into their
burrow and killing them. The beetle is
striped brown and white and is about
three fourths of an inch long. 1t de-
posts its eggs IN June in the bark of the
trees near the ground. Here the larva
Is Matched and becomes the whitish grub
that saws its way into the tree and ac-
complishes so much mischief. The same
means are taken to guard against this
pest as is practiced against the peach
grub, VIZ, placing mound of ashes or
gravel and coarse sand around the base
of the trunk in the spring and allowing
1t to remain until after the season in
which the beetles deposit their eggs.
These mounds prevent them from reach
ing the soft bark at the surface of the
ground, the place usually selected.
Where the cooling moth and its larva,
the apple worm, destroys much fruit,
che bark of the tree should be scraped
and cleaned in spring to insure against
any cocoons being left in the crevices.
While removing the loose bark of the
trunks of these trees is advised, it is not
recommended to roughly scrape the
trunks and branches, as is sometimes
done.
Trees that have not already been ex-
amined for tent caterpillars ought also
to receive attention. The clusters of
eggs deposited last season in rings on
the branches should be destroyed, by
cutting off and burning the branches on
which they are found; otherwise, during
the latter part of May or first of June,
they will be Matched out and begin their
work of deyouring the leaves of the
trees.
The peach-tree borer, most destruc-
tive insect when allowed to increase in
peach orchard, should be prevented
from multiplication by all possible
means. The eggs are deposited in sum-
mer, under the bark of the tree, either
in the stem or roof, or both, producing
an effusion of gum. When trees are
already affected, the most eflicacious
plan is to remove the earth from around
fhn q 4 h. IL Al.
gum, destroy any cocoons that may be
found, trace the grub through it's holes
in the tree and kill it; then fill up about
the tree with fresh earth and place
shOvelful or two of ashes around the
base. Ashes or Stacked lime applied
every spring and at the end of summer,
scattered about the tree, is beneficial.
Rutter, in his manual on the peach and
its diseases, suggests, wherever the larva
of the peach-borer is removed by the
knife, that about one ounce of hard soap
be firmly rubbed around the base of the
tree, an inch or SO beneath the surface,
and about the same quantity applied to
the place injured by the worm and in
the inoision made by the knife, as the
soap assists in healing over the wound
and gives vigor to the tree. The potash
in this case, Rutter argues, has its di-
rect application to the sap circulation,
and will do more good to the tree than
will ashes sown broadcast on the
surface of the ground. Strong soap
suds is frequently used on limbs and
branches, instead of whitewash, to de-
stroy bark insects, aphides fungi, and
the like. A wash advised by Rutter for
the limbs and body of the peach tree is
composed of half peck of unslacked
lime, one quart of soft-soap, and enough
warm water to make it the consistence
of whitewash.
In plum orchards, whenever the plum
wart or black knot appears, the diseased
branch should be cut back to sound wood
and burned up. When the branches
cut back are large the wounds may be-
covered over with grafting.wax
Pear blight and yellows in peaches
are two diseases that have long baffied
the most active and intelligent of pomol-
ogists, who, being in doubt as to the
origin of the trouble, have never found
efficient preventives or remedies. The
usual plan has been with the yellows to
instantly destroy all trees exhibiting
symptoms of this disease OF late some
of our foremost fruit-growers- Prof.
Meehan, Mr.. John Rutter, Mr.. j. T.
Lovett and Prof. T. J. Burrill-incline
to the belief that both the pear-blight
and yellows arise from the action of
parasitical fungi. Mr.. Lovett, in a pa
per read before the last meeting of the
New Jersey State Horticultural Society,
urged, as it is known that caustic lime.
potash and sulDhur are destructiva RI
fungus, that experiments be made with
these substances. He proposed to use
sulphuric acid in various ways, with
the hope of arriving at something of
value.-N. Y. World.