THE FRUIT BORER.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3003, 9 February 1881, Page 3

THE FRUIT BORER.

When looking for borers in the stem of trees, it is well to take a look among tbe largo branches, because there is another kind of borer. Their presence can usually be detected by dead patches of bark, and when these are cut out, the borer will be found underneath, or in the live bark near by. If the male twigs are dead or appear to be withered, they should be cut off and examined closely for the " twig-borer" (Amphicerus bieandatus) which is destructive, boring out the centre of the young shoots of the previous years' growth. These little borers are less than one-half an inch long, and not more than one-sixteenth in diameter, but large enough to do considerable damage when plentiful. The eggs of the American tent caterpillar can at this season be found in small twigs of the trees, and many be readily removed by hand, or the twigs cut off and burned. The eggs are very minute, and glued together in masses of several hundred, each one of which, if allowed to remain upon the tree and hatch, will produco a voracious worm capable of eating many full-grown apple leaves in the summer. < 'f course, trees denuded of their foliage by these worms cannot grow or produce fruit. Another pest of the pear and apple trees known as the "leaf crumpler" (Phyotta nebulo) is also made conspicuous by its habit of folding up a leave or two in the fall and hiding within during tho cold weather. These dried, dead leaves are securely tied to the twigs of the trees, and may be readily seen during the winter, and gathered and burned. There are also currant and raspberry borers, which may be sought for in the dead stems of these plants, which should be cut out and burned with their contents. It is a great mistake to either wait until summer before attempting to destroy noxious insects, or to throw tho brushwood and trimmings from trees, vines and other plants into heaps in some out-of-the-way place and leave them there to decay. AH such refuse should be burned aa soon aa

possible after it is remotcd from the plant, and if the wood is too green to burn freely, add enough dry material to insure the combustion of the whole. Vast numbers of noxious insects may be destroyed in this manner,'the presence of which may or may not be known to the gardener or.farmer who performs the operation. A few hours or even days devoted to the search for insects, and the'cleaning up of rubbish will be time well spent, and if all farmers would do so, insect pests might become less numerous than at present. The increase of noxious insects is not caused merely by the destruction of their natural enemies, or the cleaning up of tho country, but is due in great part to the indifference of the fanner and gardenor in the taking of the simplest precautionary measures to prevont it.—Exohango.