Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 September 1870 — The Apple Tree Borer. [ARTICLE]

The Apple Tree Borer.

The following communication is from Hon. Samuel Swift, in the Middlebury (Vt.) Register. , “Some twenty years ago, having for many previous years contended rather unsuccessfully against the depredations of the apple tree borer, I came across a prescription for getting rid of this enemy to our orchards, of the following tenor: By the Ist of May prepare a wash composed of soap and water with tobacco tuice, and apply it with a brush to the >ody of the apple-tree, from the root as high up as ever the borer enters. Borne few years after I found another similar prescription, omitting the tobacco, and used only soapand water, which I have since used. With the use of either of these prescriptions, I have never found a borer at work on any of my trees, unless at the first year of using it. The prescription directs the application to be made the first of May; but I did not discover it until about May 20, and then I made the application. Bat this gave time lor the eggs to be hatched, and the small and hardly perceptible insects appeared in the bark and were easily removed.”