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in this latitude during the month of June, and the female deposits her eggs on the stems of the trees near the surface of the ground, or a little below it if she can find a convenient opening to suit her purpose. The eggs deposited soon hatch, and the young larvæ bore through the tender bark at this point, and when fairly under it, branch off, cutting galleries through the soft alburnum underneath. When a number of these borers are at work on the same tree they sometimes girdle and kill it the first season, especially if it is young or a small specimen. But if the tree is not killed outright it will show, by the check to its growth, that borers are at work. The borers continue feeding throughout the remainder of the season, and up to the time freezing weather sets in for the winter, and if not full grown at this time they will finish their growth early in spring, then crawl to near the outside, or just under the old bark, and there spin a thin cocoon, in which they are transformed to the pupal stage, remaining in this form for a few weeks, then issuing in the winged or moth stage.

In the line of preventives and remedies there is nothing better than clean cultivation about the trees, and annual examination of each tree early in summer and the crushing of every borer found. The next best thing, in the way of a preventive, is to wrap the stems from a little below the surface of the ground to a foot or more above it with heavy paper, cloth, or bark of some kind, to keep the moth from laying her eggs on the bark of the tree. I have used common tar paper for this purpose, not only because it is very cheap and does not decay when exposed to the weather, but the exhalation or odor of tar seems to be offensive to the moths. the use of this material I have never found that it was in the least injurious to the bark underneath. Painting the stems with soap, cement, clay, or even common

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mineral paints, will answer very well if a little care is given to keeping down the number of insects by removing the larger part of the borers with knife or gouge.

In recent years a pest known as the "shot-hole borer" (Scolytus rugulosus) has appeared in many and widely separated localities, in both the Eastern and Western States, attacking the almond, peach and plum tree. It is supposed to have been introduced from Europe with imported nursery stock, and thence rapidly distributed, by similar means, through the country. In its perfect stages it is a minute brown beetle, about onetwelfth of an inch long and one-thirtieth of an inch in diameter. This pest appears about midsummer, boring numerous minute holes through the bark and into the sapwood underneath, and in this the female deposits her eggs, and from these are hatched the little grubs found later feeding on the soft inner bark and alburnous matter beneath it. From every hole made in the bark a small globule of gum will soon appear, drying upon the surface-thence onward until autumn-and glistening in the sun, an immutable sign of the presence of a minute but destructive enemy.

When the beetles and their eggs are once in possession there is no practical way known of removing them, and the best thing to be done is to cut down and burn every infested tree, and just as soon as it is known to be in this condition. There are also several indigenous species of bark beetles, which will very likely attack almond trees as soon as they are as abundant as peach trees, but all may be destroyed with the same, or very similar weapons and materials.

What are called preventives consist mainly of substances to be applied to the stems in a semi-liquid form, and of such a nature as to be offensive to the beetles because of their odor, taste, or because so hard that the insects cannot cut through them with their mandibles,

Common lime whitewash, soft soap, whale-oil soap, or a thin mineral paint made of pure linseed oil, will answer very well for this purpose if applied often enough to keep the bark constantly coated.

Of the fungous diseases affecting the almond in this country, very little is as yet known, although we may safely include under this head all those that have been inimical to the peach, for the transition from this tree to the almond would only be a natural sequence. The peach-leaf curl (Taphrina deformans) would not be far from home on the almond leaf, neither could we expect that almond orchards would be wholly exempt from that mysteriously distributed and uncontrollable disease known as "peach yellows."

In California an almond-leaf blight has already appeared and seriously affected the trees in some of the orchards. It is caused by a fungus known as Cercospora circumscissa Sacc. This fungus attacks the leaves and young twigs, causing the former to fall off early in the season, thereby checking the growth of the tree and preventing the maturing of the fruit. It is thought that remedies may be applied to check this disease, and there will probably be some form of copper solution employed for destroying it, as with various species of fungi on other kinds of fruit trees.

CHAPTER IIL

THE BEECHNUT.

Fagus, Linn. The Beech. The Latin name of the genus (Fagus) supposed to be an equivalent of the Greek phegos, an oak, or it may be derived from phago, to eat; the nuts of this tree having been used as food by man in all ages and countries where it is a native. The modern English name, beech, was probably derived from the Anglo-Saxon bece or boc; in Dutch it is beuk; French, hetre; Icelandic, beyk; Danish, bog; Swedish, bok; German, buche or buoche; Russian, buk; Italian, faggio; Armenian, fao; and in Welsh ffawydd.

The beech belongs to the order Cupuliferæ, or oak family. The genus contains about fifteen species of handsome deciduous and evergreen trees, or shrubs, very widely distributed throughout the temperate and colder regions of both the northern and southern hemispheres. Male flowers are bell-shaped, in long-stalked drooping heads; calyx five to seven cleft, containing numerous stamens. Female flowers two to four in a cluster on the summit of the scaly-bracted peduncle; the inside scales uniting, forming a four-lobed involucre of imbricated bracts, the whole becoming at maturity a somewhat prickly, scaly bur, within which are found a pair of sharp-edged triangular nuts, containing a tender and sweet-flavored kernel.

History of the Beech.-The common beeches of both Europe and North America are so closely related that the two species may be considered as one for all practical purposes, such as propagation, cultivation, and

value of the wood and nuts. It is true, however, that our native beech is not environed with ancient myths and stories of love and war, neither is it celebrated in poetry and song, yet it has, doubtless, played just as noble a part in human affairs among the pre-historic races of America as those recorded of its European contemporary. As the beech in Europe is found in the forests of Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, and southward to Constantinople, Palestine, Asia Minor and Armenia, it was well known and highly appreciated by all the early inhabitants of these countries, and is frequently referred to by the earlier writers of Greece and Rome who touch upon the rural affairs of their times. It is supposed that Theophrastus refers to the beech under the name of Oxua, and Dioscorides as Phegos, and the latter author places it among the oaks, in which he was not far out of the way, because the beech is a member of the oak family in our modern classification. Virgil and Pliny speak highly of the little triangular nuts, and the people of their times set considerable value upon beechnuts as an article of food. Pliny also assures us that at the siege of Chios, the besieged inhabitants lived for some time entirely on these nuts. We are inclined to think, however, that both Virgil and Pliny are in error when they tell us that the beech was propagated by being grafted on the chestnut. They were probably led astray in this by some romancing gardener of their time, for we even have some of the same ilk with us at this day. Pliny refers to the beech several times in his writings, and places a much higher value upon this nut than he does upon the chestnut; in fact, speaks rather contemptuously of the latter, and seems to be surprised that nature should have taken such care of the nuts, which he calls "vilissima," as to enclose them with a prickly involucre or bur.

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