AIR-BORNE INSECTS.
It is difficult to explain the sudden prevalence of such a pest as this and others which befell the western orchards. It is common, it is almost usual, to attribute them to cold winds or easterly winds ; but what possible correlation there can be between such weather and such a flourishing of particular insects is " a thing imagination boggles at." The response of the trees to the onslaught was interesting. Nature, like a good financier, piles up the reserves ; and these trees that were bare as telegraph poles in June had put forth a second crop of leaves before August. Whether this recovery was sufficiently potent to enable them to bear fruit freely next year has yet to be decided ; but it often happens that stripped trees show no sign of later weakness. Oaks as well as apples are notable for their recoveries from insect attacks.
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