158 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



MAINE STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY AND 



STATJON ENTOMOLOGY; MUTUAL INTERESTS. 



Miss Edith M. Patch, Orono. 



The season just passed has been one of phenomenal insect 

 outbreaks. Orchards and forests aUke have suffered devasta- 

 tion. StartUng and alarming as such a season is, however, it is 

 not indicative of such lasting danger to orchard welfare as cer- 

 tain constant though less conspicuous conditions. For an 

 unwonted outbreak is soon over — parasites, contagious diseases 

 and other natural remedies getting the better of the offender — 

 but the almost unbroken lines of neglected and therefore dan- 

 gerous apple trees that stretch for miles along the roadsides, 

 scattering ungathered windfalls as food for "railroad worms," 

 curculio grubs, and codling moths, present an annual menace. 

 Wild cherries and hawthorne together with native and neglected 

 apples growing within insect flight of orchards are a cordial 

 standing invitation to every apple pest that can endure the 

 climate. Yet many an orchard owner in the State is grumbling 

 because the invitation is annually accepted. And the earnest 

 pomologist, who is interested in doing everything practical to 

 insure sound fruit, who sprays and prunes and cultivates, suffers 

 from the neglect of his careless neighbor who says "I haven't 

 gathered a high top sweeting for 5 years, — the railroad worm 

 saves me the trouble," and cheerfully blames the railroad worm 

 for breeding in ungathered fruit permitted to lie and rot upon 

 untilled sod which are conditions rendered ideal for that very 

 purpose. 



A tree may be subject to attack by an excessive number of 

 insects and still hold its own. It has been estimated that there 

 are probably 800 or 1000 different species of insects that attack 

 the oak in the LTnited States. Yet the oak is in no danger of 

 extermination. 



And numerous as apple pests are there is probably no reason 

 so far as insects are concerned why apple raising should not be 

 as profitably carried on in Maine as in other parts of the 

 country. 



