76 EXPElilMENTAL FARMS 



6-7 EDWARD Vl|., A. 1907 



Eemedies. — The remedies for tlie Plum Curculio are as follows: (1.) Spraying the 

 trees early in the season so a,s to destroy the beetles which for some time feed upon 

 the buds and opening leaves of plum trees. The second spraying, with poisoned Bor- 

 deaux mixture, should be made when the plums are about as large as pease. This will 

 coat the young fruit so that the beetles are destroyed when they feed on the "fruit or cut 

 the crescents for egg laying. (2.) The destruction of all windfalls or injured fruit 

 that drops, so as to clear away all fruit before the larvgp emerge and enter the grouiid 

 to pupate. Poultry, pigs and sheep help well in this work. (3.) The ploughing up 

 and cultivation of orchards so as to remove grass and other vegetation which, besides 

 weakening the trees, gives places for the insects to hide in. The depth at which the 

 larva; pupate is about an inch beneath the surface, and the pupation in this part of 

 Canada takes place during July; therefore cultivation during that month will destroy 

 many of the pupa\ and this has been found the remedy which has given the best results 

 in old orchards which had been in sod for many years and in which the fruit had been 

 seriously injured year after year. (4.) The jarring of plum trees, which is much 

 written about and highly recommended, will certainly destroy many of the beetles, but 

 costs too much for labour when comp'ared with spraying with insecticides, which give 

 more certain results in my experience. As the plum and peach are rather easily 

 injured by some ai'senical poisons, arsenate of lead, 1 lb. to 50 gallons, is preferable 

 to Paris green for these trees. 



The Apple Magc^iot (Rhagioletis pomonella, Walsh). — This insect, also known as 

 -the railroad worm,' has been the cause of much loss in the apple orchards of Ver- 

 mont, Maine, and parts of New York (State, just south of our borders. There have 

 also been one or two rather serious outbreaks in Canada. The injury is caused by 

 slender white maggots about a quarter of an inch in length, which burrow in all direc- 

 tions through the flesh of the apple, feeding upon the pulp and leaving discoloured 

 channels. There are sometimes as many as a dozen maggots in a single apple, but 

 even a single one is sufficient to render it worthless for the market. The eggs are 

 inserted beneath the skin of the fruit by prettily marked little black and white flies 

 with shining golden eyes. They are less than half the size of the ordinary housefly, 

 and are very active. There is only one brood in the year, but the flies appear very 

 irregularly, being found on the trees laying their eggs from the beginning of July 

 until autumn. The young maggots become full-grown in about six weeks, and their 

 presence as a rule causes early fruit to ripen prematurely and fall to the ground when 

 the maggots leave it and enter the soil for a short distance. There they change to white 

 puparia, inside which they remain as maggots until the next summer. The pupa forms 

 only a short time before the perfect insect appears. The maggots of late-laid eggs are 

 frequently inside the fruit at the time it is picked, and these go on developing and 

 destroying the fruit more and more as they grow. Apples, apparently sound when 

 gathered, may afterwards become perfectly useless. All varieties of apple are liable 

 to attack, but early varieties seem to be preferred by this insect. 



Remedies. — The only practical remedy so far known, but one which has given 

 excellent results, is to destroy all infested fruit as soon as this fact is discernible. 

 Wind-falls particularly should be carefully gathered up during the summer and fed 

 to stock or destroyed in some other way. The most economical raid effective v;ay of 

 doing this is, perhaps, to allow pigs to run in the orchard from July ^vhen early 

 apples, which are specially susceptible to attack, begin to fall, and till all fruit is 

 gathered. Sheep will eat apples if there is not too much grass on the ground, but are 

 less useful for this purpose than p'igs. Chickens and other poultry are likewise of 

 service. The ground under apple trees in districts where the apple maggot is known 

 te occur should not be left in sod, but should bo cultivated regularly. The fruit of 

 seedlings, crabs and lightly esteemed varieties which are sometimes left unpicked in 

 an orchard should all be attended to and either picked or threshed from the trees and 

 destroyed. If there is no stock available to which this fruit can be fed, it should be 

 buried in a deep hole and then covered up with no less than two or three feet of earth. 



