'^AO STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



possil)le with the cnrrant worm, why may it not be achieved with other 

 insects? Spraying with arsenites is tlie next great ste]) in pomology, but 

 others know more of this than I. The borers can only be exterminated 

 by cutting. 



R. MoEiiiLL: My experience with mischievous insects is confined chietly 

 to the cutworm; for relief from his (l('|)redations there is a clear way if we 

 only diligently follow it. There is not such a formidable array of these 

 depredatory insects as we might suppose from the words we sometimes 

 hear or articles we read. The codlin moth, curculio, cutworm, and 

 currant worm are about all of any conse(|uence. I supposc^l s])raying was 

 now generally understood. It is as perfect a remedy for the codlin moth 

 as we shall ever get. Six ounces of London purple to one hundred gallons 

 of water, well stirred and the tree thoroughly drenched, make an effective 

 spray. Early spraying after the blossoms fall is necessary, for the calyxes 

 of some apples close very soon after the petals fall, closing up the cavity 

 into which it is desired the poison shall enter. Spraying will not be as 

 effective ui)oii the second brood of larvjie, and so we are the more dependent 

 upon thorough destruction of the first. I do not think merely driving' 

 through an orchard and spraying as you go is sufficient. I can not 

 thoroughly drench a tree in that way. A weak solution of either arsenite^ 

 frequently applied, is said to be effective against curculio. Lime and 

 carbolic acid are effectual also but only as a repellant. With us in Berrien 

 county the cutworm is the worst pest of all. Late plowing (very late) is 

 destructive of this worm. The moth appears in July and lays eggs till 

 September, which hatch into pupa^ about eight inches below the surface. 

 Plowing disturbs and kills them. The worms do much damage to peach 

 ^trees in the spring, ascending them and eating the opening buds, as well as 

 to grapes, which they harm in the same way. Near Benton Harbor, 

 people sometimes hunt for these worms all night with lanterns. I have 

 seen a whole family so engaged, trying to save their grapes. Last year I 

 was highly successful on vines and young trees by banding them with 

 wool. This does not. after wetting, pack down like cotton, and the worms 

 can not crawl over it. Some })oison them with Paris green in fiour paste 

 laid at the base of the tree; others put the j^oison on dock leaves and lay 

 these about where the worms will get at them. I have also found the 

 plowing under of buckwheat when in blc^om an effectual destroy ei'. 



Joseph Lanxin: I well remember how Mr. A. S. Dyckman used to jar 

 and trap curculio, and one day he showed me a vial full of little bugs. 

 These were slow processes, but by some were made effective. Trapping 

 (by placing chijjs under the trees, the curculio crawling beneath them) 

 was first practiced; then came jarring the trees and catching the curculio 

 on sheets spread out under them, but this also is now discarded, and 

 spraying is in use. I tried to raise plums by jarring. ])ut with no success, 

 and I recall when my neighbors, Merritt and Johnson, came over and 

 stole my whole crop — to-wit, one plum. A year ago I bought spraying- 

 apparatus, but got the mixture too strong and so harmed both foliage and 

 fruit; but I am likely to get a fair crop this year. Yesterday I jarred 

 eight trees as a test, but found only four curculio on the sheets, where 

 ordinarily there wx)uld have been as many as sixty. I shall continue to 

 spray my pears each six or seven days, for the slug and curculio. 



W. H. Payne: I sprayed plums this season, using one poTind of 

 London purple to two hundred gallons of water, and forty-eight hours 

 later found dead curculio enough, but only two live ones upon four trees. 



