No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 499 



and the number of these insects together form what resembles a 

 small tnft of wool, and the common name is derived from this fact. 

 They may live on the roots of trees or on the trunk, branches or 

 leaves. Where there are injured spots the wooly aphis is es- 

 pecially liable to be found and by its continuous injection of a 

 poisonous saliva and the sucking of the sap of the tree at each place, 

 it causes a permanent injury and often results in the formation of 

 knots or galls. When it occurs on the roots of trees the best remedv 

 is to uncover the infested roots and put immediately over them a 

 liberal sprinkling of finely ground tobacco leaves or tobacco dust 

 and replace the soil. The wooly aphis above ground can be killed 

 by painting or spraying the spots which it infests with strong soap 

 solutions, oil emulsions, strong tobacco decoction or anv other con- 

 tact insecticide. 



Cherry. 



Cherry Aphis. — The cherry aphis is a plant louse, but instead of 

 being green in color, as are those which have been previouslv dis- 

 cussed, it is of a dark brown color. The brown aphis is also 

 sometimes found on peach. The plant lice of this color are more 

 hardy or less easily killed than are the green aphids or plant lice. 

 I have several individual records of their having been destroyed and 

 the trees cleaned nicely by the use of the boiled lime-sulphur wash 

 applies in the spring while the buds were swelling. We recommend 

 this for cherry and peach each year, whether the San Jos^ Scale be 

 present or not. Also a strong solution of whale oil soap, one pound 

 in five gallons of water, strong tobacco decoction or kesosene emul- 

 sion supplied as a spray, will kill them. 



Curculio. — The cherry curculio is the insect which makes wormv 

 cherries and causes untold annoyance to the housewife, and in fact 

 considerable loss to the crop. This is the pest the work of which is 

 too well known to need description. The damage is done in the larval 

 or grub stage from which it enters the ground, transforms to the 

 pupa and remains over winter to come out in the spring in the form 

 of a small cuculio or snout beetle. To present this the trees should 

 be sprayed with arsenate of lead and Bordeaux mixture, using two or 

 three pounds of arsenate of lead in fifty gallons of Bordeaux just 

 after the buds burst but before the blossoms open and again with 

 the same liquid soon after the petals or flowers fall, and this spray 

 should be repeated again in a week or ten days. The curculio can 

 be caught by jarring the trees over a sheet of cloth spread or held 

 beneath them. It is advisable to cultivate the ground about the 

 middle of July under infested trees and permit fowls to run in the 

 orchard or yard where cherries and plums grow. Pick off the fruit 

 that indicates that is is stung or infested and feed to the poultry 

 or pigs and have fowls ready to destroy the fruit which falls early 

 because infested. 



The Leaf Slug. — ^The cherry leaf slug is one of the slug-like insects 

 resembling a shellless snail, which lives on the leaf by devouring the 

 epidermis, and causing the leaves to appear brown or scorched. It is 

 a moist, dark, almost shapeless mass and is one of the most easilv 

 destroyed insects that infest the foliage of fruit trees. Similar sluffs 

 destroy the leaves of plum and pear trees and are to be killed bv 



