69 



ing from the forest may increase more safely and rapidly than under 

 the more hazardous environment of a scattered forest growth. This 

 applies to cultivated plants generally. It is true of an orange grove, 

 a cornfield or a potato patch. The mass planting of any crop is quite 

 sure to call sooner or later for measures to offset the stimulus which 

 such plantings offer to insect increase. 



Reference may be made to a familiar nut plantation which illus- 

 trates a natural result of neglecting one of the insect factors. This 

 plmtation is the government's chestnut orchard at Bell, Maryland, 

 which was planted for scientific purpose some years ago by Dr. Van 

 Fleet. This orchard of around one thousand trees contains numerous 

 species and varieties of chestnut, some of which bear fruit every year. 

 The various scientific projects carried on in this orchard in the past 

 have all been of such a nature that they called for no consideration of 

 weevil increase. Many nuts have been allowed to lie under the trees 

 until the weevil larvae issued and entered the soil. This has resulted 

 in a constant increase of weevils until infestation of the nuts became 

 jjractically one-liundred per cent. All nuts of the crop of 1922 were 

 so wormy that wlien planted they failed to germinate. Injury to the 

 crop of 1923 seemed somewhat less severe, but its extent may be indi- 

 cated by the fact that 3080 nuts from this orchard which were kept 

 bv the speaker in rearing jars yielded 11,085 worms. In the woods 

 adjacent to the orchard the native chestnut trees are disappearing on 

 account of tlie blight, and presumably weevils are on the decrease. 

 Within tlie small area of the orchard, however, the increase has been 

 abnorm.al, due, as has been indicated, to the peculiarly favorable and 

 iriin-mr.dc conditions. If, from the time the trees of the orchard began 

 to bear, the investigations being carried on had called for close gather- 

 iiiu- of the nuts at maturity and the destruction of all the worms that 

 issued from them, there is little doubt that infestation would have been 

 kept within reasonable bounds. At present, after two years of atten- 

 tion to the collection of ripening nuts, there is an apparent decrease 

 in the number of weevils. Strong emphasis should be placed upon 

 the importance of gathering chestnuts as soon as they are ripe and 

 prevention of the w-orms from reaching the soil. This is especially 

 true of districts where woods surrounding chestnut orchards do not 

 contain bearing native chestnut trees. 



The Xtit Weevils 

 Now that the subject of nut weevils has been introduced, let us 

 consider in more detail these grotesque, long-snouted insects whose 



