secretary's budget. 437 



APPLE CURCULIO. 



Mr. Kellogg, of Wisconsin, sends us some apples that have been 

 "the prey of the apple curculio. As the apple grower who is familiar 

 with the subject is aware, the apples are of gnarly, deformed condi- 

 tion. However, there are many who do not understand why apples 

 present this appearance. It may be that years pass and no trouble of 

 this character is noticed in the orchard, but suddenly there comes a 

 season in which the fruit is badly injured. It is sometimes difficult to 

 recognize the best known varieties so terribly are they deformed. They 

 will be small in size, irregular in shape, with ridges and bumps; and 

 in every depression examination will show a little black dot, which 

 gives the apple the appearance of having been drawn down to that 

 point, as a cushion would be drawn down by a thread. As before said 

 many do not understand what the trouble is. This is the work of the 

 apple curculio. It makes its appearance the last of May or the first of 

 June. They attack the fruit with their long, slender snout, drilling a 

 small hole about a tenth of an inch in depth, and scooped out at the 

 base. The holes are made principally for the purposes of food. Some, 

 however, are for the deposit of eggs. Wherever they sting the apple, 

 growth stops, and about the hole which the sting makes, a hardness 

 appears, which, preventing further development, causes the irregular 

 surface of the apple. 



As to remedies, a writer says that the fact that they go through 

 the chrysalis state in the fruit, while it hangs on the tree, makes it 

 difficult to destroy them, except by gathering and destroying the stung 

 fruit. This would be attended with much labor and care. The fact 

 that they seem to prefer the native crab and thorn apples, and the fact 

 that among cultured pears and apples there are some varieties to which 

 they take a special liking might be taken advantage of, and by sacri- 

 ficing the fruit on these trees the great bulk of the beetles might be 

 destroyed with much less difficulty. The same remedies used against 

 the plum curcu'io, are said to be used in checking this pest also, but 

 owing to differences in their character and habits, the remedies cannot 

 all be used with the same degree of success. The apple curculio is 

 much less inclined to drop from the tree when disturbed by sudden 

 jars; the length of time during which it is depositing its eggs, and the 

 length of season required to reach maturity, would make it necessary 

 to greatly prolong the contest to be as effectual. Covering the fruit 

 and the trees with soot from burning coal tar might make it so offensive 

 to them, as to drive them to some other tree or orchard, but whether 

 it would be possible to use enough, even of this disgusting stuff, to 



