ENTOMOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT. 317 



I believe I am warranted in the following conclusions: The arsenites 

 and carbolized plaster will protect against the plum curculio if they can 

 be kept on the tree or fruit. But in case of very frequent rains the jarring 

 method will not only be cheaper, but much more effective. Again, as our 

 wild fruits are more cleared away we must have plums in our orchards to 

 protect the apples from the curculio. When apples are seriously stung they 

 become so gnarled and deformed as to be worthless. It will pay, then, to 

 set plum trees near by or among the apple trees. Then we will escape 

 mischief among our apples from the curculio, and will only need to spray 

 our apples once, to destroy the codling moth, and can treat the plum trees 

 three or four times with Paris green or carbolated lime in case we have only 

 occasional showers, or can jar the trees when the rains are very frequent. 

 For the apples we can use London purple, one pound to 200 gallons of 

 water. For the plums we must use Paris green, one pound to two or three 

 hundred gallons of water. If the carbolated plaster is preferred, we use 

 one pint of crude carbolic acid to fifty pounds of land plaster. This is 

 thrown freely over the trees, so as to strike every plum on the tree which is 

 being treated. 



Another very important practical point has been suggested by the past 

 season's experience with these insecticides : I refer to the danger of applying 

 them before the blossoms fall. Bees are quite as susceptible to these 

 poisons as are the codling larvae and curculio. In their good work of collect- 

 ing nectar and fertilizing the blossoms, they are very certain to take the 

 poison as well, if the trees have been sprayed. Of course there is no excuse 

 for spraying at so early a date, as neither the curculio or codling larvae 

 commence their attack till the blossoms fall. Thus for the object in mind, 

 as well as for the safety of the bees, delay should be insisted upon. I think 

 we, as scientists and all educated men, should pronounce vehemently and 

 with one voice against spraying our fruit trees with the arsenites till the 

 blossoms have all fallen. We should even go farther. We should secure the 

 enactment of laws which would visit any such offense with fine and imprison- 

 ment. Such laws would prove a ready and active educator. 



In the past season many bee keepers have lost severely from the neglect of 

 their fruit growing neighbors to observe this caution. I will only mention 

 two cases. Mr. John G. Smith, Barry, Illinois, writes: f One of my 

 neighbors, owning an orchard of about one hundred acres of apple trees, 

 sprayed the trees with Paris green and water just as they were in full bloom. 

 The result is that ten or twelve bee keepers are ruined." The imago no less 

 than the larvae and pupae were destroyed. Mr. J. A. Pearce, Grand Rapids, 

 Mich., was also a heavy loser from the same cause. His bees likewise died 

 in all stages of development. 



It is well to remember and to urge that this loss is not confined t& the bee 

 keeper, for the fruitgrower as well as the apiarist needs the bees and their 

 work to insure his best success. It only requires, then, that our people know 

 the truth to insure against loss in this direction. 



INJURY TO THE FOLIAGE. 



Another practical question of no small moment in this use of the arsenites 

 refers to injury to the foliage of the trees treated. In an elaborate series of 

 experiments the past season, we desired to learn the effect on different trees 



