56 State Horticultural Society. 



of the buffalo tree-hoijper, but as the insects usually appear in over- 

 whelming numbers, they are very apt to either kill young orchards or to 

 set them back a number of years, so it is better to wait to set out an 

 orchard until these insects have passed. They are not likely to injure 

 to any great extent a full-bearing orchard. 



Another insect that is causing a great deal of trouble, to the com- 

 mercial orchardist especially, is the Plum Curculio. These insects are 

 well known in the plum and their work in the apple is also well known, 

 but until recently the exact cause of the trouble was not suspected. 



The plum curculio is responsible for nearly all of the knotty, knurly 

 apples in our orchards, and they are also responsible for the so-called 

 "sting" in apples. Where these insects are numerous, it is simply im- 

 possible to make No. i apples, or even No. 2's, all apples being reduced 

 to culls, and poor ones at that in some instances. 



These beetles hatch out during August and feed by eating little holes 

 through the skin of the apples, causing them to rot at that place. At 

 the approach of cold weather, they hibernate under rubbish of all kinds, 

 and in the spring of the year come out and again begin to feed upon the 

 young apples, and later the females begin to deposit their eggs in the 

 apple, the same as they do in the plum. Fortunately for us, very few of 

 these eggs ever succeed in hatching, and very few of those that do suc- 

 ceed in hatching ever reach maturity, so that the plum curculio develops 

 ■very slowly indeed in the apple orchard, but as this insect develops very 

 rapidly indeed in the plum and peach orchard, the presence of these two 

 near the apple orchard will cause serious trouble unless the insect is 

 fought vigorously in the plum and peach orchard. It is a fact that the 

 plum curculio larvae will not reach maturity in the apple unless the apple 

 falls to the ground by the time the larva is one-half grown. If the apple 

 falls, the larvae reach their full grown worm condition in the apple, then 

 leave it, enter the ground in order to transform to pupae, and later emerge 

 as adults. Therefore we can take advantage of this weak point in the 

 development of this insect, and by picking up and destroying, or turning 

 stock into the orchard and allowing them to destroy, once a week, all 

 windfalls, we can in that way prevent the development of any plum cur- 

 culio in the apple orchard and rid the orchard of this pest, provided the 

 insects are not coming in from some neighboring orchard. 



Another good plan is to take advantage of the fact that these insects 

 are yery delicate in the pupa condition, and if we plow and harrow the 

 orchard shallow but throughout the middle of July, and harrow the first 

 and middle of August, we will kill a great many of the insects in the 

 pupa stage that may have escaped in picking up the apples. 



