350 



STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The curculio (fig. 19) is always present, and no safe remedy is known. It can be 

 depended on to talie a considerable part of the crop each year, and in years when 

 the yield is scanty it is sometimes content with nothing short of the whole crop. 

 This is especially likely to be the case when spring frosts have unduly thinned the 

 crop or have restricted it to particular orchards. Arsenical sprays will hold the 

 curculio in cheek, but are scarcely to be recommended for the peach, since they 

 are very likely to cause its leaves and fruit to fall and may even kill small branches. 

 If used at all the greatest care should be exercised. In some cases it might pay to 

 capture and destroy the beetles by jarring them upon a framework covered with 

 sheets. 



Scale insects have thus far done but little injury to peach trees in the eastern 

 states; but the enemy is present, and one species in particular, i*ecently introduced 

 from the West Indies (a white scale entirely covering trunk and limbs and quickly 

 killing the tree), is already so far north as Washington, D. C, and is likely to be 

 very troublesome when more generally distributed. Growers should be on the look- 

 out for this pest (fig. 20) and burn infested trees at sight. 



A word about sprays and tree washes in connection with peach tree diseases is 



Fig. 20.— The whitewash scale (Diaspis lanatus). a, section of peach trunk with male and female 

 scales in situ, natural size; b, scale of adult female; c, do. in natural position, enlarged. (Howard.) 



not out of place. Many have been recommended without proper inquiry as to their 

 merits, and the results of their use have been in some cases so disastrous as to 

 prejudice the whole community against any kind of fungicidal or insecticidal treat- 

 ment. Twice the writer has known of fine orchards being ruined by the application 

 to the trunks of washes containing tar, soap, and arsenites. In one case the grower 

 was obliged to remove a whole orchard seven years old, the trees being either killed 

 by the application or injured beyond recovery. Spraying the foliage for insect and 

 fungous diseases must also be followed with unusual caution. The leaves of the 

 peach tree are very sensitive to acids and to arsenical poisons. However, peach 

 trees may be sprayed with Bordeaux mixture without danger, provided proper care 

 be taken in its preparation. The lime must be freshly slaked and must be in excess. 

 The first crop of fruit is always a matter of special interest, and the inexperienced 

 grower is likely to allow the trees to overbear if not specially cautioned. After the 

 June drop has passed, if the trees are heavily laden a very considerable number of 

 the peaches should be pulled off. It takes much less labor to pick them at this 

 time than when they are I'ipe, and the remaining fruit will be enough larger and 

 better in fiavor and color to more than compensate for this thinning. Thinning is 

 not very generally practiced by peach-growers in the United States, but if judi- 

 ciously done no work in the orchard will give better results. Some of the quali- 

 ties specially desirable in a crop of peaches are size, flavor, and color. These 

 desirable points can not be expected when the tree is allowed to overbear, in which 

 event the fruit is likely to be small and green and inferior in color, and will bring 

 a corresponding poor price when put upon the market. The extra labor involved in 

 handling a large crop of inferior fruit is also a matter not to be forgotten. Some 



