116 Missouri State Horticultural Society. 



vineyard, lie should consult with successful fruit growers in his 

 neighborhood as to the best mode of procedure, in selecting kinds 

 and varieties, in modes of planting, after cultivation and exposure, 

 because their success and experience entitles their views on these 

 points to due consideration, (and if they are honest and not jealous) 

 their advice Avill be of great value. No man of good common sense 

 will expect that the mere planting of an orchard or vineyard, and 

 then leaving it severely alone entitles him to expect crops of fruit. 

 Men do not act so in regard to a cornfield or vegetable garden ; they 

 know that after culture, watchfulness against depredating insects, 

 weeds and other drawbacks are quite as important as the first plant- 

 ing if they would enjoy the fruits of their labor. And just here is 

 w'here most men fail. An orcliard needs cultivation and manure 

 just as much as a cornfield though perhaps not quite so often. 

 Pruning needs to be done more or less every year, but not by pro- 

 fessional (?) tree butchers : such men think that there must be 

 great piles of wood and brush to testify to their science and efficiency. 



If the outlook seems discouraging, it is so mainly because of 

 insect enemies. The most destructive of these is the codling moth. 

 Extermination is well-nigh impossible. Being on the wing during 

 the night the insect is unknown even to many professional fruit 

 growers. We all know the larva and her work. If we wish to 

 know the perfect insect we can take the larva (apple w^orm) in a 

 box or fruit jar and let her go through her transformation and see 

 the perfect insect (imago) when it emerges from the pupa. Even 

 an apppreciable check from the ravages of this insect cannot be 

 expected from the efforts of individual horticulturists. There 

 must be united, universal and persistent efforts on the jDart of all 

 fruit growers. Let me quote once more what has been reiterated 

 at every one of your annual meetings, that "eternal vigilance is the 

 price of fruit I " 



When we come to the peach and jDlum we state the case in a 

 nutshell by substituting curculio, for codling moth. Of course the 

 natural history of the insects differ. The grape has several pestif- 

 erous insect enemies, and among these the steel blue beetle, the 

 leaf hopper and the grape root louse and borer. But the rot, 

 whether the result of atmospheric conditions or insect work, seems 

 to be the most deadly enemy. (I hope, by way of parenthesis, that 

 our more experienced grape growers and vine dressers can give some 

 light on these points, and they are invited to stick a pin here). 



There was a time which many here present will remember, 

 when Missouri had a State entomologist, and in this respect was 



