52 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



fruits also suffer from its attacks, and Mr. Schnell complained that it 

 destroyed the greater part of his gooseberry blossoms. The bugs 

 secrete themselves in the flower clusters and among the partially un- 

 folded leaves, into which they insert their beaks for the purpose of 

 extracting the sap. Their punctures are peculiarly poisonous to vege- 

 table tissue, and entire shoots will often turn black from the attacks of 

 a very few bugs. They lay their eggs on all sorts of vegetation, and 

 the young bugs, of a pale green color, without wings, may be found 

 from the first of June to August, usually on the under sides of leaves. 

 When they first appear in the spring they may be easily jarred from the- 

 young shoots early in the morning while yet torpid from cold. They 

 may also be put to flight later in the day by burning rubbish that 

 creates a strong "smudge" in the neighborhood of the pear or other 

 fruit trees infested, arranging the bonfire so that the wind will carry 

 the smoke through the trees, but not near enough to injure them with 

 the heat. 



Mr. Gilbert and others have sent me twigs of peach and new shoots 

 of blackberry which were bored and killed by the larvae of the stalk- 

 borer (Gortyna nitela), an insect of the cut- worm family. This worm 

 is one of the most general feeders known to entomologists, and for this 

 reason is seldom seriously destructive to any single plant. Occasionally 

 however, it seems to show a temporary partiality for a certain kind of 

 stem, and will then do much damage. It is often found when young in 

 the new growth of peaches, and is especially destructive in the nursery. 

 On larger trees, as the wood hardens, the larvre cut their way out and 

 enter the stems of some more succulent plant. When full grown it 

 measures \ inches, and is a smooth, slender worm, indistinctly 

 striped and easily recognized by its dull green and livid purple color. 

 It is nearly two months in attaining its full growth, and undergoes its 

 transformations either within the bored stem or slightly beneath the 

 surface of the ground. The moth is' a rather handsome, plumy affair of 

 a drab color, intermingled with yellowj the fore wings crossed on the 

 outer third by a pale band, and having in the center a more or less con- 

 spicuous white or pinkish spot. It often causes much disappointment 

 in the flower garden by boring the stalks of dahlias, asters, lilies, etc., 

 and I have known it to bore almost every stalk in a large bed of rhu- 

 barb (pie-plant.) The only known remedy is to pull out or cut off and 

 burn the drooping stalks or twigs infested by it. 



DISCUSSION. 



F. Holsinger — Thinks that the codling moth will be plenty ; do not 

 think that arsenic preparation is going to accomplish any good ; would 

 jar trees for curculio. 



