341 



HORTICULTURAL INSECT ENEMIES. 



By D. L. Van Dine. 



Read by title at the Farmers' Institute of Hawaii, September 29, 1906, 



accompanied by an exhibit of the injurious insects 



of fruit trees in Hawaii. 



As a fruit grower's aim is to produce fruit with a profit, his 

 interest in "bugs" and "bhghts" is hmited to the information 

 that will enable him to prevent the destruction of such profit. 

 The view-point is one of dollars and cents. The reason for 

 Honolulu's door-yard trees and vines suffering as they do from 

 their insect enemies, is not that Hawaii is especially visited by 

 hosts of devouring pests not experienced in other countries, but 

 rather that the pocket-book of the owners are not being hard hit. 

 Let the raising of oranges or avocados become a man's only de- 

 pendence for the bread and butter of his family and his contention 

 for the profit with the insect enemies will bfcome of some import- 

 ance. Therefore we are not troubling ourselves to any extent 

 over the oft-repeated statement that Hawaii cotild be a great 

 fruit country if it were not for the "blights." Let the pros- 

 pective fruit grower give to the problem of the insect enemies of 

 his fruit trees, the same consideration that he must give to the 

 selection of locality ; preparation of the land ; propagation and 

 cultivation of the trees and vines ; and harvesting and marketing 

 the crop, and he will find the problem but one of many that must 

 be solved by careful study and honest endeavor. 



I could enumerate the many species of insects feeding on our 

 fruit trees and vines and tell you their names, their peculiar 

 characteristics and habits, their injuries and twenty other "theirs," 

 but we do not remember details not of immediate in- 

 terest to us, therefore I will try to help you to help 

 yourselves, when the time comes when you do need the details. 

 The supposition will not be that you have gone to the Govern- 

 ment Xursery. received a tree for nothing, had your yard-boy 

 put it in a place never suited for a fruit tree, and then left it 

 there to act as a breeding place for its insect enemies, but, rather, 

 that you contemplate raising some sort of fruit for profit and 

 would learn its insect enemies and how to control them. 



It is man's convenience that makes one insect noxious and the 



