Il8 THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 



or ionr years if the insects are unchecked ; the rougher-barked old trees 

 survive the pest indefinitely, although the vigor is lessened to the point 

 of unproductiveness in many old orchards. Pear-growers find the lime- 

 sulphur solution applied in the dormant season the most effective spray in 

 combating San Jose scale. /Several insect enemies of the scale help to 

 keep the pest down. A quarter-century ago, it was feared that the pear 

 industry of the State might be ruined by San Jose scale, but no energetic 

 fruit-grower now fears the pest. 



Next to San Jose scale, psylla is the most feared pest of the pear in 

 New York. Indeed, this insect is much more difficult to combat success- 

 fully than scale, and were it as wide-spread, the pear industry in New York 

 would be hard hit. The psylla is a minute, sucking insect, wingless in its 

 immature stages, but winged and very active as an adult. They are nearly 

 related to plant -lice, and like them suck the juices of the buds and new 

 leaves. Like plant -lice also they reproduce very rapidly. The immature 

 insects secrete a sticky honey-dew which becomes blackened with a fungus, 

 and the presence of this blackish, sticky substance on foliage and branches 

 is usually the first indication of the pest. The adult is about one-tenth 

 inch long, with four membranous wings, the body dark in color and showing 

 brownish-black markings. Seen through a hand lens, the mature insects 

 look like tiny cicadas. The adults hibernate in crevices of the bark, and 

 at the time buds are swelling in the spring come out to lay their eggs. The 

 eggs hatch in two or three weeks, and there may be four or five broods in 

 a season. The pest is best controlled by spraying with such contact 

 insecticides as tobacco extract both to kill the hibernating insects and later 

 the immature psylla. The winter strength of lime-sulphur solution will 

 kill the eggs. 



The apple- worm, the larva of the codling moth (Carpocapsa pomonella 

 Linnaeus), destroys great quantities of pears year in and year out in New 

 York, causing greater monetary loss to pear-growers than any other insect 

 pest. The worm and its work scarcely need description — all know 

 " wormy " apples and pears and the agent of the mischief. A pinkish -white, 

 fleshy worm eats a cavity within the pear, usually through and around 

 the core, and then eats its way out to the surface, after which it finds 

 smtable shelter in a crevice of the bark and spins its cocoon. About the 

 time apples blossom the larvae transform into small brown pupae, from 

 which small moths emerge in two or three weeks. The moths are coppery- 

 brown, small, with a wing expanse of about three-quarters inch, and very 



