170 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 3 



stone wall where drops are sure to lodge undetected. Incidentally 

 most orchards in New Hampshire are provided with such walls, 

 varying in thickness from eighteen inches to five feet. 



Twenty years ago Professor Harvey in Maine published his mono- 

 graph of the Apple Maggot. It was a good piece of work. The anat- 

 omy and histology of the insect were worked out; the fact was dis- 

 covered and proved that the egg is inserted beneath the skin of the 

 apple, not laid on the surface; matters of consequence in the life his- 

 tory were determined ; and remedial measures were suggested. 



Since then Rhode Island has done some work, and the subject has 

 been touched on elsewhere. 



No investigation in entomology is ever complete. Matters un- 

 thought of, or untouched because they seemed trivial, turn out to be 

 important. The Apple Maggot is no exception. There are gaps in 

 our knowledge of the insect. And it remains still a half-solved prob- 

 lem, which means that, economically, it is not solved at all. 



We have undertaken to fill these gaps, so far as we can ; and to 

 find the remedy, if it lies in our power to discover it. 



To trace the spread of the insect in the state, and to get at certain 

 economic phases of the problem, we are securing from the growers 

 detailed reports of the conditions in their orchards. We furnish 

 them with two printed blanks. One contains a list of seventy-two 

 varieties of apples, and we ask them to indicate those that are badly 

 infested, those moderately infested and those free from attack. The 

 other contains numerous questions. We ask them what their loss 

 has been this year ; how long their trees have been infested ; how their 

 trees are situated — whether in sod, cultivation or pasture, whether 

 any lie along a stone wall. We want to know if they have ever 

 allowed any sheep in their orchard, any pigs, any chickens, any 

 cows, and — what is equally to the point — what time of year were 

 they turned into the orchard and when removed. We ask them if 

 they keep the fallen fruit picked up, and — again an important point 

 — how often. Other similar questions are included in this blank. 



These reports are coming in rapidly, and are both interesting and 

 valuable. Some of the data may be crude and some unreliable, but 

 much is to the point and all is suggestive. 



In the matter of life history and habits we are giving particular 

 attention to some eight or ten problems, all of them now more or less 

 obscure. We want to know what becomes of the larvae in winter 

 apples — for they are there, half grown, as late as December. A lot 

 of these apples are now" under observation. Records have been made 

 in various orchards that will form the basis for a study of the flying 



