11 



care that any excess not at the moment needed be stored in tight 

 boxes or receptacles so that any larvae deserting the fruit will be 

 forced to pupate on the bottom of the container, where later they may 

 be destroyed. When the drop fruit is not needed for the stock, it 

 may be simply thrown into a hole or holes here and there in the 

 orchard, to be finally covered with 2 or 3 feet of earth in the late fall 

 after frosts have occurred, to prevent the escape of flies the following 

 season. The work of gathering need not be begun until the first ripe 

 windfalls of the earl}^ varieties are found, but should be kept up from 

 this time until all the fruit has been harvested. 



Orchards may often be pastured with sheep, hogs, or cattle, in a 

 way to insure the destruction of the windfalls, and this practice is 

 recommended as the cheapest and most satisfactory method of deal- 

 ing with the apple-maggot problem. Orchards may be permanently 

 pastured or the stock turned in daily in sufficient numbers and at 

 times to accomplish the desired consumption of the fallen fruit. This 

 practice will be especially useful in commercial orchards, and, where 

 infestation from adjacent orchards is not great, will insure practically 

 clean fruit. 



Plowing and cultivation of orchards would appear to be a useful 

 practice in the control of this pest, and these methods have been 

 more or less recommended for some years. Careful experiments in 

 Ehode Island on the value of such work have recently been reported 

 by Professors Card and Stene.'* Puparia of apple maggots were 

 placed at different depths in the soil, ranging from 1 to 6 inches, to 

 approximate conditions resulting from plowing to bury the pupa?, but 

 this was found to have little effect in preventing the escape of flies, 

 and the conclusion was reached that spring plowing of orchards to 

 turn under the pupse was valueless, under the soil conditions which 

 there obtained. 



It is thought, however, that frequent tillage of the orchard in early 

 summer may be unfavorable to the development of the pupae to 

 flies, and experiments made in 190J: by Messrs. Card and M. A. 

 Blake ^ with pupae placed in boxes in which the soil was frequently 

 stirred, resulted apparently in their complete destruction. More ex- 

 tended and conclusive experiments along these lines are urgently 

 needed. Aside from its possible value in destroying the apple maggot, 

 frequent tillage of orchards in late spring and early summer is de- 

 sirable, especially for young trees, as favoring a better tree and fruit 

 development. 



« Seventeenth Ann. Kept. R. I. Agr. Exp. Sta., Part 11, p. 191 (1904). 

 & Eighteenth Ann. Rept. R. I. Agr. Exp. Sta., Part II. p. 107 (190.5). 

 [Cir. 101] 



