l66 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



some trees and left others untreated and others partially sprayed, 

 and the results have invariably been in favor of spraying. With 

 the Bordeaux mixture I feel positively sure we rnay largely control 

 all fungous diseases, providing the work is properly done. The 

 apple worm is not so easily controlled by this means, and yet we 

 may and do greatly reduce its depredations in the apple orchard. 

 I sprayed for this insect the past summer, first, as soon as the 

 bloom fell, again in about ten days, the third time fifteen days later, 

 and the last time August first, to catch the second hatch of the 

 moth — the last application being made at the suggestion of Prof. 

 Beach. The best results were always obtained where the work 'was 

 most thoroughly done. For instance, when gathering the fruit 

 more wormy apples were found in the tops of high trees, where 

 the spray could not be so readily directed, and on the sides of 

 trees, where the adverse winds prevented a liberal application of 

 the spray material. 



There is no other insect or disease affecting the fruit of the 

 apple orchard that is so much to be dreaded or that is so difficult to 

 control as the apple curculio. I think I may safely say that in 

 my own orchard all other enemies combined have not one year with 

 another caused, so much damage to the apple crop as this particular 

 pest has done. One year ago it practically destroyed the entire crop 

 of apples, in spite of all efforts to prevent it. All orchardists no 

 doubt are so well acquainted with this insect I scarcely need de- 

 scribe it here. Its peculiar crescent shaped cut on the little apples, 

 from the time they are of the size of a large hazelnut until they 

 are nearly half grown, always betrays its presence and its deadly 

 work. Shortly after the fruit has been stung, its juices begin to ap- 

 pear on the surface of the apple, which after a short exposure to the 

 sun and air thicken into a gummy or crystal-like substance, while 

 perhaps ninety per cent of the fruit that is badly stung will drop 

 from the tree before it is half matured, and much of that which 

 remains until ripe is left in ridges and depressions, rendering it 

 unsightly and unsalable in the market and almost unfit for home 

 use. This insect does not seem to subsist upon the tree's foliage, 

 but it seems to have marked the young apple as a most convenient 

 spot for depositing its eggs, under the folds of the tender skin of 

 the little apple, that is mortally wounded from once to a half dozen 

 times by its piercing arrow. While the spray mixtures used for 

 other purposes tend in a degree to molest the insect and to reduce 

 the injury it otherwise might do in the apple orchard, at the same 

 time in my own experience such remedies are far from being a sure 

 preventive of the ravages of the apple curculio. 



