sources of profit. Were it not for the "• worms." •' borers," and 

 " blights," chestnut growing might devehip into a most hicrative in- 

 dustry in regions adapted to it. 



Estimates or losses. — A fair estimate of the damage done annually 

 by weevils to chestnuts grown in the United States would probably 

 fall little short of 25 per cent, while in some years the percentage 

 exceeds that figure, running as high as 40 or 50 per cent, (xrowers 

 in some localities report no damage, others place losses as low as 5 

 or 10 per cent, while instances are cited of whole crops being de- 

 stroyed. The amount of loss is dependent on locality, season, and 

 to a more limited extent on the variety of nuts grown. The greatest 

 damage is usually incurred in regions where chestnuts have grown 

 wild for many years, and the least where there are no wild chestnuts 

 or chinquapins and the nuts are grown only for market and are care- 

 fully gathered. The most extensive losses, judging from available 

 sources of information, appear to be in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, 

 New Jersey, New York (in the vicinity of New York City), Delaware, 

 Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. 



In Georgia, Spanish and Japanese varieties have been cultivated for 

 years without attack by weevils being noticed. In New Jersey, 50 per 

 cent of the same varieties have been ruined. A grower in Missouri 

 has reported no damage to 50 trees of an American variety ; another 

 at South Haven, Mich., has reported no injury for a period of three 

 or four years to Japanese and Spanish chestnuts grown there, while 

 from 5 to 20 per cent of the crop of native nuts was annually de- 

 stroyed. The nearly complete destruction of the chestnut crop of 

 New Jersey for 1893 was reported. 



The species or chestnut weevils. — The species of weevils which 

 ,infest chestnuts are two in number — the larger chestnut weevil, Bala- 

 ninus prohoscidens Fab., and the lesser chestnut weevil, B. rectus Say. 

 They have extremely long, slender beaks or snouts, nearly as fine as a 

 horsehair, and considerably longer than the body in the female. By 

 means of this long beak the female is able to penetrate the thickest burr 

 of the chestnut with its long spines and to cut out, with the minute and 

 sharp mandibles at the tip of her beak, a little hole for the deposition 

 of her eggs. These are inserted through the husk into the growing nut. 



The two species resemble each other greatly in color and in mark- 

 ings, the general color of both being golden yellow, ochraceous, or clay 

 yellow, frequently tinged with olive, and a little paler on the lower 

 surface. The disk of the thorax is a little darker, with a wide bright 

 band on each side, and the elytra, or wing-covers, are mottled with 

 rich light brown or dark brown markings of variable size and extent.* 



" Occasional Individuals lack the darker markings, some being paler, others darkoi-. oven 

 reddish. The sroiind color, as may be seen in abraded specimens, is really black, and the 

 apparent color is due to scales very similar to those of butterflies and moths. 

 ICir. 09] 



