12 



Careful harvesting. — It is always advisable to gather the entire 

 crop, leaving none on the ground, and either place the nuts in tight 

 receptacles or fumigate with bisulphid of carbon before marketing. 

 The grubs crawl out soon after the nuts have been gathered, and as 

 they require considerable moisture they will die if confined in closed 

 barrels or boxes. The trouble is that enough nuts are usually left in 

 orchards or in adjoining wood or forest land to serve for the propaga- 

 tion of the insects the following 3^ear. In order to make the meth(5d 

 of treatment here described thorough, it will be necessary to secure the 

 cooperation of neighboring landowners who grow chestnuts for mar- 

 Icet and of all Avho own Avoodland containing chestnut and chinquapin. 



The collection of remnants can be made by children or the unem- 

 ployed. It is also profitable to allow hogs the run of the orchards to 

 destroy what nuts remain after the crop has been harvested. In the 

 mountainous sections of Virginia and Pennsylvania it is a common 

 practice to fatten swine on the unpicked fallen nuts. Hogs fatten on 

 nuts and acorns as well as on corn, and without expense to the grower. 



Cooperation. — The results of the observance of clean farming on 

 the lines that have been indicated may not at once be apparent, but in 

 course of time, if this work is systematically carried out by all grow- 

 ers over a considerable territory, infestation will be very materially 

 decreased. An important point is to ascertain how far the insects 

 fly. Their structure indicates that they are strong fliers and capable, 

 with favoring winds, of migrating considerable distances; but under 

 ordinary circumstances they probably do not fly many miles at a 

 time or in a given year. 



The Pecan Weevil. 

 {Balwmivs caryx Horn.) 

 With the increase of pecan culture in our southern States frequent 

 inquiry is made in regard to the cause of the holes in the nuts 



(fig. 10), and during 

 190H and 1904 there 

 were reports of great 

 injury of this nature, 

 more particularly to 

 pecans grown in Texas, 

 where considerable loss 

 was reported, and in 

 (ieorgia, where in one 

 locality 75 per cent of 

 the crop was a failure. 

 A shortage has also 

 been reported in Mis- 

 sissippi. The insect involved in these cases is the pecan or hickory- 

 nut weevil, a pest which is evidently destined to become one of the 



[Cir. 90] 



10. — Pecan nuts .showing exit hole of pecan weevil larvse. 

 One-third enlarged (author's illustration). 



