292 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



next spring while they are still siiuill, using the ordinary standard mixture for foliage- 

 eating insects, namely, 1 pound of Paris green, 1 pound of quick lime, and 200 gallons 

 of watei'. 



The Plum Curculio {Conotracliehis nenuphar, Hbst.). — Plum growers have 

 pretty generally adopted spraying with Bordeaux mixture and Paris green as the best 

 remedy against the Plum Curculio upon plums. The treatment, however, is by no means 

 claimed to be a perfect remedy, although I believe that the saving in the quality of the 

 crop will always make it pay handsomely to spray plum trees, and in the mean time it 

 is tbe best remedy. The fact that most of the large plum growers have adopted 

 spraying as a regular practice speaks for itself and shows that it pays them to do so. 

 Spraying cherries and peaches has not been quite so satisfactory as in the case of the 

 plum, and upon the apple to which the Plum Curculio is sometimes very destructive it 

 would appear that spraying is even less effective. Nevertheless, it pays to spray as in 

 the other cases. 



In October last, I received through Mr. W. T. Macoun, some specimens of apples 

 which had been utterly ruined for the market by the Plum Curculio, being gnarled and 

 indented wherever the beetles had bitten ("stung") them. At the same time the 

 growers of the apples, Messrs. R. Jack & Sons, of Chateauguay Basin, Que., sent a 

 bottle filled with specimens of Plum Curculio taken on the apple trees from which the 

 injured fruit was sent. Messrs. Jack & Sons write : — 



" Chateauguay Basin, Que., Nov. 8. — You ask if plums are badly affected by Curculio 

 with us. They are, very badly, both on the farm and all round this section of country. 

 I have known the pest sometimes to destro}' the whole of the crop on some of the ti-ees. 

 You ask also whether the female uses the young apples to deposit her eggs in. That is 

 the way in which most damage is done. Sometimes we have not been able to find a 

 sound apple on some trees with about a bushel of apples on. Most of the apples had 

 eggs deposited in them or had been punctured, and some of the apples would have as 

 many as three or four eggs in them. We have noticed some apples injured within two 

 or three days after the blossoms have fallen. We notice very little difference between 

 sprayed and unsprayed trees. They seem to be very little affected by Paris green. 

 Last season we used Paris green in the first two applications of Bordeaux mixture, i.e., 

 once before blossoming, and immediately after the blo.ssoius had fallen, at the rate of 8 

 ounces to 50 gallons of water, and still they injured great quantities of apples. The 

 kinds which they seem to have a preference for are Duchess, Yellow Transparent, 

 Astrachan, Grimes Golden, and Golden Ball, but if these kinds are scarce they work on 

 the other varieties. In fact, the Curculio does us more damage than all the other pests 

 and fungous diseases combined. A good many apples fall prematurely with the larva in 

 them. Do you think it would be any advantage to pasture the orchard with sheep, so 

 that they would eat the fallen apples and so destroy the grub? We send you under 

 separate cover samples of apples which have been injured by them." 



" Noveniber 18. — Your favour of the 12th instant to hand. In it you ask how 

 long it is sincr- %ve noticed the Curculio destroying the apples. We would say that it is 

 about six or eight years since we have noticed them doing any injury to any extent to 

 apples, but they have troubled the plums for a good deal longer period. They also do 

 considerable damage to cherries. We have along one of the line fences between our 

 neighbour and ourselves, a row of common red plums which have been infested with 

 Curculio as long as we can remember, but the place where the Curculio is worst is at 

 the other side of the orchard. We intend to have these old plum trees cut down this 

 fall and have the land cultivated for a couple of years. There is in a field next to the 

 orchard a clump of hawthorne of which the haws have been infested with little grubs, 

 but we have never expeiimented to see if they were Curculio or not. Perhaps you 

 could give some information ? T notice that the Curculio does not seem to do so much 

 damage where the trees are cultivated often." — [R. Jack & Sons.] 



The above letters were in reply to questions which are well indicated by the answers 

 given. Some ot the apples forwarded by Messrs. Jack had from 5 to 25 punctures 

 and were utterly useless for the market. It is well known that the Plum Curculio lays 



