The Canadian llorticnltitrist. 



^07 



LIGHT FROM THE EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



SUCCESS IN rUEVENTIXG THE IN- 

 JURIES OF THE PLUM CURCULIO. 



THE wisdom of organizin*,^ the 

 various Experiment Stations 

 in the States and Provinces is be 

 coining daily more and more appa- 

 rent. A subscriber, living in the 

 Ottawa valley, writes that already 

 the Experimental farm is giving a 

 fresh impetus to fruit culture in that 

 district, by showing wliat the pos- 

 sibilities in that latitude are. The 

 scientific and the practical have been 

 too long separated, and now, through 

 these institutions, a union is being 

 effected that promises to be of the 

 greatest benefit to the farmers and 

 fruit growers of tlie land. 



In the Report of the Ohio Experi- 

 ment Station, for 1S88, we find the re- 

 sult of the most careful experiment 

 with arsenites in preventing the in- 

 juries of the plum curculio, by Mr. C. 

 Weed, the Entomologist. A young 

 orchard of seventj'-five cherry trees 

 was divided' into two parts, and one 

 part carefully sprayed with London 

 purple just after the fall of the 

 blossoms, and again after rains ; 

 and a careful estimate of the result 

 was made. It w^as fully demon- 

 strated that, of the fruit on 

 the sprayed portion that was liable 

 to injury, 75 per cent, was saved by 

 the treatment. When the fruit was 

 ripe, it was subjected to the most 

 careful chemical examination, and 

 not the least trace of arsenic could 

 be detected. It was, therefore, con- 

 cluded that there could not be the 

 east danger to health where the 

 spravinj,^ was done at least three or 



f(jur weeks l)cfurc the time of ripen- 

 ing. Experiments with plinn trees 

 were also successful in giving, as a 

 result, a heavy crop of fruit, while 

 on trees not sprayed a large propor- 

 tion were injured. Equal success 

 seems to have attended spraying with 

 lime ; trees, on which the fruit was 

 coated with lime, matured an im- 

 mense crop of fruit. 



Experiments with pear trees also 

 resulted in a large crop of perfect 

 fruit, free from injury by either the 

 curculio or the codling moth. Even 

 better results were brought about by 

 adding, to the usual London purple 

 mixture, fresh air-slacked lime, in the 

 proportion of a half-peck to a barrel 

 of the solution, and with less injury 

 to the foliage. It should be observed 

 that the good effects of the arsenites 

 consists in killing the parent insect, 

 while that of the lime simph- in driv- 

 ing it awa}-. 



THE ROSE-BEETLE. 



In the eastern and middle states, 

 immense amount of injury has been 

 done to grapes, peaches and other 

 fruits by this beetle, and no remedy 

 except hand-picking has been so far 

 known, until last summer, when in 

 response to an inquirer. Prof. Weed, 

 of the Ohio Experiment Station, re- 

 commended a trial of a liberal spray- 

 ing with lime, a regular white-wash- 

 ing. The result was so successful that 

 we quote from a letter of Mr. Dunbar, 

 the experimenter. He said, — "A 

 thorough application of the remedy 

 devised by }ou was no doubt the 

 means of saving me many dollars' 

 worth of fruit, for wliich result I feel 



