254 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



November, 1912. 



It would be difficult to find a system 

 better suited on the whole to either the 

 grower or the purchaser. These, after 

 all, are the only people to be considered ; 

 as the merchants, commission people, 

 and other intermediaries are quite cap- 

 able of looking after themselves. 



A uniform pack of both apples and 

 peaches throughout Canada on such a 

 basis would satisfy all parties and would 

 give the grower — what he does not al- 

 ways get — a fair percentage of the price 



paid by the public ; while the latter when 

 purchasing would know exactly what 

 they were getting and would not be 

 fleeced as they constantly are in the the 

 large cities, esf>ecially in Toronto. Fur- 

 ther, cooperative unions should adver- 

 tise the price of fruit and make it known 

 to the public where fruit can be obtained 

 at its proper price. Much of the jobbery 

 in the commission trade could thus be 

 obviated, and producers and consumers 

 brought more closely together. 



The Railroad Worm* 



Arthur Gibson, Assistant Entomologist, C. E. P., Ottawa, Ont. 



THE apple maggot or railroad worm 

 is responsible for considerable dam- 

 age in certain districts of Quebec 

 province. Recently it has increased con- 

 spicuously and is now more numerous 

 than ever. In many Ontario orchards 

 also the insect has been particularly pre- 

 valent. Owners of orchards where this 

 insect occurs should not allow it to in- 

 crease . 



The life history of the insect is briefly 

 as follows: The adult flies emerge dur- 

 ing the latter part of June and during 

 the month of July. It has been stated 

 recently by Illingworth that the eggs are 

 about three weeks in developing within 

 the body of the female flies. When de- 

 positing the eggs the female, by means 

 of her sharp ovipositor, inserts them be- 

 neath the skin of the apple and the young 

 larva; hatch within a week, the exact 

 time varying according to weather con- 

 ditions. The maggots at once begin to 

 feed "upon the flesh of the apple, making 

 winding burrows through the pulp until 

 they reach full growth in from a month 

 to six weeks. These burrows, or tun- 

 nels, soon become reddish or brownish 

 in color and are easily seen when the 

 fruit is cut. It is owing to this habit 

 that the maggot is called the railroad 

 worm. 



The female flies are each capable of 

 laying three hundred to four hundred 

 eggs, and a single apple may contain 

 several maggots, the work of which, of 

 course, causes it to ripen prematurely 

 and fail to the ground. The small white 

 maggots are difficult to detect when 

 young, but as they become nature and 

 the tunnels larger they can readily be 

 seen. When the injured apples fall to 

 the ground, the maggots soon leave them 

 and enter the earth to the depth of an 

 inch or so, where they change into brown 

 puparia and in this state they pass the 

 winter, emerging as flies the following 

 summer. 



GATHEE FALLEN FEUIT 



It is of the utmost importance that all 

 fallen apples be gathered as soon as pos- 

 sible after they leave the tree. This 

 should be done every day, if possible, or 

 at least every second day. In this way 



*Extraot from a paper read before the Qnebec 

 P nivtuu e Prntt Qn>werB' Aasocialtkii. 



the maggots will be secured before they 

 leave the fruit. When the windfalls are 

 gathered they should at once be got rid 

 of in some way either by feeding them 

 to stock or by burying them in a deep 

 hole with not less than three feet of 

 earth on the top. 



In some orchards where the apple 

 maggot is prevalent, pigs are allowed 

 to run about from July when early apples 

 which are especially susceptible to at- 

 tack, begin to fall, until all the fruit is 

 gathered. Cattle and sheep have also 

 been allowed by some to pasture in the 

 orchard when the fruit is falling, but 

 there is an objection by many fruit 

 growers to such animals, especially 

 cattle, having the fredom of orchards. 

 As the maggots work entirely within the 

 apple, they cannot be leached by any 

 of the poison spray mixtures which are 

 used for insects which attack the foliage. 

 Fortunately, the natural spread of the 

 apple maggot is slow. The flies, when 

 they emerge from the ground, do not 

 apparently fly away to any distance, but 

 remain in the immediate vicinity, and 



the females deposit their eggs in the 

 apples on the trees nearest to where they 

 have emerged. Recent experiments in 

 South ,^frica and Italy have shown that 

 the aduh fruit flies can be poisoned by 

 spraying the trees with a sweetened 

 arsenical. 



The flies, which are rather smaller 

 than the house fly, are readily seen on 

 the trees. They have two wings, each of 

 which is conspicuously crossed with four 

 black bands, which together somewhat 

 resemble the outline of a turkey. The 

 body, which is black, is crossed with 

 bands of white, and there is a white spot 

 in the middle of the back. Careful watch 

 should, therefore, be kept for the exact 

 appearance of the flies, and when they 

 are seen it would be well worth experi- 

 menting to destroy the adults. In South 

 Africa and parts of Europe, as above 

 mentioned, poisoned baits have been 

 used successfully against closely allied 

 flies. For instance a mixture of sugar 

 three pounds, arsenate of lead four 

 ounces, and water five gallons, has been 

 applied to the trees so that the solution 

 would be deposited in large drops. It 

 was found that the flies were attracted 

 to the sweetened mixture which they 

 readily ate and, of course, were killed. 



In New York State, Illingworth re- 

 ports that experiments were first made 

 with arsenate of lead sweetened with 

 corn syrup. The flies, it is said, fed 

 greedily upon it, but were slow in dy- 

 ing. A soluble poison bait was then 

 prepared as follows, and it is reported 

 that it proved to be effective: 



Water, forty-five parts ; corn syrup, 

 four parts ; potass, arsenate, one part. 



"About a pint of this was sprayed on 

 the lower branches of a twenty-year-old 

 tree. The burning from the soluble 

 arsenate was of little consequence, for 

 so few leaves were sprayed and the de- 

 struction of the flies was apparently per- 

 fect, killing them in less than thirty 

 minutes after the first sip." 



Well Packed Quebec Province Apples 



This pxc«llent exhibit of apples was made at the 



Province of Quebec Exhibition by Bev. 



Father i. Leopold, of the Agricultmral 



Butitute at La Trappe, enebec. 



In pruning I believe in regular annual 

 pruning. In this way it is never neces- 

 sary to cut off any very large limbs. In 

 fact it should be called thinning out of 

 the wood rather than a pruning. I have 

 never done much thinning, just enough to 

 make me believe in the system. With 

 such varieties as Baldwins and Wealthy 

 it would pay to take off half the apples 

 in order to make them bear annual crops. 

 I intend experimenting thoroughly in 

 this way this year by thinning out 

 the apples on one side of the trees and 

 leaving the other without thinning, and 

 will note results. — W. H. Gibson, New- 

 castle, Ont. 



Nitrogenous manures must be used 

 with great care and their successful use 

 depends on good judgment and the pro- 

 vision of a simultaneous supply of po- 

 tash and phosphate. 



