40 THE FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



Thorough cleanliness and open growth and letting air and light have free access 

 inimical to chermes. Trees liable to their attacks and crowded in growth should be 

 thinned directly the fruit is gathered, burning the trimmings, and when the leaves have 

 fallen, the stems and larger branches of old trees should be scraped and thoroughly 

 cleansed, as advised under " Lichen and Moss," Vol. I., page 250. Then spray the 

 trees with the caustic soda and potash solution, Vol. I., page 251, and again early in 

 March or before the buds swell with a solution of sulphate of copper, 1 pound to 35 

 gallons of water, for the destruction of the germs of fungi. The remedies advised under 

 " Aphides," Vol. I., page 257, are also efficacious against chermes. 



Apple Weevil (Rhynchites bacchus). The purple weevil of the apple is J-inch long, 

 purplish-red, coppery on the wing-cases and back of the neck ; antennaB, beak and legs 

 bluish-black. The female bores holes into the smooth side of the fruit during June and 

 July, depositing one to four, generally two, eggs in each ; and these hatch out small whitish 

 grubs in a few days, which feed on the flesh three or four weeks, and then penetrate the 

 core, causing the fruit to fall, when the grubs quit the apple and burrow in the soil, 

 there to become pupse, and from these the weevils emerge in May. This insect is not 

 restricted to apples, but attacks pears and other fruits. 



The best preventive is to remove all cover under which the weevils may hide, and 

 place a sticky band round the stem of each tree in May, continuing it until mid-July. 

 Gas liquor diluted with three times its bulk of water may be used in orchards in grass 

 in late spring. 



The most effective remedy, however, is to spread cloths beneath the trees, shaking 

 the latter sharply early in the morning during June and July, sweeping the fallen weevils 

 together, and then killing them with boiling water, or they may be shaken into rough 

 wood trays gas-tarred inside. All perforated fruits should be collected and destroyed. 

 Other species of Rhynchites also feed on the apple tree. R. Alliaria? is ^--inch long, 

 deep blue, with a greenish lustre. The female weevil deposits, in May or June, one or 

 two eggs in the footstalk and midrib of a leaf or young shoot, and in about a week a 

 amall whitish grub emerges, which feeds inside the stalk and midrib of the leaf, causing 

 it to wither and fall. The larvae live in the stalks and midribs of the leaves of many 

 other fruit trees, cutting them off when they are ready to enter the soil, there to become 

 pupse. R. conicus is -^-inch long, deep shining blue, with a yellowish hue. The 

 female pierces the young shoots in May and June, and lays eggs in them, gnawing 

 each shoot partly through below the eggs, which causes it to droop, and the grubs gain 



