151 



plot, where the application was less thorough than on the 

 others, though not perceptible to the eye of a practical or- 

 chardist making the application, produced only 95.06 per 

 cent, of worm-free fruit. We would further suggest that 

 thoroughness in the distribution of the poison in an effort 

 to cover every portion of leaf and fruit with minute parti- 

 cles of spray, will, in the long run, prove more effective and 

 satisfactory than the application of large amounts of poison, 

 especially if the spray is used so liberally as to cause drip- 

 ping. 



PLANT LICE 



The past season was noteworthy because of the great 

 abundance of plantlice. Hordes" of these tiny weaklings 

 were extremely numerous on our fruit trees, seriously af- 

 fecting the foliage and in not a fcAV instances materially in- 

 fluencing the development of the fruit. There were many 

 complaints by fruit growers on account of the large number 

 of small apples. These latter were probably produced by 

 the plantlice or aphids being so abundant as to reduce the 

 vitality of the trees at the time the fruit was setting, to 

 such an extent^as to prevent the one or two early fertilized 

 blossoms of each cluster securing a sufficient start to out- 

 strip the others, and thus result in a large proportion of the 

 fruit dropping at the outset. Instead of the latter, a very 

 desirable and normal outcome, so many blossoms set that 

 the trees are unable, in large measure, to produce average 

 sized fruit. There was, as a consequence, very many small 

 apples and relatively few good sized to large, marketable 

 fruit. The extent of this was strikingly illustrated on the 

 experimental plots in the orchard of oMr. W. H. Hart, Ar- 

 lington, N. Y. The fruit of over 250 experimental trees, 

 distributed throughout the orchard and therefore repre- 

 sentative, when picked and carefully classified, showed that 

 in approximately 100,000 apples there were only 54,845 

 marketable fruit, many of these being rather small, while 

 41,982 apples were so small as to be practically unmarket- 

 able. This small fruit, popularly designated by many grow- 

 ers as "aphis apples," was easily recognized by its small 

 size and frequently irregular shape. It was estimated by 

 one of the fruit groM^ers that in the vicinity of Poughkeep- 

 sie, approximately 33 per cent, of the crop was thus affect- 

 ed, though this figure may be somewhat high. Similar in- 



