132 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



knife, and any borers found in this way should of course be 

 destroyed. 



Various methods for protecting the trees from this pest have 

 been tested with varying but usually unsatisfactory results, 

 and the best treatments now known are cutting out the borers 

 about the first of May, then mounding up the earth around 

 the trunk to the height of about eighteen inches early in June, 

 and leaving this mound till the end of September. 



In just what way this mounding prevents the attacks of the 

 borer is unknown, but in such trees their numbers are greatly 

 reduced, and when combined with cutting out in the spring 

 excellent results are obtained. 



But peach trees should not be the only ones watched for 

 this insect, as it also attacks plums and cherries; and these 

 also should therefore be examined every spring, and any borers 

 found in them be destroyed, to prevent the peach orchard 

 being annually restocked with this pest. 



Every plant has its insect enemies, but, though the number 

 of these differs with different plants, in each case one or two 

 are of prime importance. It is probable that nine out of 

 every ten fruit growers, if asked to name the most serious foes 

 of the apple, pear, peach and plum respectively, would agree 

 upon the San Jose scale; and after this would select the cod- 

 ling moth for the apple, the pear psylla for the pear, the borer 

 for the peach and the curculio for the plum. Yet it is doubt- 

 ful if more than two or three of the nine persons making this 

 selection would know the adult plum curculio if they saw it. 

 Its small size, its inconspicuous colors and its habits combine 

 to aid it in escaping notice, but the work it does makes this 

 pest an important one. 



The plum curculio (Conotrachelus nenuphar Herbst.) is a 

 small snout beetle, one of a group containing many important 

 pests, among them being the cotton boll weevil of the south. 

 It appears in early spring soon after the buds open, coming 

 from the protected hiding places in which it has spent the 

 winter months, and, flying to the plum trees, feeds to some 

 extent upon the tender leaves while waiting for the fruit to 

 grow. When this has taken place the beetles pass to the little 

 plums, and here and there deposit their eggs. This process 



