338 BOAED OF AGKICULTUEE. 



COMMUNICATION FROM PEOF. S. T. 

 MATNARD. 



1. Observations in Regard to Insects Injurious to 



THE Apple. 



In the growth of all kinds of farm or garden crops, the 

 farmer and gardener find themselves forced to wage constant 

 warfare with insects or parasitic plant life. In this paper 

 we give the results of a few observations in regard to the 

 plmn weevil or curculio (^Conotrachelus nenuphar), as affect- 

 ing the apple crop, compared also with the codling moth 

 and the apple maggot. 



It has often been noticed, early in the summer, that apples 

 nearly all fall from the trees when quite small. This was 

 especially the case during the past season, and a careful in- 

 vestigation was made to ascertain the cause. A tree of the 

 variety known as the Westfield Seek-no-further, which blos- 

 somed very abundantly and set an unusually large crop of 

 fruit, was selected. When from one-half to one inch in 

 diameter, the fruit began to drop in large numbers, so that 

 not enough was left on the tree for one-half a crop. A large 

 quantity of these were collected and examined, and out of 

 eight hundred it was found that all but three were punctured 

 by the plum curculio, leaving its peculiar crescent-shaped 

 mark, and in every puncture was found an Qgg or small 

 larva. The worms commonly found in the apple at this time 

 have generally been supposed to be the larvte of the codling 

 moth {Carpocapsa jpomonella) , yet in the number examined 

 only four or five of the larvae of the latter were found. 



The remedies which have been successfully employed to 

 prevent the injury of the plum crop by these larvse are two ; 

 i. e., (1) that of jarring the trees and catching the insects 

 and aficcted fruit in a sheet stretched on a frame or spread 



