-6- 



of importance in the control of curculio this year. At a raeetin^ in Colrain 

 on May 18, several of the growers expressed an interest in curculio and one 

 of them asked v/h?it the curculio "beetle loo2i:ed lil:e. With some riiSfiivings 

 we borrowed a blanket and attempted to jar one of the early emergint" beetles 

 from a nearby plum tree. As luck would have it, a beetle was obtained vath 

 very little effort and introduced to some of the assembled fruit growers for 

 the first time. In fighting this troublesome pest, it is well to remember 

 that many of the beetles spend the winter in brusli land, stone walls, etc., 

 adjacent to the orchard. Wlien they emer/^e in spring they naturally go to the 

 nearest tree. Por this reason, it is highly ir.:portant, particularly in a 

 large orchard, that we spray the outside trees first in order to kill the bee- 

 tles before they migrate to other trees and cause damage. 



^ Just Followed the Spra^y Schedule" 



i>Tot long ago the V7riter visited an orchard in the town of Granville. 

 While looking over the trees with the owner the question of growing plums was 

 discussed. The grower remarked he liad been getting very good crops of pl-ums 

 and that they had snld fairly well. We adced him if he had had any trouble 

 with brown rot and if so what he had done about it. His answer was, "I follow 

 the spray schedule." Next, we walked into a pear orcliard and noted at once 

 how health^'' the trees appeared and how free from any evidence of pear psylla. 

 So V7e asked him what he was doing to control pear psylla. His answer was the 

 same as before, "I follow the spray schedule." Without asking what he was 

 doing about pests in his apple orcliard we knew from past experience that his 

 fruit was unusually clean and that herev too, he must have "followed the 

 spray schedule." And so at last we h^d found a modest man, v/ho V7as clainiing 

 little or no credit to himself but was merely following directions. The facts 

 in the case are that this man has a spray schedule and uses it, but at the 

 same time he also lias an efficient sprayer which he uses with equal effective- 

 ness. Wlien he sprays a tree he does a thoro'ugh job. He is continually crowd- 

 ing his work instead of letting the work crowd him. 



