INSECT PESTS OF THE ORCHARD AND GARDEN 53 



Regarding the infection of the roots of fruit trees by the woolly 

 aphis the Lecturer advised never planting a young tree thus 

 affected for the infestation will remain in the ground. This 

 trouble can only be remedied by treatment with carbon bisulphide. 

 The nurserymen say that their stock is fumigated, but their 

 method is to tie the trees in bundles, put them in a house, and 

 subject them to a treatment of hydrocyanic acid gas for forty 

 minutes which could not penetrate the bundles in that time. 

 The bundles should be separated and then treated for that length 

 of time which should be sufficient. The gas is very deadly and 

 the greatest caution should be used in handling it. The quantity 

 used should be regulated by the age and tenderness of the plants 

 to be fumigated. Cases have been known where the roots of 

 fruit trees have been injured by this process causing at length 

 the death of the trees planted. 



The question was asked if the railroad worm could be controlled. 



In reply the Lecturer said that the best remedy was clean 

 culture. The little fly that lays its eggs in the apple is about 

 half the size of a house fly. Pick up the apples that drop 

 and destroy them for they contain the worm that goes into the 

 ground and changes in the spring into the fly ready to lay its eggs 

 again. You can get rid of them after a few years by following 

 up this practice. 



