July, 1914.] THE APPLE MAGGOT. Ill 



CULTIVATING THE SOIL. 



Ordinary orchard cultivation does not appear to have note- 

 worthy effect on emergence of adults. Trees of susceptible vari- 

 eties maintained under cultivation, without other practices that 

 would hold the maggot in check, may remain badly infested. 

 Ross (55, p. 69) tried the experiment of giving frequent shallow 

 cultivation to two plots known to contain pupae; but many 

 adults emerged. 



RELATION OF GENERAL ORCHARD PRACTICE TO IN- 

 FESTATION BY THE APPLE MAGGOT. 



Observers frequently have noted that attack by the Apple 

 Maggot often is more severe in small, unsprayed orchards, espe- 

 cially such as are sometimes found adjacent to farm buildings or 

 in connection with village homes. On the other hand, in large 

 commercial orchards the pest may be comparatively rare. 



The reasons for this are usually complex. An assumption 

 that any one item, such for example as spraying, is wholly respon- 

 sible for a lack of infestation may lead to error. 



The small orchard is apt to be made up of varieties intended 

 for table use or for home consumption, and in New Hampshire, 

 at least, frequently includes early or sweet fruit. Such fruit is 

 not only especially liable to infestation by the maggot, but affords 

 the condition of early ripening most favorable to continuance of 

 the pest. Extensive commercial orchards in New England usu- 

 ally consist largely of winter fruit. This fruit, as proved in the 

 records set forth earlier in this bulletin, is not of the type well 

 adapted to the life economy of the maggot, which usually meets 

 with heavy mortality in hard, winter varieties. If a commercial 

 orchard does contain blocks of earlier varieties, the fruit is pre- 

 sumably marketed promptly, provided the orchard is treated as 

 a business enterprise. Such practice in itself tends to defeat 

 increase of the maggot. 



The small, home orchard is typicallj^ more or less neglected. 

 Frequently it is not sprayed; and ordinary spraying, as already 

 noted, may have some indirect effect on infestation by 

 the maggot. Since the fruit is not regularly marketed, or not 

 sent to market at all, only such apples are consumed as the 



