124 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT. 



rating the wet calyx from the young fruit it was easy to see the commencement 

 of this decay ; it was generally in streaks. On the Cherry trees the effect was singu- 

 lar. Wherever the young cherries came in contact with the leaves the decay was 

 communicated to them, and they were left with holes, presenting a ragged appear- 

 ance. Half of the above kinds of fruits perished in that way ; and the trees of some 

 kinds of cherries, where the bloom had been profuse, had absolutely no fruit 

 left. 



The season of 1 864 will be as memorable for the plague of plant lice on our 

 fruit trees as that of two or three years before had been for a visitation of a similar 

 insect on the wheat and oats ; and excepting as they were fed upon by small birds 

 and some insect enemies, there seemed to be no hope of saving the Apple crop from 

 these minute enemies. 



The Peach crop is often destroyed by the buds being killed by severe cold in 

 winter, and sometimes by the young leaves being so diseased by a " curl " that the 

 fruit will nearly all fall off when quite small. For all these accidents the fruit-grower 

 should not be held to too rigid an account, though some of them might be guarded 

 against by a judicious choice of a situation for the orchard. But the fruit-grower 

 who lets his Peach and Apple trees be girdled by Borers ; who permits his orchards 

 to be overrun by the Tent Caterpillar, and his Plum and Cherry trees, to become 

 masses of knots, or his young trees generally to be sapped by millions of bark lice, 

 deserves little commiseration. 



The tree in the preceding Plate had escaped all these contingencies, and showed, 

 until some time in June, a promise of a most bountiful crop ; but then the young 

 apples began to fall, and persevered in falling till not a do/en were left to come to 

 full maturity. 



Now let us imagine the owner of an orchard, who has taken the best possible 

 care of his trees for ten or fifteen years, finding every season the entire crop lying on 

 the ground when not half grown, and of no value and the imagination need not go 

 far to find such an owner Does he feel comfortable 1 Perhaps his annual expenses 

 overrun his income, but a fair crop of fruit would have reversed his financial condition. 

 It was not the fault of the orchard ; the trees were full enough at one time. Why 

 did they all fall off? 



I have read somewhere that there was once a man who owned a cow 



