30 



Insects Injurious to Fruit. 



\^OL. XL 



Insects Injurious to Fruit. 



Among the didicultifis which the fruit grower has to 

 encounter, none are perhaps more annoying or more 

 completely b3yon(l his power to remedy, than the hosts 

 of insects which seem ever ready to prey both upon 

 bis trees and his fruit. The following remarks are 

 taken from the Farmer and JIfecAanic, and were made 

 in the Farmers' Club at the Auierican luslitiite, N Y., 

 on the 14lh ult. We would invite, and indeed urge all 

 to close observation, when they come in contact with 

 these pests: but more particularly is it the province of 

 the amateur to watch and report the result of his in- 

 vestigations.— E.). 



JoNATH.vN L. Hyde in the chair. 



Chairman — The subject for discussion at 

 this e.vtra meetinor, is exclusively, " Insects 

 injurious to Vegetation." 



Samuel Allen — An old friend called my 

 attention to his g-arden in this city. He was 

 mourning over the devastation of his plants 

 by insects. His raspberries, currants, goose- 

 berries, had their leaves full of insects, curl- 

 ing- up their leaves around the fruit. Bunches 

 of grapes fallen off" from the bite of insects. 

 His vines of squashes, &c., also bitten oft". 

 His gardener was busy collecting- bugs in a 

 bowl to destroy them. I remark the ravages 

 of insects wherever I go. The prospect is 

 alarming! There seems to be an insect pe- 

 culiar to each fi-uit or plant. 



This subject of insects opens a wide field, 

 and it is one of immense importance. I pre- 

 sent here for your examination, branches of 

 quince and pear trees, showing the destruc- 

 tion caused by the sting of some insect a 

 few feet below the outward ends of the 

 branches. You perceive that the wood is 

 turned black and hard like ebony or black 

 walnut. I also present some quinces nearly 

 covered with an orange coloured moss or 

 excrescence, the interior of the quince, as 

 you see, full of worms. I caused my quince 

 trees to be whitewashed, body and limbs, 

 and now I have not one-tenth of this mis- 

 chief that I had before, and a neighbour who 

 did not whitewash his quinces, suffers now 

 as I have heretofore. 



Col. Skinner — Does whitewashing injure 

 trees? 



Dr. Underhill — No Sir. Lime is used to 

 destroy snails, which are very troublesome 

 in England, and ' sometimes here in very 

 damp weather, in low grounds. A few years 

 since they came on my quince trees, I sifted 

 lime over them and the snails were all dis- 

 solved by the lime, or nearly so. This has 

 been a wet season, but I have no more snails. 

 The blight in fruit trees has been ascribed 

 to other causes than insects. But I am de- 

 cidedly of opinion that blight in pear trees 

 is due to insects. This blight has been 



talked of these twenty years, and until very 

 recently, without any suspicion that it was 

 caused by insects. The plum tree is affected, 

 especially the Damascene plum. I observe 

 some limbs are killed, similar to the pear 

 and quince. We have long sufi'ered from a 

 class of insects that sting the apple, pear, 

 and cherry, and destroying much of tiie fruit 

 at an early period of their growth. We 

 have an insect among us which has been 

 named the East Winrl, for ten years past, 

 supposed to have curled up the peach leaf 

 and cause it to drop; but a new leaf suc- 

 ceeds. I have this year examined the dis- 

 eased peach leaf with a glass, and I found 

 that these leaves ail had in them great 

 numbers of insects. Tiie nits may have 

 been deposited here by beetles, which were 

 exceedingly numerous at the time the dis- 

 ease appeared. At evening the air about 

 the orchard was darkened by the immense 

 number of these beetles on tlie wing. The 

 oak leaf is also attacked by them. All this 

 is not the East Wind. Formerly some few 

 leaves used to be attacked, now scarce a 

 leaf escapes. This is working an evil in 

 our fruit trees, for although they have new 

 leaves, yet are they enfeebled by it, and the 

 fruit loses its good character.^ The damage 

 to the peach is not all owing to the worm at 

 its root. And our noble pippin is now as- 

 sailed by a similar insect, its leaves are all 

 stung. Proper investigation of this subject 

 may lead us to very valuable results. Vine- 

 yards suffer least from insects. When ca- 

 terpillars attack sniall vines in your yards 

 and eat oft' the clusters, the best way is to 

 have a sponge on the end of a pole, dipped 

 in spirits of turpentine, the least touch of 

 which makes the caterpillar fall. My vine- 

 yard has not suftered from them. 



The injury to the leaves of the pear trees 

 from the sting of insects, appears to be com- 

 mencing. I have succeeded in destroying 

 rose-bugs in my vineyard, by ploughing late 

 in the fall, in cold weather, thus turning out 

 the larva to be killed by cold. 



Evening is the time for insect jubilees. 

 Nineteen-twentieths of the beetle tribe and 

 many other insects commit their depreda- 

 tions then. In ancient times fires were 

 made on the high lands north of Egypt, to 

 destroy the armies of locusts. This being 

 supposed a foolish practice, was discontinued, 

 and Egypt again suffered the loss of her 

 crops. Fires made in evening have a happy 

 effect; insects rush into it, drawn by the 

 light. I know a man whose pippin orchard 

 was almost destroyed for two years by can- 

 ker worms ; he made evening fires in the 

 orchard, which destroyed the millers which 

 produced the worm, and then had good fruit. 



