SPRAYING 113 



shows no preference for the calyx end of the 

 apple nor for the point where two apples touch 

 — as does the second brood of the codling moth. 

 On the contrary, this lesser apple worm will 

 eat right into the red cheek of an apple with no 

 more modesty than a suffrage picket on the 

 White House steps. They are positively bra- 

 zen about the way they go after the fruit, — the 

 worms I mean, not the pickets. Also this pest 

 will frequently make a little tour of inspection 

 just under the skin of the apple, as though it 

 were exploring the quality before it decided to 

 go to the heart of things. More than that, it 

 will, in storage, leave one apple that it has 

 ruined and shamelessly attack half a dozen per- 

 fectly sound fruits that are near. For this 

 reason all fruit sent to storage should be in- 

 spected with extreme care for any signs of 

 this pest. Its characteristic * 'mines" under 

 the skin of the fruit usually betray its presence 

 with considerable prominence, but sometimes 

 these mines are absent and the entrance point 

 is so small that it may entirely escape obser- 

 vation. 



The plum curculio, in spite of its name, is a 

 serious apple pest and one that requires very 

 thorough spraying to control. It does its dam- 

 age not by eating but by making little crescent- 

 shaped slits in the skin. These slits form a tiny 

 flap of tissue in which the egg of the beetle is 



