PEACHES 159 



throws up sprouts from below the bud which, 

 if allowed to grow, may develop into a seedling 

 tree. The old method . of fighting the borers 

 was to dig them out with a sharp knife and "kill 

 them with a club. ' ' This involved endless labor, 

 but when it was carefully done it was quite 

 effective and is still practised in the majority 

 of the commercial orchards. The new treat- 

 ment is to kill the pests with paradichloroben- 

 zine. You need not try to pronounce it and the 

 method of use is more simple than you might 

 suppose. A little soil is scraped away from 

 around the trunk and a small quantity of the 

 drug applied to the ground. This is then cov- 

 ered with earth and shortly after the borers go 

 out of business. On very young trees this 

 method may not be perfectly safe, but at Ft. 

 Valley, Georgia, it has been found effective 

 and harmless on trees six years old and older. 



The plum curculio has long been the one 

 prominent insect damaging the fruit of the 

 peach. It is a native insect and I can just im- 

 agine it paeons of joy when the first trees of the 

 delectable fruit were imported to this country. 

 Having lived its entire previous existence on 

 the native plums and haws it must have wel- 

 comed the peach and the European plums with 

 open arms. It has certainly devoted itself to 

 them most selfishly ever since at any rate. 



The damage is done by the adult beetles 



