114 AGRICULTURE. 



pigs. The trees are sprayed with Paris green while the tiny 

 apples are still turned upwards. If we spray the trees earlier 

 for other insects we must be careful not to spray while in full 

 bloom, since then we may poison the bees that are gathering 

 honey and helping to fertilize the blossoms by carrying pollen 

 from one blossom to another. Further, we may injure the 

 blossoms and at that time the codling moth has not yet laid 

 her eggs. 



THE PEAR TREE SLUG. The perfect insect is a very 

 black saw-fly, with four wings of the form shown in fig. 36. 

 The female is about one-fifth of an inch long, the male a little 

 r?>-*^_* shorter. Points to be 



noted are the nature 

 of the wings and the 

 color of the legs. 

 Little cuts are made 



Fig. 60. The pear tree slug. in the leaf in which 



the eggs are laid about June. From these the slugs are 

 hatched, which are from one-half to two-thirds of an inch long, 

 slimy, dark green in color. At once they begin to eat the 

 leaves. The slugs change their skins four or five times, and in 

 about a month they crawl or fall to the ground and change to 

 the pupa state. After two weeks more these change to flies, 

 which are ready to lay eggs to hatch a second brood early in 

 August. After doing damage a second time the larvae enter 

 the ground for the winter. In the spring the flies appear, 

 again ready for destruction. The slugs are to be looked for 

 on pear and on cherry trees in June and again in August. 



THE PLUM CURCULIO. The perfect insect is known as a 

 weevil or snout beetle. It is dark in color, and about one- 

 fifth of an inch in length. During winter it remains hidden 

 under rubbish. It comes out in the spring and does great 

 damage as the young fruit is setting. It punches a little hole 

 in the fruit with its snout, lays an egg, and then makes 



