62 NUT CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 



ENEMIES OP THE PECAN. 



The principal enemies of the pecan tree, in order of their importance, are exposure 

 to light, water-soaked soil, insects, vermin, and disease. A correspondent in Texas 

 says the Guadalupe River bottom is full of pecan trees of all ages and in all stages 

 of destruction by an excess of water backed up into the soil, occasioned by the choking 

 of the drainage channels. The wood lice get into young trees under the forks of the 

 roots and gradually check or destroy their growth. Caterpillars consume thtir foliage 

 at times to such an extent as to destroy the crop. Worms get into the young fruit 

 and the "Sawyer" beetle cuts oif trees and branches of considerable size. All of 

 these pests, as well as crows and vermin and pecan diseases, are more abundant in 

 the bottoms than in the uplands. After the nuts are formed, and while their stems 

 are still tender, an undescribed insect is reported in Texas as cutting large quantities 

 from the trees. So far as is yet determined the nutlets do not contain the larvse of 

 this insect, nor are the young nuts eaten, but the stems are cut and the nuts fall to 

 the ground. In the latter part of May of some years, the terminal buds and tender 

 growth of nursery stock and orchard trees are much damaged in that State by a 

 " minute worm," which is thought by growers to be the larvae of a fly which infests 

 the trees. These flies are in turn kept in check by numerous small spiders which 

 prey upon them. 



Experimenters report that so far as they have tried the arsenical poisons they 

 seem to damage pecan trees. Buhach and hellebore keep the fly from the buds 

 without damage to the tree, but these are too costly except for small trees of special 

 value. In California, pecan trees have been attacked and greatly damaged by the 

 cotton cushion scale of the orange, but the Australian Ladybird ( Vedalia cardinalis), 

 imported for destroying the orange insect, has cleaned up the pecan trees as perfectly 

 as it saved the orange trees. The fall web worm (Hyphantrea cunea, Drury) damages 

 the pecan tree by destroying many of its leaves, and weaves unsightly webs among 

 the foliage. A spraying of paris green or london purple is a safe and sure remedy. 

 Some planters destroy these webs and the worms in them by burning a tuft of cotton 

 or rag tied to the end of a pole and saturated with kerosene. The burning ball is 

 held under the web but an instant. This is sufficient to destroy the worm and will 

 not injure the young twigs of the tree. The caterpillar is hatched from eggs laid on 

 the leaves by a small, common whitish moth spotted with black or brown. The larva? 

 of Cyllene picta, a black beetle about three-fourths of an inch long and spotted with 

 bright yellow, is occasionally found in pecan trees. This beetle deposits eggs upon 

 the bark of the tree early in the spring; in about ten days afterwards the eggs hatch 

 and the young borers begin to cut their way through the bark and upward into the 

 wood and trunk. When full grown, the larva is about half an inch long and resembles 

 the peach-tree borer, though its head is not so broad and flat. Oncideres cingulatus, a 

 twig girdler, is a grayish brown beetle about three-fourths of an inch in length that 

 is mischievous in the pecan tree. The female of this insect pierces the twig and after 

 depositing her eggs therein descends a few inches and girdles the twig round and 

 round with her beak until it is almost cut off. The larvae that hatch from the eggs 

 work along the pith of the twigs and by fall are ready to go into the ground for 

 winter quarters. By the high fall winds these girdled twigs are readily broken off 

 and carried to the ground, with their insect tenants unharmed. The remedy recom- 

 mended has been to gather and burn the twigs as they fall. 



TWIG BLIGHT. 



Twig blight of the pecan has been found by a correspondent of the Gazette of 

 Fort Worth, Tex., invariably spi'inging from swampy or soggy land. Occasional 

 overflows of streams rather help than injure the growth of this tree, but lands perma- 

 nently swampy or soggy are unfavorable. The trouble shows first on the slender 

 twigs, and is called " pecan blight." Immediate and thorough drainage is the remedy. 



