ORCHARD CARE 147 



species made its home chiefly in the involucre of the 

 butternut. With the introduction of the Persian and 

 Japanese walnuts the weevil found something more 

 to its taste and laid eggs in the herbaceous growth 

 of these trees so freely as to completely ruin young 

 growing orchards unless the matter were given at- 

 tention. At my suggestion a study of the subject 

 was made by Dr. W. E. Britton, of the Connecticut 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, who published a 

 pamphlet containing a description of the natural 

 history of the species and giving rules for successful 

 control of the pest. The adult weevil begins to eat 

 tender bark of new shoots of the year after they 

 have put out a short distance. After a few days 

 of feeding the female lays eggs in slots which she 

 cuts in the bark. The larva makes its way to the 

 central pith of the shoot and eats so ravenously as 

 to cause wilting of the stem and leaves. In badly 

 infested young trees the entire top may be killed. 

 At Stamford after the walnut weevil had acquired 

 the habit of burrowing in Japanese and Persian wal- 

 nut shoots it apparently then increased its range and 

 appeared not infrequently in herbaceous shoots of 

 the butternut and bitternut. It is possible that the 

 weevil did this before but no one seems to have 

 called attention to the fact, and I had not observed it 

 until the weevil had been at work with the exotic 

 species for two or three years. Happily we have 

 a means for destroying the walnut weevil rather 

 easily because the little beetles have the habit of feed- 

 ing for some days before laying their eggs. If ten- 



