60 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



If enough hogs or sheep to eat the windfalls are kept under 

 infested trees from the second week in August until the fruit 

 is finally gathered, all the maggots in windfalls will be got rid 

 of. Of course the same results, as far as destroying the. mag- 

 got is concerned, can be obtained by having windfalls faithfully 

 gathered during this time and fed to stock, or made into cider. 



In one orchard where the main crop is not sweet fruit, a plan 

 of baiting for the apple fruit fly has proven successful. A few 

 Tolman sweet trees are grown in the orchard as traps. The 

 flies deposit the majority of eggs in these sweet apples by 

 preference, and the other fruit is saved to a great extent. All 

 of the Tolman sweet apples, in this case, are gathered and 

 destroyed. 



Recent experiments in New York, Canada and Maine indi- 

 cate that the adult flies may be killed by arsenical sprays during 

 the time they are feeding about the trees before they begin to 

 deposit eggs. Sweetening the poison with molasses makes it 

 more attractive. It is perhaps too soon to advise any one 

 formula at this time. Further literature concerning the matter 

 may be had upon application to the Director of this Station. 



Plum Curculio. 

 (Conotrachelus nenuphar.) 



At about the time in early spring when vegetation resumes 

 activity and buds begin to push, curculios, which have hiber- 

 nated under rubbish on the ground, under the rough bark of 

 trees and in other secure hiding places, emerge from conceal- 

 ment and seek the fruit plants upon which they feed and breed. 

 About the time the trees bloom, mating begins and as soon as 

 the young fruit enlarges the deposition of eggs begins. Apples 

 no larger than small peas often bear from i to 3 of the char- 

 acteristic crescent marks made by the curculio. These punc- 

 tures as well as those made by the adult beetle in feeding cause 

 a serious deformation of the fruit (fig. 45). The deposition of 

 eggs goes on most rapidly during the month of June, but con- 

 tinues through July and August, gradually growing less and 

 less as the beetles die. The majority of the beetles of this gen- 

 eration do not live beyond the month of July, but a few may 



