87 



cations. If a combination either with Bordeaux mixture, lime- 

 sulfur or nicotine sulfate, 40 per cent, is desired, this is 

 perfectly possible, provided certain precautions in the mixing 

 of the materials are followed. These precautions are dis- 

 cussed on page 112. 



The Apple Maggot. 

 The apple maggot, often also called the railroad worm, is 

 frequently a serious pest in Massachusetts. The adult insect 

 is a fly smaller than the house fly, with black or dark bands 

 across its wings, which appears about the middle of July. It 

 lays its eggs singly in holes it makes in the skin of the apple, 

 and the little white maggots which hatch from these eggs 

 tunnel through the pulp in all directions. While the maggots 

 are very small the tunnels close up and make rather tough, 



^■JZII^ 



c 



Apple maggot; a, adult male fly; b, adult female fly; c, maggot; 

 all much enlarged. 



fibrous lines, but after the maggots get larger the tunnels re- 

 main open and the pulp around them turns brown and decay 

 follows, often making the fruit entirely soft and worthless. 



When the maggot has completed its feeding it leaves the 

 fruit and enters the ground, where it changes into the adult 

 fly. A few of the maggots which finish feeding early may 

 change into flies the same fall, and in these cases eggs are 

 laid on late apples, which are therefore liable to be infested 

 without showing it when they are picked. Most of the late 



