THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 175 



Empire, hence the common name, " Little Tiirk." The egg-laying process 

 may be repeated in a number of fruits and from each egg a larva hatches 

 within a week and burrows to the stone, making a wormy fruit. Most of 

 the infested fruits drop. Poisoning with an arsenate is the chief means 

 of combating the pest. Rubbish and vegetation offer hiding places and 

 hibernating quarters for the insects and hence cultivated orchards are 

 most free from curculio. The thin-skinned nectarines are damaged most 

 b}?- the insect but peaches are attacked rather freely. Early peaches suffer 

 much more than late ones from curculio; thus, of standard sorts in New 

 York, Greensboro and Carman are usually injured more or less while 

 Salwey and Chili seldom show a puncture. The plum-orchard is usually 

 the source of supply of curculio and early peaches ought not, therefore, 

 be set with or near plums. 



San Jose scale {Aspidiotus perniciosus Comstock) is as harmful to 

 peaches as to any other tree-fruit. The insect is now so well known in all 

 fruit-growing regions as scarcely to need description. It is usually first 

 recognized by its work, evidence of its presence being dead or dying twigs — 

 oftentimes the whole tree is moribund. Examination shows the twigs or 

 trees to be covered with myriads of minute scales, the size of a small pin- 

 head, which give the infested bark a scurfy, ashy look. If the bark be 

 cut or scraped, a reddish discoloration is found. Leaves and fruit as well 

 as bark are infested, the insidious pest, however, usually first gaining a 

 foothold on the trunk or a large branch. Reproduction is continuous 

 throughout the summer in this climate so that the insects multiply by 

 leaps and bounds. The peach, possibly, succumbs more quickly than any 

 other fruit, three years suflficing for the destruction of a young orchard 

 if the pest be brought in on nursery stock. The rougher-barked, older 

 trees resist longer and suffer less injury. Still, old orchards are irre- 

 trievably ruined in one or two seasons of unrestricted breeding. Peach- 

 growers, in common with all fruit-growers, find the lime-sulphur solution 

 applied in the dormant season the most effective spray in combating this 

 insect. There are several insect-enemies of the scale that are valuable 

 allies and entomologists say that the insects seem more susceptible to the 

 climatic condition of the country than formerly but still natural checks 

 are far from sufficient and the peach-grower shoiild quickly attack with 

 the spray-nozzle at the first appearance of scale. 



Besides the San Jose there are several other scales more or less 

 abundant in New York orchards, two of which make the peach their favorite 



