522 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



orchard-house: ■viz., Early red masculine, ripe 

 in June; Large early, ripe in July; Musch- 

 Musch, equally early ; Blenheim, Moorpark, 

 Peach, -which we think the same ; St Ambroise, 

 Royal, and Tardive d'Orleans. These ripen in 

 succession, and nearly at the same time as those 

 on the open walls ; " for it must be understood 

 that fruits in thoroughly ventilated orchard- 

 houses are not much accelerated unless the sea- 

 son happens to be very sunny. It is not an 

 earli/ but a certain crop that must be expected 

 from such houses." 



Diseases. — The apricot is liable to the same 

 diseases and attacks of insects as the peach and 

 nectarine, although in a leas degree. The Moor- 

 park, in particular, is subject to the dying off of 

 large limbs and branches during summer with- 

 out any apparent cause, and as sudden in its 

 effects as its cause is unknown. When budded on 

 the plum stock it is less liable to this disease, 

 and considered hardier than when upon its own 

 roots. Mr Knight, to avert this disease, recom- 

 mended budding this variety on the apricot 

 stock ; subsequent experience does not, how- 

 ever, confirm this opinion. Some have sup- 

 posed the disease to arise from the effect of the 

 sun shining too powerfully on the uncovered 

 branch, and to provide against this recommend 

 training the young adjacent shoots over the 

 naked branches. This also does not in all 

 cases prove a remedy. This disease is much 

 less prevalent in Scotland than in England — a 

 circumstance that would seem to favour the 

 cause assigned above, as the sun is less powerful 

 with us, and sun-strokes of rarer occurrence. 

 The best precaution is to keep up a succession 

 of young wood near the bottom of the tree, to 

 make up for the loss of such branches as die off 

 in this manner. 



Insects. — Curculio {Otiorhynclms) tenebricosus, 

 fig. 229, one of those destructive beetles known 

 generally as weevils, is very 

 injurious to the apricot, and 

 is often found in great num- 

 bers secreted in nail holes 

 and other crevices, in old 

 and dilapidated garden walls. 

 It also attacks the vine 

 and the peach in hothouses. 

 Wall-trees may be cleared 

 of them by filling up the 

 holes where they take shelter 

 during winter, and washing 

 the wall with a thick paint of 

 Roman cement and water. 

 The loose bark on the trees 

 should be removed, as with 

 it numbers of the insects will 

 be cleared away ; the stems 

 as well as the branches of 

 the peach trees should be 

 washed with strong decoc- 

 tions of tobacco ; quassia, 

 amara, and aloes have also 

 been usefully employed. It 

 also attacks the peach and 

 plum. 



The oblong weevil (Curculio oblongus), Fig. 

 180, appearing in May, often commits sad havoc 



Fig. 229. 



OTIOBHYNCHUS 

 TENEBRICOSUS. 



upon the leaves of apricots, peaches, plums, 

 pears, and apples. A similar remedy should 

 be applied. 



The Poedisca angustiorana, Ditula angustio- 

 rana, Tortrix angustiorana of some. Fig. 200, 

 is very destructive to apricot trees. The eggs 

 may be detected during winter attached to the 

 old stems of the trees in oval-like patches. 

 The caterpillars appear during May and June, 

 and when full grown are about half an inch 

 in length, of a pale yellowish-green body and 

 brownish-yellow head. They appear along with 

 the young leaves, which they immediately begin 

 to gnaw, and roll themselves up in them, so 

 as to be with difficulty discovered. The grub 

 afterwards passes into the state of a brown 

 shining chrysalis rolled up in the leaves, coming 

 forth in its moth state in July. In this state it 

 is small, little more than one-fourth of an inch 

 in length. The fore-wings are reddish brown in 

 bands, varying in their shades of darkness ; the 

 hind-wings are dusky. The best remedy we 

 have found was picking off the leaves into which 

 the caterpillar had rolled itself, and carefully 

 destroying them. With us they do not appear 

 annually, at least to the extent they did in 1843, 

 18S0. There is no doubt searching for the 

 patches of eggs during winter would be a better 

 and more certain riddance, but it requires a 

 sharp eye to detect them, and a full amount of 

 perseverance to prosecute the search. 



Tortrix (Carpocapsa) Wmberiana, although 

 called the plum-tree tortrix, is equally de- 

 structive to the almond, peach, and apricot. 

 Its presence is 

 Fig. 230. readily detected 



by the appear- 

 ance of small 

 conical heaps of 

 a red brown 

 on the bark of 

 the stem and 

 branches of 

 these trees. Un- 

 der each of these 

 heaps is a mi- 

 nute hole lead- 

 ing to a furrow 

 under the bark, 

 in which a small larva is seen, which feeds on the 

 inner bark of the trees, occasioning the escape of 

 the sap and the exudation of gum, from which 

 other diseases arise, terminating at last with the 

 total decay of the tree. Thelarva,whenfullgrown, 

 is only three or four lines long, of a dirty green 

 colour, with red head. It has three pairs of true 

 feet, and five pairs of fleshy prolegs, the body 

 sprinkled with a few small hairs. During nearly 

 the whole year the larva remains under the 

 bark. The moth, which is very beautiful, of a 

 brown colour, resembling that of the bark of the 

 apricot and peach trees, which renders its cap- 

 ture difficult, makes its appearance in May and 

 again in August, for two generations are pro- 

 duced annually. The moth is only from five to 

 six lines long. Fore-wings dark brown and 

 yellow, with several silvery lines and yellow 

 dots ; the hind-wings are brownish. The pupa 

 is brown, remaining under the bark until near 



PLUM-TBEB TORTRIX. 



