CURCULIO AND INJURY TO CHERRIES. 



The following is a summary of tlie experiments and conclusions from Bulletin No. 4 

 Ohio Experiment Station : 



1. These experiments were undertaken to learn what effect the application of London 

 purple and lime to cherries, soon after the fruit forms, would have in preventing the injuries 

 of the plum curculio, or in other words in lessening the number of wormy cherries. 



3. For the carrying on of the experiment a half-acre orchard of bearing trees was set aside 

 and a part of it treated while the rest was left as a check. 



3. London-purple' was applied in a water spray, mixed in the proportion of one-half 

 pound to 50 gallons water. 



4. Lime was applied in a water spray, mixed in the proportion of 4 quarts to 50 gallons 

 until the leaves were whitened. 



5. The cherries were critically examined when nearly ripe and the exact number of 

 specimens injured by the curculio recorded. In this way 23,500 cheries were individually 

 cut open and recorded. 



6. Prom eight trees sprayed thrice with London purple 8,000 cherries were examined of 

 which 380, or 3 5 per cent, were wofmy, while from seven companion trees not treated 7,500 

 were examined, of which 1,085 or 14.5 per cent, were wormy. This represents a saving of 

 11-14 or 75.8 per cent, of the fruit liable to injury. 



7. From two trees sprayed four times with London purple 3,000 cherries were examined, 

 of which 69, or 3.45 per cent were wormy. 



8. Two quarts of cherries from each of these lots were chemically examined. at tlie time 

 of ripening by Professor H. A. Weber and showed no trace of arsenic in any form. 



9. Five trees sprayed four times with lime yielded 465 wormy cherries out of 5,000 exam- 

 ined, while five check trees yielded 778 wormy cherries from 5,000 examined. The percentage 

 of thp former was 9.3 while that of the latter was 15.6, which gives a percentage of benefit 

 from the treatment of 40.3. 



ooisroi-iXJSi03srs. 



These experiments apparently show, so far as the results of a single season's work with a 

 single variety of cherry c»n be relied on: 



1. That three-fourths of the cherries liaUe to injury by the plumb curculio can be saved 

 by two or three applcations of London-purple in a water spray (in the proportion one ounce 

 to five gallons water) made soon after the blossoms fall. 



3. That if an interval of a month occurs between the last application and the ripening of 

 the fruit no danger to health need be apprehended from its use. As a precautionary, measure, 

 however, I would advise in all cases, and especially when there are few rains during this 

 Interval, that the fruit be thoroughly washed before it is used. 



3. That lime is not so certain in its preventive effect as London purple, saving in these 

 experiments only forty per cent, of the fruit liable to injury. 



Successful Apricot and Plum Culture. 



1st. There are no fruits more delicious than these. 



8d. No other fruit trees are more prolific in bearing. 



3d. No fruit has a more persistent and deadly enemy than the Curculio is to these 

 delicate products. 



4th. Few fruits yield so profitable returns for the space they occupy and labor they 

 require. 



5th. In no fruit culture has the average farmer been more discouraged. 



Spraying the trees thoroughly with London purple, one-fourth pound to fifty gallons of 

 water, just as soon as the Curculio makes its appearance. Bepeat the operation in a week. 



It may be asked : " ffow does spray in ff effect the Curculio, as it eats neither fruit nor 

 foliage, but punctures the fruit and deposits the egg therein?" We reply that the spray fall- 

 ing upon the fruit finds its way into the crescent- shaped incision and is present when the egg 

 is hatched and the larvae begins to eat its way to the pit, which it invariably does, and its first 

 food is the insecticide, which satisfies its appetite for life, without damage to the fruit, which 

 heals up from the bottom of the wound and ejects both insecticide and dead larvae, leaving but 

 a mere speck apparent on the skin when the fruit is matured. Try the experiment and watch 

 results. After several years' experience, the Messrs. Moody & Sons, of this city, have found 

 it quite impracticable to dispense with spraying under any circumstances, while as a result 

 they have found it necessary to pick off from one-third to one-half of their plums in order to 

 prevent the trees overbearing, and have marketed large crops of plums at remunerative prices 

 each year, having about fifteen thousand plum trees in bearing. 



9 



