26 



RESULTS. 



We furnished Mr. J. H. Baird, superintendent of the orchard, witli 

 cyanide jars for killing the insects in bulk once a week. As the lots 

 came in they were gone over quite carefully and a collection of the 

 different species occurring therein mounted. These were afterwards 

 determined, so far as practicable, through the kindness of Dr. L. O. 

 Howard, by Messrs. F. C. Pratt and O. Heidemann. Portions of sev- 

 eral lots were separated and the curculio counted in order to get at 

 the relative percentage at different times during the season, and at the 

 end of the whole was thoroughly mixed. By counting a definite por- 

 tion and carefully measuring the remainder a tolerablj^ exact esti- 

 mate of the total number and percentage was obtained. 



The proportions of curculio in the catchings as thus determined 

 varied from 56 to 94 per cent, the average for the entire season being 

 about 67 per cent. The gross number of curculio was in the neigh- 

 borhood of 137,000. 



No attempt was made to determine the percentage of females, but 

 if it be granted that the sexes were equally divided and that each 

 female was capable of depositing 200 eggs an idea can be had of the 

 immense damage that was prevented by the jarring work. 



The most important results, however, showed up in the small per- 

 centage of curculio-damaged fruit from the jarred orchard as com- 

 pared with the adjacent orchards that were not jarred. It was quite 

 imijossible, of course, to arrive at definite figures, but a fair estimate 

 of the comparative results was obtained by examining both the imma- 

 ture fruit on the trees and the ripe fruit as it came into the jjacking 

 houses. 



In the midst of the shipping season, July 23, we made final notes 

 on the work. The system of sorting the fruit in Mr. Hale's packing 

 house is about as perfect as it can be made on a large scale. One 

 hand sorts for two packers, and all fruit showing curculio damage, rot, 

 or other defect is discarded. Out of one day's shipping of 5 cars, 

 or 2,062| bushels, there were only 20 bushels of culls, or about 1 per 

 cent. Some damaged fruit is always overlooked and allowed to go on 

 the market. For this we allowed another 20 bushels. In this orchard 

 there was very little premature dropping due to curculio damage, and 

 from our notes we would place this amount of damage about equal 

 with the amount that came into the packing house. A fair estimate, 

 then, would place the amount of curculio damage to the entire crop 

 at 4 per cent. 



An adjacent orchard of 130,000 trees was taken as a check. Care- 

 ful notes made in this orchard and its packing house places the 

 amount of damaged fruit at 40 per cent of the entire crop. The sur- 

 roundings attending the two orchards are about the same, but it 

 should be explained that the untreated orchard has never received 

 the same clean cultivation that Mr. Hale's oi'chard is always given. 



