216 



FRUITS. 



[chap. 



tree opens its blossoms. You will see the young leaves that have 

 come out curl up longwise. If you open those curls, you will 

 find, enveloped in a very small web, a little maggot that you 

 can hardly clearly discern with the naked eye. From this, its 

 birth-place, it creeps away into the cups of the blossoms, and 

 there feeds upon the germ of the fruit ; and becomes a visible 

 maggot a full third of an inch long, having a black head and a 

 greenish body. When the blossoms are not abundant, and some- 

 times even when they are, this w retched thing feeds upon the roots 

 or germs of the buds, as well as upon the blossoms. ft enters 

 down into the heart of the bud which has just bursted out into 

 little leaves, and you will see those leaves die in the month of 

 April, just as you will see cabbage-plants or lettuce-plants die 

 when attacked by the grub or the wire-worm. Of a row of 

 lettuce-plants, you are surprised to see one lopping its leaves 

 down flat upon the ground, and the rest standing bolt upright ; 

 but, if jou take it up, you will find that a grub-worm or wire- 

 worm has eaten out the heart of its root. Just in like manner 

 does this maggot destroy the buds of apple-trees ; and, as in the 

 case of a row of lettuce-plants, it, like the grub or wire- worm, 

 will, if let alone, go from bud to bud, from one end of a branch 

 to the other. The killing of the buds by these maggots is one 

 great cause of the canker in apple-trees : they make a wound 

 which descends dow'U to the very wood : I have, in numerous in- 

 stances, watched the progress of the wound, and have seen it torn 

 to complete and destructive canker. As to prevention, in this 

 case, I am not certain of the source of the maggot ; but I think 

 it proceeds from eggs deposited upon the bark during the previous 

 summer, and clinging there until the spring. What I have done 

 is to wash all the limbs and stout branches of the trees w'ell in the 

 month of March with a hard-brush, soap, and tobacco juice; 

 and certain it is that my trees have not been infested by these 

 maggots since. If you find them at work upon a tree, watch the 

 flagghjg of the buds ; cut the flagging buds out with a sharp pen- 

 kniie : you will find a maggot in the heart, and will, of course, 

 put an end to its spoliations. This is another reason why espaliers 

 are better than standards : this work is easily performed upon 

 an espalier : but, on a standard, impossible. Sometimes you 

 see the petals of the blossoms curl up ; and there you find the 

 maggot. It is better to take one blossom out of the bunch at 



