§ 3- Plant- Diseases and Insects. 



The year has been characterized, as a whole, by compara- 

 tive freedom from insect and fungous injuries to horticultural 

 crops, although there have been the usual losses from the 

 depredations of the rose-chafer, the plum-knot, peach-yellows 

 and some other abiding pests. Dealers everywhere declare 

 that the apples are unusually free from worms and scabiness, 

 and the same may be said of most orchard fruits. A number 

 of new or little-known fruit-pests have attracted attention — 

 the more alarming ones being, probably, the pear-midge 

 (Diplosis pyrivora) which has been mischievous along the Hud- 

 son, and the pear-tree psylla {Psylla pyri, or a related species) 

 in some parts of the east. There appears to have been great 

 activity in the experiment stations in the study of injurious 

 insects and plant-diseases. The constant repetition of advice 

 from the stations, and the accumulation of a literature upon 

 almost every enemy to the farmer, are having the effect of 

 awakening the public to an appreciation of the enormous an- 

 nual losses occasioned by insects and fungi ; and it is bearing 

 fruit in legislation designed to control the depredations. 

 Upon this point, Professor James Fletcher speaks as follows 

 in his inaugural address as president of the Association of 

 Economic Entomologists :* " We find upon investigation that 

 accurate estimates of damage done by insects are exceedingly 

 difficult to arrive at, and the figures are so large that we are 

 rather afraid to quote them ourselves lest we should prevent 

 rather than encourage investigation, and it has been the cus- 

 tom of entomologists to minimize the estimates for fear they 

 should not be believed. Now the necessity has arisen, I 

 think, and I lay it before the association for action, in the di- 

 rection of gathering together some reliable recent statistics 

 in a short form which may be printed for distribution, and 

 which will cover the more important injuries to date, and the 



♦Before the third annual meeting, held in Washington, D. C, Aug. 17 and iS, 1891. See 

 Inject Life, iv. 4. 



(98) 



