366 



JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 



[Vol. 8 



were badly bent over to the east and several were broken, off. On row 

 No. 5 in most of the cases in which the pins had not been stuck through 

 several leaves the bags had been blow^n off. Those bags which still 

 remained on the trees had bent the tips over at right angles or even 

 farther. It was evident that it was wholly impracticable to place bags 

 over the terminals at this date because they were as yet too tender 

 to stand the strain due to the weight of the bags in the wind. This 

 method of protecting the peach trees from the attacks of the tarnished 

 plant-bugs was, therefore, abandoned. 



Pruning 



Phillips (1906) described a method of pruning to overcome a similar 

 trouble of peach nursery stock. Although he attributed the injury 

 to an undetermined species of mite, the sj^stem of pruning recom- 

 mended b}^ him would apply equally well if the injury were caused 

 by the tarnished plant-bug. His experiments are as follows : 



''He attempted to assist the tree to outgrow the injury b}^ judicious 

 pruning in May and June. On May 18, injured trees were pruned by 

 pinching off the terminal bud, which had ceased to grow, giving one of 

 the side shoots near the tip an opportunity to push up almost straight. 

 The tips of the other laterals were also pinched off so as to throw the 

 growth into the bud that was left at the top. On August 15 an exami- 

 nation showed that of the pruned trees, 68 per cent and 73 per cent of 

 Wonderful and Champion, respectively, had grown straight. Unfor- 

 tunately, no check is available for comparison, and it is also to be noted 

 that only 13 per cent of the total number of trees were injured in the 

 first place, which is a very much smaller percentage of injury than is 

 common in nurseries in New York. On June 22, other trees of an 

 unknown variety w^ere similarh^ pruned, except that some of the 

 lower laterals were cut off close to the trunk. In this case only 

 twentj^-five trees were treated. By the 15th of August, 88 per cent of 

 the pruned trees had grown up straight." (Crosby and Leonard, 

 1914:491.) 



Back and Price (1912:334) state that this method of pruning is 

 ''worthless during the period of greatest actiidtj^ of pratensis, for as 

 fast as a new shoot was formed, the terminal bud was at once killed." 

 Quaintance (1912:108) quotes a letter from a Marjdand nursery firm 

 in which the follomng statement is made: 



"The past summer we kept a gang of men going over our peach 

 blocks and cutting or heading-in the side branches in order to throw 

 the growth to the terminals and make them start a second growth. 

 In this way we got our trees to start to grow and the most of them 

 finally outgrew the trouble. We know no other remedy than to cut 

 the side branches back tAvo or three inches." 



