CONTROL OF PEACH DISEASES IN GEORGIA 
25 
Table 16. — Number of peaches dropping from Hiley peach trees, and percentage of 
them infested by the curculio, in experimental orchard at Fort Valley, Ga., 1924 
Plat 
Total 
number of 
drops 
Total 
percentage 
of drops 
infested by 
curculio 
I 
10, 558 
6,692 
7,520 
8,202 
6,072 
1.5 
2.1 
1.4 
3.2 
22.5 
II 
III. 
IV . ... 
V 
Table 17. — Commercial results of fruit from all trees in each plat of the Hiley 
varieiy, peach spraying and dusting experiments, Fort Valley, Ga., 1924 
Plat 
Number of 
trees in 
plat 
Average 
merchant- 
able fruit 
per tree 
(expressed 
in cups; six 
cups equal 
one crate 
Average 
cull fruit 
per tree 
(expressed 
in cups; six 
cups equal 
one crate) 
I 
150 
158 
162 
172 
30 
20.00 
15.40 
18.80 
22.10 
16.20 
0.95 
.60 
.70 
1.00 
4.60 
II 
III... 
IV 
V... 
The winter of 1923-24 was unusually cold. At one time the tem- 
perature dropped to a minimum of 7° above zero at Fort Valley. As 
a result of the abnormal weather many adult curculios were undoubt- 
edly killed in hibernation. It was found that only 11.5 per cent of 
the beetles that went into leaves for hibernating quarters in the fall 
of 1923 appeared during the spring of 1924, as compared with an 
appearance of 63.2 per cent from the same conditions of hibernation 
in the spring of 1923. The spring of 1924 was unusually cool and late, 
and the beetles that did survive the winter were rather late in leaving 
hibernation. As a result, the Hiley peaches suffered only a light 
infestation of the curculio. The infestation in the fruit harvested from 
the check, or untreated, plat of this variety was only 10.5 per cent, 
and the infestation in the " drops'* from the same plat was only 22.5 
per cent. The schedules had therefore a very mild test against the 
curculio in the Hiley orchard, and because the beetles were scarce at 
the beginning of the season of 1924 the early treatments with arsenate 
of lead had little chance to prove their effectiveness. As the season 
progressed the weather became very hot, and by midsummer there 
were some abnormally high temperatures and frequent rains. As a 
result, the development of the curculio was accelerated; two broods 
of the insect were produced in the season, although the overwintering 
adults left hibernation late in the spring. By the time the Elberta 
peaches were ready to be harvested the curculio population had 
materially increased in the orchards. All treatments were much 
more severely tested in the Elberta experimental orchard than in the 
orchard of the Hiley variety. 
