316 
THE GARDEN M A G AZINE 
July, 1917 
Skirmishing Orders of the Month 
★ “Beware the worm.” Unless 
spraying is done properly no one dare eat 
an apple in the dark. The worm that 
might thus furnish part of a meat diet is 
the larva of the codling moth whose first 
brood begins operations shortly after the 
blossoms fall. Toward mid-summer the full 
grown worms eat holes through the green 
apple and crawl to crevices in the bark and 
other hiding places where they pupate. While 
most of them wait until spring to appear, far 
too many emerge in a few days and lay eggs on 
the half grown fruit. 1 hese are the fellows 
to “beware.” Of course, the most important 
work is to control the spring brood but in 
mid-July and early August the later ones may 
be destroyed by using arsenate of lead. Two 
pounds in 50 gallons of water (or about an 
ounce to two gallons). Always make the spray 
as misty and apply with as much force as the 
pump will permit. 
★ Those enormous filmy webs inclosing 
whole branches of apple and some other trees 
in mid-summer are probably made by the 
fall web worm, the parent of which laid her 
eggs on the leaves in June or early July. 1 hey 
are not caused by a second brood of the apple 
tree tent caterpillar which perhaps stripped the 
trees bare in May. As soon as the larvae are 
seen spray with arsenate of lead (one ounce to 
two gallons of water) especially on the foliage 
around the outsides of the nests. Unlike the 
tent caterpillar the web worm larvae feed in- 
side their nests. The former uses its tent as a 
sort of den or retreat from which paths of silk 
are laid to the feeding areas outside. 
★ There’s no need to fear those yellow 
necked caterpillars on the apple trees in 
July. To be sure when a drove of a dozen or 
more feed like a flock of sheep side by side a 
leaf doesn’t last long. Often a single twig may 
be populated by a hundred or more. A 
lighted rag torch soaked in kerosene will burn 
them off or they may be destroyed by spraying 
with arsenate of lead, an ounce to two gallons 
of water. 
★ It’s too late now to prevent damage to 
the plums, cherries, apricots and peaches from 
CURCULio, that little worm that makes the 
fruit ripen and fall prematurely. The pre- 
ventive spraying should have been done in 
spring while the fruits were still small. Much 
may be done, however, to reduce attacks for 
next year. One of the best means is to keep 
poultry confined around the trees until after the 
fruiting season has passed. Chickens are very 
partial to an insect diet. 
★ Little pin holes in the peach tree 
trunks and branches, eh? They are made by 
tiny beetles, borers, of two principal kinds that 
attack also cherry, plum, and apple trees. 
If you had noticed earlier, when the trees w ere 
first attacked, there were little masses of gum 
on the stone-fruit trees where the borers w 7 ere 
working. While healthy trees well cared for 
may be attacked, this is not common except 
w here the beetles are very abundant. I he 
trees that usually fall victims are the neglected 
and ailing ones. I hey are a menace to the 
other trees so the sooner they are cut out and 
burned the better. It is important to burn the 
trees as soon as cut even using dry fuel or brush 
to make them burn; for the insects will crawl 
out if the trees are left whether cut or not. 
Good cultivation and fertilization of the trees 
are the best three preventives of this kind of 
damage because they tend to keep the trees in 
good health. As a further preventive a coat of 
thick whitewash applied in early July, October 
and late March is fairly effective. 
★ Brown rot of peach, cherry, apricot and 
plum is rapidly spread by curculios which gnaw 
holes in the fruit and leave spores of the 
disease. To control both the disease and the 
spreader of it, a spray of self-boiled lime-sul- 
phur wash and arsenate of lead (an ounce to 
two gallons of the wash) is effective since the 
wash destroys the disease and the poison 
settles the bugs. While the first application 
should be given as soon as the “shucks” or 
calyxes fall off the newly formed fruit, yet a 
thorough spraying in early July will be help- 
ful. 
★ Slugs on the quince leaves! Probably 
the same as on pears. Fight them with poison 
or dust the same as on pears. 
★ Cherries are made “maggoty” by the 
larvae of fruit flies wffiich lay their eggs beneath 
the skin just w-hen the fruit is beginning to 
color. 1 he infested fruits show sunken de- 
cayed spots above the yellowish w T hite grubs. 
These maggots crawl out of the fruit and 
burrow T in the ground to pupate until the fol- 
lowing spring. An effective spray if applied 
before the eggs are laid is made of five pounds 
arsenate of lead, three gallons of molasses and 
one hundred gallons of water — or similar pro- 
portion. A quart or two of the concoction is 
enough for a tree. Arsenate of lead alone in 
w r ater is not effective enough. 
★ Those little steely-blue beetles that 
hopped off the opening grape buds in May were 
perhaps more active than you then thought. 
They were laying eggs all through that month 
and now (July 1st) their numerous progeny are 
feeding on the foliage. In about three weeks 
they’ll be full grown and will drop to the 
ground to pupate for ten days or so before 
emerging to feed as adults on the foliage. In 
this last form and during late summer they do 
little damage; but in spring and in July they 
are often perfect pests, the early bugs destroy- 
ing the buds, the larvae gobbling up the leaves. 
Gathering the adults in shallow pans of kero- 
sene is as cheap as spraying. 1 he larvae are 
easily destroyed by arsenate of lead (an ounce 
to the gallon) in bordeaux mixture. 1 his 
latter material will hold various grape diseases 
in check. 
★ As soon as the last raspberries and 
dewberries have been gathered is the time to 
cut out the stems that have borne fruit. I hey 
are useless because they will die next winter. 
The sooner they are removed the better. It is 
best to make several cuts of canes that can’t be 
removed without danger of breaking the young 
stems. As there are often insects and diseases 
in or on the old stems, burning should be done 
without delay. 
★ Now is the time to prevent sprawling 
raspberry and blackberry vines for next 
summer. No, not by staking, but by pinching. 
As soon as a young stem has grown to the de- 
sired height, say 24 to 36 inches, use the finger 
or thumb nail to nip out the terminal bud. I o 
do this properly will require a visit at least once 
a w'eek from now 7 until early fall; but it will pay 
because the canes so pinched will become 
sturdy and so stiff that no wfind will blow 
them over. They will not need to be 
staked. 
★ Now that the late cabbage, cauli- 
flower, and brussels sprouts have been set 
out is the time to feed the plants. The ground 
is drier than in spring so there is less available 
plant food. Hence the necessity of supplying 
more so that when a shower comes the plants 
may have plenty to draw upon as long as the 
water lasts. While the plants are small, a 
teaspoonful each of nitrate of soda and acid 
phosphate to each will be sufficient. As they 
grow 7 , a second dressing double the size may 
be given without damage. Always be careful 
to avoid getting any of these fertilizers on the 
foliage because they burn. To prove this, put 
a little on a leaf and after a dewy night or two 
notice the effect. It is w 7 ell to spread the 
fertilizer thinly in a circle several inches from 
the stem as a centre. 
★ Currant w 7 orms did a good deal of 
damage this spring eh? Then be ready for 
the second brood due in early July, for it is 
likely to be bigger than the first! Spray the 
lower and interior part of the bushes (goose- 
berry and currant both) thoroughly as this is 
where the eggs are most frequently laid. 
Arsenate of lead an ounce to 50 gallons of 
water is the usual spring strength. Fresh 
wffiite hellebore is safer after the fruit begins to 
ripen — an ounce in two quarts of water. 
★ Wilted and drooping raspberry and 
blackberry shoots and tips of shoots turning 
bluish! Cane maggots. The adult flies laid 
their eggs in the tip leaves and the maggots 
burnwved down the pith of the stems several 
inches and then girdled them just beneath the 
bark. Hence the wilting. L nless stopped it 
will continue to tunnel downward till it 
reaches the ground surface where it will 
pupate early in July if not already in late June. 
Here it will remain in pupation till next spring. 
Cut drooping canes several inches below 7 the 
lowest wilted leaf. If solid the insect is in the 
cut part; if hollow make another cut several 
inches low 7 er. Burn all cuttings. 
★ There’s no need to be afraid of Lep - 
tinotavsa decemlineata! When you find it on 
your potato vines and egg plants, just 
treat it to a spray containing an ounce of paris 
green to three gallons of w 7 ater or an ounce of 
arsenate of zinc to tw 7 o gallons. Better still, use 
bordeaux mixture instead of water so as to 
control disease as well as beetles. No, don’t be 
afraid of potato bugs. They’re easy! 
★ Those little black beetles that hop 
merrily off the potato vines as you approach 
are flea-beetles. They are responsible for 
the holes in the leaves. Bordeaux mixture, 
while a fungicide is a satisfactory repellant be- 
cause the beetles don’t enjoy it very much. 
Arsenate of lead or paris green may be added 
as in spraying for potato beetles. The same 
spraying will then answer for both bugs. 
★ Asparagus stems bare, are they? The 
larvae and adults of tw 7 o species of beetles are 
probably to blame. If the bed is small confine 
a brood of little chicks in it and forget your 
troubles. In a larger bed whack the lower 
parts of the stems to jar off the larvae. This 
is best done when the ground is hottest and 
driest about midday w'hile the sun is shining 
full; very few larvae w ill get back to the plants. 
