1911. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
669 
APPLE MAGGOT OR “RAILROAD WORM.” 
I note that Prof. Waugh, in his book on the “American 
Apple Orchard." states that the apple maggot cannot be 
controlled by spraying, and that the only way of lighting 
that pest that appears to be practicable is the picking 
up of the fallen fruit. This being so, it is important to 
know how long the maggot remains in the apple after it 
falls, and how early in the season the very first of them 
leave the apple. How late in the season are they known 
to deposit their eggs? G. a. 
East Orland, Me. 
The apple maggot, also known as the “railroad 
worm,” is an apple insect for which there is no effec¬ 
tive or practicable remedy. Fortunately, there is only 
one brood of the flies each year. Were it otherwise the 
insect would prove much more of a serious pest than 
it is. The adult insect is a fly not quite as large as 
the house-fly, and quite different in appearance. The 
wings have dark bands across them and probably few 
fruit growers have ever seen them. The mother fly, 
which is capable of producing 300 to 400 eggs, de¬ 
posits each one in the flesh of the apple by making 
punctures through the skin with her ovipositor. Here 
the eggs hatch in four or five days and the maggots 
burrow through the flesh of the fruit. 
Apples that show no exterior indica¬ 
tions of the presence of the maggots at 
gathering time may be found honey¬ 
combed by the larvae. Such apples soon 
decay in storage. The maggots mature 
as the fruit ripens and leave the apples 
after they fall to the ground. If an in¬ 
fested apple falls to the ground before 
it is ripe, the maggots may remain in it 
some time, or until they attain their 
growth before entering the soil. After 
entering the soil to the depth of an inch 
or less the larvae change to pupae and 
rest quietly until the following Spring 
when the adults come forth. 
This pest attacks sweet and subacid 
apples the worst, although it often in¬ 
fests Fall and Winter varieties. The 
flies appear from July 1 on in the New 
England States. It is thought that the 
time of appearance of the flies is in¬ 
fluenced by the date of the ripening of 
the fruit which they infested the pre¬ 
vious season, though this has not been 
definitely determined. It is certain that 
the flies appear with a good deal of 
irregularity over quite a long period of 
time; so that it is impossible to say 
when the first eggs are laid or when the 
last ones are deposited in any particular 
locality without detailed study at that 
place. A suggested method for con¬ 
trolling the apple maggot is to pick up 
and destroy the fruit as it falls. This 
should be done at least every two or 
three days. The work of gathering the 
fallen fruit should begin as soon as the 
first ripe windfalls of the early varie¬ 
ties are seen and continued until the 
fruit is harvested. Orchards may be 
pastured with hogs, which will destroy 
the fallen fruit. This is probably the 
cheapest method of getting rid of these 
infested apples. It would seem as 
though plowing and cultivating an or¬ 
chard would destroy the pupae in the 
ground, but experiments made up to this 
time indicate that the pupae are not 
killed to any extent in this way. 
In South Africa, where the fruif 
growers are much troubled with a 
similar and closely related fly, they 
spray their trees with a poisoned sweetened solution 
made of one pound arsenate of lead, 25 gallons of 
water and five gallons of treacle (molasses). The 
mixture is sprayed on the trees in coarse drops. The 
trees should not be drenched. The idea is to put on 
just enough so that the mixture will stand in separate 
drops on the leaves. The flies are attracted to the 
drops and suck up the poisoned liquid. The molasses 
keeps the drops from drying up and, at the same time, 
attracts the flies. We are making preparations to try 
this remedy here. In the meantime, it is worthy of 
trial by fruit growers troubled with this pest. 
GLENN W. HERRICK. 
They Lave government inspection of farm products in 
Hungary down to the point where hay and fodder can be 
bought under a botanical inspection to prevent weed 
selling. 
The government of New South Wales has lent $6,632,- 
•*-.> to 8,456 settlers on land. More than one-third of 
this has been repaid. This government recognizes the 
fact that farmers need capital and that $1,000,000 loaned 
to 1.000 farmers may be better for the country than when 
loaned to a banker. 
A YEAR’S WORK IN POTATO BREEDING. 
The difficulty experienced in producing new and 
valuable varieties of potatoes by cross-fertilizing po¬ 
tato blossoms and growing plants from the seeds in 
the seed ball is so great that the potato grower, and es¬ 
pecially the seed potato grower, will grasp at any 
method of improving the excellent varieties we now 
have as something of vital importance. Last Winter 
I was interested to compare the views of different 
plant breeders in regard to this matter. Some main¬ 
tained that there could be little improvement made 
within the limits of a variety, that potatoes are grown 
from bud cuttings and one bud, and therefore one 
potato is as good for seed as another. We may vary 
the production by improved methods of culture but not 
by seed selection. Other plant breeders, however, 
maintained that there is a variation in the producing 
power of the different buds and also in the character 
of the crop which they produce. In the Spring of 
1910 T planted some tubers in accordance with a 
method outlined by Dr. H. J. Webber of Cornell Uni¬ 
versity in Reading Course Bulletin No. 43 of that 
station and the results of the first year’s work seem 
COLORED PUPILS IN SAME TOWN. Fig. 195. 
(See Hope Farm Notes, page 566.) 
to strongly support the view that there is a wide 
variation in the producing power of different tubers. 
From about 300 bushels of seed potatoes we selected 
four bushels of just the size and type that we consid¬ 
ered ideal for the two varieties we are planting, the 
Irish Cobbler and Early Eureka. We distributed 
the fertilizer and opened the furrows in our breeding 
plot and then cut each of these selected potatoes 
lengthwise into four uniform sized pieces, planting 
four hills from each tuber, one piece in a hill. One 
hill was left unplanted between each four hill unit, so 
that the units could better be kept separate and stud¬ 
ied through the season. Each one of these four hill 
units would of course be a measure of the producing 
power of the seed potato which planted it and of the 
bud which produced the seed potato. 
I studied the vine growth very carefully during the 
season and while there was little if any disease there 
was a great difference in the vigor of the vine growth 
between the different four hill units, but great sim¬ 
ilarity in the character of the vine growth within the 
four hills of each unit. In the Fall we dug the breed¬ 
ing plot by hand, digging each four hill unit together in 
a pile by itself. Then we went through the field and 
studied the different piles. Some of them could be 
immediately discarded as unworthy of further consid¬ 
eration, but the best units we carefully weighed and 
notes were taken as to the number of marketable po¬ 
tatoes, the number of unmarketable ones, the uni¬ 
formity in size, depth of eye, etc. The variation in 
the amount and character of the production of these 
four hill units, planted as they were under exactly 
similar conditions and from carefully selected seed 
was a surprise to me. Our best unit gave us 26 mar¬ 
ketable potatoes, one unmarketable, while the yield re¬ 
duced to the acre basis was at the rate of 660 pushels 
per acre. Our poorest unit gave us six marketable 
potatoes, four unmarketable, and a yield of 49 / bush¬ 
els per acre. Fig. 192 shows two units, one yielding 
at the rate of 660 bushels per acre, the other at the 
rate of 66 2-3 bushels. I have about 30 units selected 
which have an average production of 519J^ per acre. 
I shall carry these units through another year and see 
how many of them hold up to this high record of pro¬ 
duction. If not more than one of them 
persists you may readily see the value of 
the work, because we could go on and in 
time produce thousands of bushels from 
this one unit. Let us hope that this will 
prove to be a practical method for the 
maintenance and improvement of the 
productivity of our good varieties of po¬ 
tatoes. E. S. BRIGHAM. 
Vermont. 
A BOLD SWINDLE IN SOAP. 
Last Summer (1910) a slick-tongued 
fraud calling himself an agent for 
the “Woodbury Soap Company” went 
through the northern part of this 
county (Clinton) taking orders for soap. 
Ten dollars and a half was the sum 
asked for the soap, a box of 200 cakes, 
and 25 cakes extra if cash was paid 
down, and there was a premium of 40 
yards of Axminster carpeting, or rugs, 
furniture, etc., as the housekeeper might 
requite. A very wonderiul bargain, but 
so wonderful that it is surprising what 
a large number of persons bit at the 
bait a stranger 'threw at them, and 
with the hook showing so plainly; yet 
they forked over the money asked for 
the goods and he delivered to them the 
25 cakes of soap as extras. He told 
his victims that his partner was to 
follow in a week with a four-horse 
team and deliver the goods, but neither 
himself nor partner have ever appeared. 
It is said that he took over $300 in the 
town of Chazy alone and skipped many 
houses, probably fearing telephones, as 
inquiries might be raised. This money 
was taken mostly from farmers, many 
of them borrowing the money from 
neighbors or kinsmen, so eager were 
they to get such a bargain. Such human 
sharks preying on their kind should be 
dealt with as the marine ones are. 
But why does the rural community 
continue to invest its hard-earned dollars 
in the schemes of strangers (where 
there isn’t even 35 cents of it coming 
back) when we have honest merchants 
who would be glad to take orders for 
such goods, and there are honest cata¬ 
logue houses who carry all such goods, even if the 
home merchant isn’t selling right? It does not seem 
as though they read the papers, or if they do they do 
not heed the warnings and go on expecting to get 
“something for nothing” and trusting to strangers who 
are travelling over the country picking up hard-earned 
money. The agricultural journals, especially The 
Rural New-Yoricer, are full of warnings to look out 
for rogues and swindlers, travelling, and all other 
varieties of such parasites. But people who get so 
badly taken in do not as a rule expose such rascals, 
and allow their neighbors and the community to get bit¬ 
ten also when the next “green goods promoter” comes 
around. People should never allow such things to 
pass unnoticed; when you get “stripped among 
thieves” expose them, turn on the light of publicity 
and the travelling frauds at least will learn that the 
highways are too hot for them to travel on, and the 
people are too enlightened to give them an ear. The 
exposure of such rogues is the duty of every disin¬ 
terested citizen mrs. j. w. l. 
