FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
143 
them jump long distances. Several dif¬ 
ferent sprays are recommended. Black 
leaf tobacco extract diluted one part to 
fifty or seventy parts of water is very ef¬ 
fective, and one quart of commercial lime- 
sulphur added to each fifty gallons of 
spray improves its adhesive qualities. 
This should be applied directly into the 
blooms as it opens, and, if necessary, 
again before it falls. 
Nearly all of us have seen worms in 
peaches. They are caused by the sting 
of the curculio beetle. The insects sting 
the fruit and lay their eggs, which soon 
hatch and develop with the peaches. Af¬ 
fected fruit often drop before sound fruit 
is fully matured. The larvae come out of 
the drops and bore into the ground, where 
the pupal stage is passed. The adult, 
emerging from the ground, completes the 
life cycle. It is very important to pick up 
all drops or turn hogs into the orchard to 
consume them as every larva that passes 
into the ground and completes its life cy¬ 
cle, emerges as a beetle to sting other 
fruit. Many can be killed in the soil by 
cultivating intensively and applying kai- 
nit. Jarring the trees early in the morn¬ 
ing and catching the beetles in a sheet is 
practical only where the number of trees 
is very limited but where fruit is grown 
on a commercial scale it is necessary to 
spray. In some localities curculio is ac¬ 
companied by brown rot. Where both 
are present spray with lime-sulphur or 
Bordeaux mixture to which has been ad- 
ded one and one-half to two pounds of 
arsenate of lead to fifty gallons of spray. 
If no brown rot is present, do not use 
the fungicide as it will kill the friendly 
fungus. The first application should be 
applied soon after the bloom falls and 
again in three weeks. A third spraying 
is sometimes necessary where the beetles 
are very numerous. 
pears 
The selection of proper soil for the pear 
orchard is very important. Pears are 
probably influenced by the soil conditions 
for success or failure more than any other 
kind of fruit. They thrive best on very 
thin sandy, well-drained soil, such as is 
not most suitable for corn and other crops. 
Trees on heavy gravel, hammock, muck 
land or any soil that is not well-drained, 
are usually attacked by blight more than 
on light, v sandy land. The bacteria that 
cause blight enter through the bloom and 
tender growth, and as the growth of trees 
can be better controlled on sandy land, 
trees on it are less likely to be attacked. 
Affected trees should be cut back so as 
to remove all diseased parts. All fruit 
spurs must be removed from the larger 
limbs as blight can enter through the 
bloom, and where fruit spurs are left on 
large limbs the disease may enter directly 
into them. Where it enters the smaller 
limbs only, they can be cut away with¬ 
out sacrificing any considerable portion 
of the tree. As mentioned under peaches 
thrips attack pear bloom, and the com¬ 
mon failure of the crop in Florida is due 
to this cause. Even the tender foliage 
is attacked to> such an extent that the 
leaves are diminutive and present a with¬ 
ered, ragged appearance much as if they 
had been exposed to fire. Black leaf to¬ 
bacco extract, as mentioned before in this 
report, holds the insects in check. While 
