April 23, 1892. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
531 
narrow and grass-like, clothing the base of stems 
which rise to a height of 12 in. generally bearing 
about three, nodding, bell-shaped flowers of a dark 
purple. It is a native of North America and proves 
perfectly hardy in this country. In fact it does 
better in the open ground, in well drained moderately 
moist soil, than when protected by frames or in any 
other way which hastens the flowering period, 
weakens the leaves, and renders the flowers much 
less durable. There is a white variety that might be 
grown by way of contrast to the typical form. 
Where the garden soil is heavy a little peat would 
do much to correct it. 
-- 5 -- 
THE APPLE BLOSSOM 
WEEVIL. 
The Apple blossom weevil (Anthonomus Pomorum) 
frequently causes much harm to Apple and Pear 
trees. In the last four or five years its injuries have 
much increased in fruit-producing districts, and in 
some instances these have been attributed to the 
caterpillars of the winter moth. Close examination 
of the blossoms has, however, shown that the larvae 
or maggots of the beetle were in the centres of the 
flowers, destroying their powers of fructification, 
though at the same time caterpillars were feeding 
upon the blossoms and leaves. The action of this 
beetle upon the fruit-blossoms of Apple and Pear 
trees is also often taken for the effects of white frosts, 
when the petals have become brown or rusty co¬ 
loured ; but if they are closely examined, either the 
pupa of the weevil will be found within them, or the 
little round hole in the side of the withered flower- 
bud will be noticed, showing that the perfected 
weevil has cut its way out of its cradle. 
The blossoms of Pear trees are attacked in a 
similar manner by this weevil, and great mischief is 
sometimes caused, especially in orchards where Pear 
and Apple trees are planted together. 
In France this weevil has lately occasioned in¬ 
credible damage in the orchards of Brittany and 
Normandy. So great have the losses been in the 
Department of Morbihan that a syndicate of defence 
against it (Syndicat de defense contre l’Anthonome) 
has been formed at Pontivy, consisting of a com¬ 
mittee in each commune, to carry out a series of 
operations calculated to destroy this enemy of Apple- 
growers. It is only by unity of action among 
cultivators that injurious insects of this and many 
other kinds can be stamped out, or their baneful 
effects upon crops materially decreased. 
Description of the Weevil. 
It is a very small creature, only about one-fourth of 
an inch long, and not the eighth of an inch across its 
body. It is reddish or chestnut-brown, with down 
or pubescence of a greyish hue upon it. Some 
specimens are almost piceous in colour. The wing- 
cases have pale marks upon them below the middle. 
There is a conspicuous white mark, or scutellum, at 
the base of the wing-cases. The legs are reddish ; 
the thighs of the anterior, or first pair, are large and 
furnished with a formidable tooth on each ; and the 
feet, or tarsi, are darker coloured. Its rostrum, or 
snout, is the most remarkable feature, being half as 
long as its body, slightly curved, with antennae near 
its extremity, furnished with oval clubs having four 
joints. 
Like many other weevils, it falls down when dis¬ 
turbed, tucks in its snout and legs, and remains 
motionless, feigning death until the danger has 
passed. 
Its Life History. 
In the first warm days of spring the weevil issues 
from its winter retreat under the bark of trees, 
among lichen and mosses upon their branches, or 
under stones, grass, leaves, and rubbish under them. 
Curtis and Schmidberger considered that the females 
seldom use their wings, but that the males fly freely. 
Dr. Henneguy, to whom a special mission was 
entrusted by the French Minister of Agriculture to 
investigate fully the habits of this insect in Brittany, 
states that both sexes fly easily', and with equal 
frequency. 
Either by flying or by crawling, the female finds 
its way to the blossom buds of Apple and Pear trees, 
and boring a hole with its snout, places one egg 
within each bud, and carefully closes up the aperture. 
This is the mode of oviposition described by Curtis 
and other economic entomologists. M. Petit, Depart¬ 
mental Professor of Agriculture in Morbihan, who 
has studied this insect, states, however, that the 
female does not perforate the flower-buds with its 
snout for egg deposition, but with a stylet placed in 
the extreme end of its body like a bee’s sting. M. 
Petit remarks that by pressing the body of a female 
weevil this stylet is protruded, and can be seen with 
a glass. “ It is hard to admit," he adds, “ that the 
insects should execute a complicated manoeuvre 
obliging it, after having pierced the bud with its 
snout, to turn round and place the egg in an invisible 
hole, smaller than the egg." 
A female lays from fifteen to twenty eggs, but 
places one only in each flower-bud. Dr. Henneguy 
observes that the process of laying one egg takes 
about three-quarters of an hour. The egg is yellow¬ 
ish white, and oval. Authorities agree that the 
period of egg-laying in an individual female may be 
continued for at least a fortnight. The eggs are 
hatched in from five to nine days, according to the 
condition of temperature, and the larvae come out. 
The larva, or maggot, is without feet, about four 
lines long—the third of an inch—when full grown. 
It is wrinkled, and white at first, gradually becoming 
of a yellowish hue, having a brown head with two 
little brown spots on the first segment. It lies in the 
bud in a curved form, and attacks the stamens and 
pistils, but, according to Dr. Henneguy, it rarely 
touches the ovary. It soon causes the petals to 
wither, the flower-bud changes to a rusty hue, and 
decays. 
Then the larva turns into a pupa, close upon a 
quarter of- an inch long, yellowish white, with its 
long rostrum, or snout, and feet folded on the under 
side of its body. It remains in pupal state for 
about ten days, and then assumes weevil form and 
bores a hole through the petals and emerges. 
Most practical entomologists have held that the 
weevils after this live during the summer feeding 
upon the leaves of Apple trees. Dr. Henneguy, from 
close observation, has come to the conclusion that 
they do not feed at all, but derive sustentation from 
a reserve of fat, corps graisseux, stored up in their 
bodies during the pupal state. Towards the end of 
September the weevils can no longer be seen. They 
retire for hibernation to chinks in the bark of Apple 
and Pear trees, also in the lichenous and mossy 
growths upon their branches, as well as under 
stores and rubbish beneath and around the trees, 
and possibly in many other refuges. Dr. Henneguy 
thinks that they may pass the winter under the bark 
of other trees than Apple trees, as he has found 
them upon Oaks during the summer. 
Circumstances of the Attack. 
According to the natural and unfailing instinct of 
insects, the weevils do not appear until the weather 
is mild and the flower buds have begun to swell. If 
the season is, and continues, warm and growing, the 
effects of the attack are usually of a comparatively 
slight character. But should the weather be cold 
and changeable, as is so often the case in Great 
Britain and in the north and western parts of France, 
the flower buds are slowly developed, and the weevils 
consequently have time to lay their full complement 
of eggs, whose period of hatching is accomplished 
before the buds have become full flowers. As Dr. 
Henneguy remarks, this makes cultivators say that 
the cold winds have rusted the Apple blossom. 
The varieties of Apple trees which blossom very 
early and very late are more likely to escape the 
attacks of the weevil than those of the main crop, 
whose blossom comes late in May in ordinary 
seasons. Dr. Henneguy observes that in 1888 in 
France some varieties resisted the attack, especially 
one known as Douce du Jarrell, very free blossom¬ 
ing, three parts of whose buds produced flowers 
from the 14th to the 29th of May, and another 
variety named La Goupilliere, which blossomed 
from the 17th to the 31st of May without having a 
bud invaded by the weevil. 
Modes of Prevention and Remedies. 
A method of prevention adopted in France and 
strongly recommended by M. Petit, who has been 
before referred to, is to spray the limbs and branches 
of Apple trees between October and February with 
a solution of sulphate of iron, in order to destroy the 
lichens and mosses which serve as harbours for the 
weevils and other insects. M. Petit’s recipe for this 
solution is one pound of sulphate of iron to one 
gallon of water. This can be sent up among the 
branches by means of a strong garden engine with a 
powerful pump. 
Another good way of killing lichens and mosses 
on fruit trees, adopted in Kent, is to throw freshly 
slaked powdered lime over the branches in foggy 
weather in winter. This is done by men having 
scoops like flour scoops fastened to poles 
It is advised that all grass, leaves, and rubbish 
should be cleared away underneath fruit trees on 
grass land, and on cultivated land it would be well 
to dig round the trees and apply lime or lime ashes, 
or soot and lime mixed. 
The tarred or greased bands put round fruit trees 
to prevent the ascent of the female winter moths 
might hinder female weevils from ascending, assum¬ 
ing that Curtis, Schmidberger, and others are 
correct in their opinion that the female weevils do 
not care to fly. 
In Brittany, some Apple growers scrape the bark 
of the trunks and large branches of the Apple trees 
with a scraper, and brush every part with a stiff 
carpet brush, having placed a cloth round the tree 
to catch the pieces of bark and the beetles that may 
fall on it. These are collected and burnt. Some 
limewash the trunks and limbs after this process. 
Others apply a composition of lime and naphthaline, 
but Dr. Henneguy reports that this is not effectual 
in keeping away the weevils. 
In Great Britain it has been found that limewash¬ 
ing trees is not effective against insects unless the 
bark is thoroughly cleared off and the wash worked 
well into every cranny while it is fresh and hot. 
Insecticides have been tried in France at the time 
of flowering but without good results. Sulphur is 
burnt in a vessel at the end of a pole and applied 
close under the branches of the trees. It takes, it 
is said, about a quarter of an hour to treat one tree, 
at a cost of about yd. According to some who have 
tried this it has answered, but experiments made at 
Rouen and Saint Ouen de Thouberville proved far 
from encouraging. 
It is most difficult to employ insecticides with ad¬ 
vantage, as compositions strong enough to kill or 
drive away the weevil would probably injure the 
tender buds, and after the larva is in the bud it is 
hopeless to attempt to reach it. 
A mode of decreasing the number of these weevils 
adopted in parts of France, and recommended by 
several who have practised it, is to shake the 
branches of the trees to make the insects fall on a 
cloth spread below. 
The cloth, an old rick-cloth being best, is cut and 
arranged so as to fit close round the trunk of the 
tree. A labourer gets up into the tree and shakes the 
branches violently, while two others, having long 
poles with hooks at the ends, also shake the branches 
within their reach. Other labourers sweep the cloth 
with stiff carpet brooms, and shovel up the debris 
together with the weevils into a sack. This must 
be done rapidly, and before the weevils can flyaway. 
It is stated that four men and two boys treated in 
this way no trees in a day. 
Experiments proved that it is necessary to perform 
this operation two or three times on each tree, as 
the weevils are not all shaken off at first. A tree, 
for instance, from which at the first shaking nearly 
1,000 weevils had fallen, yielded 385 five hours later, 
and 145 the next day. In the orchard of the Ecole 
pratique d'Agriculture des Trois Croix, near Rennes, 
with 347 Apple trees on eight acres, the cost of treat¬ 
ment, which occupied three days, was only £1. 
Nearly 450,000 weevils were destroyed, and there was 
a satisfactory crop of Apples. 
This operation must be carried out before the 
weevils lay eggs, and in order to accomplish this it 
is necessary to watch closely for their first appear¬ 
ance, and to begin with the earliest varieties of 
trees. 
It is, of course, most desirable that the Apple 
growers in a district should combine and arrange 
to wage war in this fashion simultaneously, and with 
the same care and energy. 
This mode of destroying the Apple blossom weevils 
might advantageous!) be practised in Great Britain. 
It would also be useful in the case of the attacks of 
other insects, as the winter moth caterpillars, for 
example. 
There are several parasitic Hymenoptera which 
destroy the larvae, and some kinds of birds devour 
both larvae and weevils, as the robin, tomtit, and 
chaffinch, and some species of linnets. It is believed 
that the tomtit and chaffinch extract the larvae from 
the buds .—Communicated by the Board of Agriculture. 
-—5—- 
Mexico has applied for 8,000 feet in the horticul¬ 
tural building at Chicago, and Germany for 10,000 
feet and as much more as they can get. Chief 
Samuels says the question is not of exhibits to fill space, 
but how to satisfy those who apply for it. It is the 
same in all departments. 
