June, ’23 
snapp: plum curculio 
279 
orchard five collections were made at a cost of two and nine-tenths 
cents per tree. 
Some interesting figures were obtained from picking up drops in a 
Georgia Belle orchard containing 1394 trees. The orchard was divided 
equally into two parts, and care exercised in the division to avoid sub¬ 
jecting one side to a greater area of possible curculio hibernating quarters 
than the other. The drops were collected regularly every five or six 
days from one part, and on the other part they were allowed to remain 
on the ground under the trees throughout the season. Both parts were 
otherwise treated exactly alike. They received the spray applications 
consisting of the same materials on the same days, and the cultivation 
in each section was always done on the same day. At harvest the fruit 
from a number of trees in the center of each block was cut open to 
obtain the data on the curculio infestation. The results showed that 
there was one and one-tenth percent less wormy fruit in the part of this 
orchard from which drops had been regularly picked up and destroyed. 
This operation saved $74.25 worth of fruit from each thousand trees in 
this orchard. After deducting the cost of gathering the drops during 
the season there was a net saving of $52.85 per thousand trees. This 
would figure a net saving of around $5.25 per acre. The chief benefit, 
however, from the operation is that of preventing the development of 
myriads of adults, and thereby reducing the infestation of subsequent 
peach crops, which cannot be computed in definite dollars and cents. 
We have found that the best w r ay to dispose of peach drops is to bury 
them in a trench, covering them with a layer of quick lime and at least 
twelve inches of soil. Some growers bum their drops, but this is not 
very satisfactory on account of the water content of the fmit. Others 
have disposed of drops by throwing them into a pond or river. I 
doubt the expediency of this method of disposition, as we find that the 
curculio larva and pupa are able to keep alive on top of water for a 
considerable length of time. 
When it became known that peaches were damaged in the South by 
more than one generation of the curculio, we gave a great deal of at¬ 
tention to a revision of the spraying and dusting schedules, so that the 
second brood of larvae, which is by far the most destructive one in the 
South, may be successfully controlled. A very important discovery in 
this connection has been made. We found that the adults leave their 
hibernating quarters and are on the trees in numbers by the time they are 
in full bloom. The adult curculio generally does a considerable amount 
of feeding before copulation or before egg deposition. They feed 
