New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 315 
This shows 25 per cent more scabby tubers in the irrigated portion 
planted with scabby seed than in the unirrigated, and 15 per cent 
more scabby tubers in the irrigated portion planted with smooth seed 
than in the unirrigated; or 10 per cent more scabby tubers from the 
scabby than from smooth seed. The difference is not sufficiently 
striking to justify the conclusion that any gain results from plant- 
ing tubers free from scab. 
The data obtained from the foregoing experiments indicate that: 
The scab was not primarily caused by a fungus. 
It was not due to the work of insects. 
In nearly every instance an increased yield was accompanied by 
an increased percentage of scabby tubers. 
Any marked change in the rapidity of growth, either an increase or a 
decrease, tends to an increased production of scab. 
A continuous growth from the time of first vegetation until the tubers 
are fully matured appearsio be the condition least favorable to the 
production of scabby tubers. 
QUINCE CUECULIO. 
Specimens of fruit that were injured by an insect were received from 
the quince orchard of Messrs. Maxwell & Scoon. The larva in the 
fruit was identified as that of the quince curculio, Conotrachelus 
cratcegi, Walsh. The identification was verified by Dr. Lintner, from 
specimens of the larvae sent to him. 
The quince crop in this section has been much injured by the ravages 
of this insect for the past two seasons. Many of the insects may be 
destroyed in the spring by the jarring method that has been so 
successfully employed for the plum curculio. 
" The insect bears a family resemblance to the plum-curculio, being 
larger, with a longer beak or snout, and a body which is broadest 
across the base of the wing covers. Instead of the crescent cut charac- 
teristic of the plum curculio, it simply makes a puncture for the 
reception of its eggs. After about a month's feeding the larvae leave 
the fruit and burrow into the earth, where they remain unchanged 
from the larval state until early in May, when they transform to pupae 
and shortly after that to the perfect insect."* 
The cultivation of the orchard, late in autumn and early in spring, 
before the larvae transform into the perfect insects, will undoubtedly 
destroy great numbers of the larvae and greatly lessen the ravages of 
the insects. 
* Second annual report on the Injurious and Other Insects of N. Y.,bjr 
J. A. Lintner, p. 11. 
