9280 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Avrin, 1899. 
severe illness just at the critical time—viz., from Christmas to the conclusion 
of the experiments; so that it was impossible to keep as accurate a record as 
could have been wished from that date, as previously Mr. Voller had devoted 
the whole of his time to work at the orchard, and this it was impossible to keep 
up. 
We believe that careful and frequent sprayings will protect a considerable 
portion of the crop, but at the same time we are confident that to be of any 
yalue the spraying must be very carefully carried out, and must be backed up 
by destroying all infested fruit and taking every possible precaution to keep 
the insects in check. 
The second series of experiments were conducted with a view of deter- 
mining the possibility of attracting, catching, or poisoning the mature insect. 
In this respect we are sorry to say that we have had no success, a8 we haye 
failed to attract the flies. We have used highly scented sticky baits, 
highly scented poisoned baits, and poisoned fruit baits; but, though 
numerous insects of various kinds have been caught or destroyed, the 
Fruit Fly has escaped. So far, we cannot find out if the mature insect 
feeds on anything, as, with the exception of seeing it occasionally apparently 
sucking the juice exuding from a puncture it has made in the fruit, we have 
never seen it attracted by.or feeding on anything. — We ask the co-operation 
of all fruit-growers in determining whether the Fruit Fly can be attracted or 
not, as, if it is found that the fly has a preference for any food, the poisoning 
of that food will be the means of greatly diminishing this pest. 
In the course of the experiments we have, however, noted that the flies 
are especially attracted to certain varieties of fruits—especially early pears 
and apricots—in which to lay their eggs, and we have taken advantage of this 
fact to use some of these trees as trap trees. We allowed the flies to attack 
the fruit on these trees without molestation, and as soon as the larvee developed 
we gathered and destroyed by boiling all of the fruit from these trap trees. 
In this way alone we destroyed many thousands of the earlier crops of the 
insects, and are confident that the result of this destruction at Birnam was 
that the larger portion of the fruit was marketed in a sound condition ; 
whereas had we allowed the fly to develop unchecked—first in the oranges, 
then in the red American plums, and finally in the early pears and apricots— 
the whole orchard would have been badly attacked, and there would have been 
little sound fruit. 
We strongly advise the use of trap trees in addition to the gathering and 
destroying all grub-infested fruit, especially early in the season ; and we feel 
zonfident, from the experience gained by these experiments, that if these 
precautions alone are systematically carried out the ravages of the fly will be 
eonsiderably diminished, At the same time, we strongly advise the destruction 
of useless varieties, which are only a breeding-ground for the fly, and the com- 
pulsory destruction of all infested fruit, as the present method of allowing 
infested fruit to lie under the trees and rot is simply increasing the pest 
_ wholesale. 
No experiments were made to destroy the larve or pup® of the fly in the 
ground after their having left the fruit, as we did not consider this feasible in 
the case of the orchards in which the experiments were conducted, nor do we 
think this method of treatment likely to be of much value even should it turn 
out to be efficacious, unless it is systematically carried out. Under any 
conditions it is bound to be an expensive process, even though the material used 
to destroy the insects would have a manurial value, as would be the case were 
kainit used. 
It is our intention to continue these experiments next season, as the 
destruction of this pest is of such vital importance tu the fruit-growing industry 
of this colony that it behoves us to leave no stone unturned that may lead to 
the discovery of an effectual means of dealing with it. 
