224 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Marz., 1902. 
Urchard Notes for March. 
By ALBERT H. BENSON. 
‘ 
By the end of February the marketing of deciduous fruits is practically 
finished in Queensland, as, with the exception of a few varieties of late apples 
in the Stanthorpe district, and of persimmons in the various parts of the colony, 
this season is over. 
The finish of the deciduous fruits, however, marks the commencement of 
the citrus season, and these fruits will be ready for handling in the earlier 
districts of the State during the month. This being the case, I take this 
opportunity of calling the attention to all citrus-growers to the following very 
important considerations :— 
First: The necessity for preventing this fruit from being destroyed by 
pests. 
In addition to the various scale insects attacking citrus trees and citrus 
fruits, the ripening fruit is liable to be destroyed by insects that either suck 
the fruit, such as the orange-piercing moths described by Mr. Tryon in the 
April number of this Journal for 1898; or by insects boring into the fruit, 
such as the yellow pearl moth, sometimes known as the corn moth or 
borer moth, and the fruit fly. In order to obtain a good crop of marketable 
citrus fruit, these three pests must be carefully looked after, and every 
possible means must be taken to keep them in check so as to reduce the 
damage caused by them as much as possible. The orange-piercing moths 
can be destroyed in large numbers by the use of poisoned baits con- 
sisting of weil-ripened Cavendish bananas impregnated with a solution of 
arsenite of soda, or a soluble arsenical poison, such as the well-known wite-ant 
exterminators. These poisoned baits should be hung up among the orange 
trees, and they will attract and destroy large numbers of the moths. Ripe 
Cavendish bananas, unpoisoned, also act as an attraction to the moths, and 
they may be caught by means of an ordinary butterfly-net when sucking the 
fruit at night. The yellow peach moth, the second of these pests, is much 
more difficult to deal with, as it is nut easily attracted or captured. It lays 
an egg on the skin of the fruit, usually where two fruits touch, or else in the 
folds of the skin, near the stem—in fact, in positions where it is not likely to 
be rubbed off. The egg hatches out into a minute caterpillar, which eats its 
way into the fruit, and increases in size till it is fully an inch long. Green 
fruits attacked by this insect rapidly turn yellow, and usually fall off, the loss 
in some instances being considerable, as the pierced fruit is useless, and rots 
rapidly. There are two remedies—first, the destruction of the young cater- 
pillar as soon as it has hatched from the egg and before it has eaten its way 
into the fruit, and the second remedy is by the gathering and destruction of 
all fruits and seeds harbouring either the Jarvee or pupe of the insect. The 
destruction of the young larve or caterpillar is accomplished by spraying the 
infected trees with Paris green or arsenate of lime, as described in the October 
number of this Journal for 1900, under the article on citrus culture. The 
arsenical spray must be put on in the finest possible form so as to completely 
cover all the fruit on the tree, so that when the young caterpillar starts to eat 
the skin of the fruit, it will eat a minute quantity of arsenic and be poisoned. 
This remedy has proved very effectual in the treatment of the codling moth 
which attacks pomaceous fruits, and there is no reason why it should not be 
equally efficacious in the case of this insect as well. One spraying will not 
