The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1900-11-29
THE DESTRUCTION OF CHEST
NUT TREES.

a correspondent of the Kco,ycc
Courier writes that his attention was
drawn last summer to the fact that
many chestnut trees were dying in the
mountains of North Carolina. He
sent some Of the twigs and leaves to
Prof. a. =. Anderson, of Clemson
College, for his examination, and he
has kindly furnished the following in
formation:
81 am in receipt Of the chestnut
leaves and branches from Horse Cove,
n. &. The leaves look healthy fur
this time of the year, being late in
i'll the season when the leaves die a
natural death. Some of the leaves have
been partly eaten by one OF the insc cts
known as the "leat skelctonjIcrs,' but
the injury IS not serious enough to
affect, to any great extent, the health
Of the tree. | was unable to find any
indications of other insect injuries on
the specimens sent, especially none of
any serious nature.
cit is well known fact that for
some years past the chestnut trees of
Virginia, West Virginia, North Caro-
lima, and South Carolina, as well as OF
other States, have been dying out
slowly for some reason, not very
well known. Certain fungous diseases
have been found on the leaves as well
as Oh the trunks and branches of the
trees, but not serious enough to war
rant the wholesale destruction of the
chestnut groves and forests that seems
to be going ons
"Of insect pests the chestnut wecvil
Balaninus Caryatrypcs) is the most
serious, since It destroys the nuts,
making them wolmy. The worms or
weevil. The worms are too well known
to need any description; they are COM
mon in tho nuts at this time of the
year, often being found in sovcnty-iivc
per cent of the nuts. The wormy nuts
are not only rendered useless as food,
but their terminating power is also
destroyed, so that fewer seedlings or
Young chestnuts grow up under the old
trees on that account. The worms arc
footlcss and white. The adult insect
is beetle of the weevil kind. The
beetle appears while the chestnuts are
in bloom and then lays its eggs by
, i, means Of long slender snout which it
thrusts into the young burrs and into
the nut itself. The hole made heals
over and the egg matches and develops
into the worm or white grub---tlle
larvae stage Of the chestnut wccvil.
The larvae mature about the time the
nut ripcns, when it eats hole through
the shell and escapes into the ground,
where it changes into a pupa, lives
over winter and appears at the next
blooming season as the mature beetle,
which again deposits its eggs III the
young burrs. After the old beetle has
deposited its eggs it dies.
AS to remedies for tho chestnut
weevil no satisfactory treatment is
known. The number can be decreased
by destroying all of the wormy nuts Of
the preceding season. This can be
done by scalding the nuts for fcH
minutes in water. The wormy Mt
float to the top'and the sound ones, .,
rule, sink to the bottom when sub
merged in water. BY destroying the
floating ones the greater number Of the
wurmy nuts can be destroyed. The
above method would be good one,
especially where the chestnut trees or
grove is isolated from the wild cheat
nut groves or trees, and would not be
practicable where large areas or groves
are near at hand, since the adult wccvil
has wings and Will fly long distances.
o-s-S