The daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1904-1905, 1904-03-25
CAUSING CONSIDERABLE DAM
AGE OVER THE APPLE
BELT
OF THE UNITED STATES
They viii Hatch in April-A Full
Life History For Benefit of
Farmers.

Last spring a small green louise,
which was found in great numbers
upon the tender shoots of apple trees,
caused much damage over the entire
apple belt Of the United States.
The insect is the common apple
plant louise, which is familiar to every
orchardist as the small, soft, green
louise which appears on the young
leaves of the apple in spring. This
insect also affects the pear, but not
in such great numbers as it IS found
upon the apple. The louise IS quite
small, green in color, and great num-
bers of them are found together upon
the tender foliage of the trees
The life history of this insect IS
substantially as follows: The eggs
are deposited late in the fall on the
young shoots of apple trees, USUALLY
near the tips of twigs, near where the
young insects are TO be fed the fol-
lowing spring. When first deposited
these eggs are yellow in color, or
nearly orange, perhaps, but they soon
turn dark, and at this season OF the
year they can be found on the tWlgs
and are of a shiny black color; the
eggs are plump and can easily be de-
tected with the naked eye. They will
be found in groups, and it may hap
pen that only a few twigs on an en-
tire tree will have them.
These eggs will remain on the twigs
through the winter, and in April, just
at the time when the food for the in
sects is ready, they vii appear. They
will grow rapidly if the weather IS
warm, more slowly if the weather is
chilly. BY the time the apple leaves
are full grown, however, they will be
very numerous. and will all be found
on the under side of the leaves and In
clusters along the fruit stems.
The apple plant louise, III common
with other species, is a sucking in
sect. and therefore cannot be killed
bv the arsenical spray mixtures. 1t
must be killed by a mixture which de-
strovs by contact. On this account
any spraying operations must be very
! thorough, for if even few of the in
sects escape they will be able to pro-
duce a great number of others In a
| few DAYS The standard remedy for
this pest is to spray with a mixture
of oil and water, mechanically mixed
by one of the newer style spray
pumps, or to spray with kerosene
emulsion. The latter is made as fol-
| lows:
Dissolve half pound of hard soap
in one gallon of soft water, boiling
when the soap is thoroughly dissolved
remove from fire and add two gallons
of kerosene. This mixture should be
/ churned vigorously until perfect
emulsion is formed, which will be a
thick mass. Before using this should
/ be diluted with water at least ten
1 times. When diluted with twenty
parts water the mixture will contain
almost per cent oil; about 10 per
/ cent oil is sufficient to kill the plant
/ lice.
At this season of the year, wher
there is apt to be less work on the
farm than at the time when the lice
appear, one can try to destroy the
eggs. This has been tried, with in
different success, a great many times
/ but the Idaho experiment station has
recently conducted some experiments
which promise good results from the
work of spraying for the eggs. A
number of different mixtures were
tried In this work, the one which gave
the best results being the following
One pound of sulphur and one pound
of Stacked lime were placed in a boil
er with a convenient amount Of water
and boiled for two hours and half.
The ingredients by this time were
thoroughly dissolved, and then en-
ough water was added to make to-
tai of four gallons. This was strain
ed through a sieve into a barrel and
was ready for use.
Before using the mixture the trees
were examined to find where the eggs
were located, and even the twigs
which contained the eggs were care
fully noted on the various trees. Not
every tree will contain the eggs, nor
| will avo1.xy tu9;rr ~, oxvo., tI,a -, al