The Holbrook news., 1911-08-11

tBy FRED E. BROOKS. West Virginia
 University Agricultural Experiment,
 Station.)
 The plum curculio is a snout beetle about one-fifth of an inch long. Its color Is mixture of black, brown and white, with the darker shades greatly predominating. On the back are sev- eral prominent humps which give the Insect a roughened appearance and make 1t difficult to distinguish while on the tree from the bark or from a dry bud It is armed with a curved snout one-third as long as the body.
 The insect is native of this coun- try and is distributed over practically all the United States east of the Rocky mountains. Before orchards were planted within its range it undoubted- ly fed and bred on wild plums. crab apples and hawthorns, but with the settlement of the country it turned it's attention more to cultivated fruits, al though it continues to breed on the wild, native varieties It attacks plums, peaches. nectarines. apricots, cherries. apples. crab apples, pears, quinces dAQ udW anu ndb CNCA DCCA lC- ported as breeding on persimmons. On account of the usual abundance of the insect and the great variety of valu- able fruits which it attacks, there Is little doubt but that it has been right fully designated as the most destruc- tive of all the insect enemies of the orchardist in this section of the coun- try.
 It injures the fruit by puncturing holes through the skin with its snout both for the purpose of feeding and egg-laying. The feeding punctures may be made in apples at almost any time during the summer, but the egg punctures are made mostly while the apples are small These wounds, and the subsequent feeding of the larvae which hatch from the eggs, cause the fruit to become dwarfed in size, lop- sided, knotty and otherwise mis- shapen. a.
 The injuries done by the plum cur culio are not so easily prevented as are those of some other insects. and yet there are a number of methods l that can be used against them with a | very satisfactory measure of success. | In dealing with the insect on apples | by far the most effective means of pre- venting loss is spraying with one of | the arsenical poisons, such as paris | green, or, preferably, arsenate of lead. | Even where spraying is practiced, | however, it is a good plan to use in | connection with the operation some of | the other measures suggested here, if | the best possible results are to be ob- | tained.
 The apple curculio has been con- fused often with the plum curculio, but | in reality it is quite distinct from that species in both appearance and habits. The apple curculfo is more reddish brown in color, the form is more TO- bust and on the back are four promi- | nent humps, the front two of which | are much larger than any of the humps | on the back of the plum curculio. The snout of the apple curculio is almost as long as the rest of the body, or three times the length of that of the other species. The snout is carried projecting forward, instead of hanging down like an elephants trunk, as Is the case with the plum curculio.
 In attacking the fruit the apple cur culio bores through the skin, in man. ner similar to that of the other spe- cies, but after the puncture is com pleted and the egg laid. only an indis- tinct speck. is left on the surface to mark the place of injury. whereas the plum curculio makes the conspicuous crescent-shaped mark. A glance at the Insects or at their work is sufficient to enable anyone, who is at all we'll ac- quainted with the species. to distin- guish between the two.
 Where the apple curculio becomes care should be taken that DO thickets of wild crab or hawthorn