INSECTS ON FRUIT TREES.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8534, 14 July 1893, Page 6

INSECTS ON FRUIT TREES.

For the benefit of those of our readers who may be unacquainted with the means of destroying insects on fruit trsev at the present season we {Gardener's Chronicle, May 20th) publish the following excerpt from a recent leaflet issned by the Board of Agriculture : — Upon examination of fruit trees, and especially Apple and Damson trees, it will be seen that many caterpillars are at work eating tbe forming fruit and the leaves.

The caterpillars at first are greyish, and so small as to escape notice unless atteution is specially directed to them, but they can be found in alarming numbers iv many orchards and fruit plantations, and it is moat important that steps should be taken at once to check their progress. In their later stage, tbe caterpillars are light screen, and nearly three-quarters of an inch long. First. —It should be noted that syringing the trees infested with caterpillars has proved advantageous in many places in previous seasons; it has been more particularly useful in respect of Plum, Damson, and small Apple trees. The large old Apple trees are beyond the reach of ordinary garden engines used for this purpose, and it is only in hopgrowing districts where hop-wash-ing machines are generally used that the systematic syringing of large standard trees bas been adopted. These machines can be moved about easily enough in orchards. In plantations, with fruit bushes under the standards, it is more difficult to move them about, and to get the supplies of liquid brought through thp thick undergrowth. The mixtures to be employed for syringing fruit trees are :— Ist. The extract of 101b of Quassia, obtained by boiling Quassia in water, to 100 gallons of water and 71 b of soft-soap. 2nd. The extract of 61b of Quassia, to 109 gallons of water, with 6lb of soft-soap and 4 pints of paraffin, well stirred. 3rd. The extract of 51b of Quassia, to 100 gallons of water, with 6lb of soft-soap and 4 pints of Calvert's carbolic acid, No. 5. 4th. 81b of soft-soap and 2lb of fiualyground Hellebore, and a quart of paraffin, boiled and well stirred together. This is sufficient for 100 gallons of water. The soft-soap is dissolved in a tub with hot water : the Quassia chips are boiled in water, and put into another tub. Where paraffin Is used, it should be well stirred up with boiling soap and water before it is mixed with the cold water. Water-carts, ordinary barrels, or wine casks set upon frames with wheels, should be brought full of water to where the materials are being prepared, either at tbe farm buildings, or in au extemporised shed with a copper in it, and the requisite amount of dissolved soap and other ingredients added. The Eclair, and other similar hand machines, can be used for small apple trees, Plum and Damson trees, and for Filbert and Cobnut trees, which are also badly infested. It is important that syringing should be done at once, as, to be effective, it must be commenced early. Directly there are sigus of infestation, the process should be begun. Ah the hatching out. of caterpillars is not simultaneous, but is extended over some days, the syringing* must be renewed. Secondly.—Some fruit growers iv several parts of the country have tried the arsenical insecticides used extensively in the United States and Canada. Tuese have nob been generally adopted in thin country on account of their poisonous properties. The time has now arrived when they should be fully tried. There are two special substances of this nature. The one, " Paris Green," or "Emerald Green," is strongly recommended by several American and Canadian entomologists. Tbe latest advice from experienced nractical, entomologists is to put lib of Paris Green, in cue form cf paste, which Is far better than powder, into from 165 to 200 gallons of water. .The mixture must be kept well stirred, in order that the solution may be maintained at an uniform strength. The object is not to dislodge the caterpillars, but to poison their food with the arsenical solutions,.which should fall, like gentle raiu, upon the leaves and blossoms, For this purpose fine "rose" Jets should be used. • Riley's " cyclone nozzle is used in America. The Vermorel nozzle is also a good distributor. The other arsenical compound is " London Purple," obtained In the manufacture of aniline dyes, and composed of lime and arsenious acid.

One pound of London Purple should be mixed with from 160 to 180 gallons of water, aud kept well stirred, being applied iv the same manner as tbe Paris Green, sprayed on in the form of a heavy dew or mist, and not squirted violently upon the leaves and blossoms.

London Purple can be obtained as a powder, and in a fluid form ready for mixing with water. It is as poisonous as Paris Green.

Stock must not be put on grass in orchards where these arsenical solutions nave been used on the fruit trees until a considerable period has elapsed and rains have fallen; nor must they be used where bush fruits for early pickiug, and vegetables are grown under the trees. Three or four daya will elapse before the effect of these solutions is apparent, and, as a rule, it will be found necessary to repeat the application*. These solutions can be put on with bopwashing engines, ordinary gardeta engines, the Eclair, hydrouettei, t and other pail engines. Syringing with -Paris Green, London Purple, and other solutions recommended above, will be equally detrimental to the Apple Blossom Weevil (Anthonomus pomorum) now present in large numbers, and to tbe Apple Sucker (Psylla mail), which is causing unprecedented harm in many localities.

"Winning Number" writes to mc (says " Rapier) about a system, a subject I have not bad anything to say about of late because I have not much opinion of systems notwithstanding that friends who follow various devices tell mc that they win. They do ao for a time, I generally find, but there comes a week, several weeks, of disaster when their profits vanish with a lot more besides. '• Winning Number" comments on my remark that the best jockeys keep on winning one race in four; he is "inclined to think" that on the average the horses they ride start at more than 4 to 1 against, and herein he perceives—or thinks be does—a source of revenue. He suggests taking Mornington Cannon and T. Loates, and wants tne to tell him "bow it could best be done." I do not quit© understand what he means, but it is obvious that if he backed both in every race when both ride ho wonld be certain to lose on one of them, and would very often lose on each. "Now and then the backer would get a handsome turn up, like Siffleuse in the One Thousand," he truly says, *' and I remember one day early in the season when Mornington Cannon rode two winners at 6 and Bto 1" The success of the scheme depends to a great extent on the accuracy of his " inclination to think ** that the average odds against the jockey he might select are more than 4 to L I think ie probable that they are. but have not time to enter upon the serious task of ascertaining by a calculation of many weeks racing, nor indeed would past odds entirely settle the question of future odds. Backing jockeys* mounts was one of the earliest systems invented. I know it broke '. many men, hut I never heard of anybody who made money by it in the long run. I Pony racing (says a Sydney exchange.) is ! galloping in the footsteps of pedestrianism and trotting. The spore is one gigantic swindle and is already surely doomed. { Tournament, bj SirModred, and one of the best three-year-old colts in America in his day, fa as retired from the post for the paddock, where he should perpetuate his i aire's memory. !