MISCELLANEOUS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1989, 10 April 1890, Page 9

MISCELLANEOUS.

Mr Tasman Morrisby, a Tasmanian fruitgrower, has arrived at the conclusion after many years' study of the question that the only effective method of dealing with the codlin moth is the entire destruction of its food, or, in other words, the whole of the fruit in infected orchards must be /destroyed, either when in the blossom or as soon as the fruit has " set" upon the tree. He instances several oases in wbich orchards have been freed from the pest by the adoption of this means, and suggests the compulsory clearing of the whole island by sacrificing a year's fruit. He explains bis theory thus :— " I submit that the codlin moth grub baß but two natural foods— viz., the apple and the pear, but will enter and thrive upon the plum, peach, apricot, and quince, but only in the majority of cases, after partly maturing in the apple and pear ; that being so, remove and destroy all those foods before the 'grub' enters it, and what will be the consequence ? The moth must go through her functions, she muat lay her eggs, and then, Bbc must die ; those eggs not being p'acod upon their natural food bed, they must dio." A Northern paper stated that some orchards in the Palmerston North distriot (Wellington) are returning to their owners over £100 an acre. Ooe orchard of four acres produced £450 worth of fruit, chiefly apples, last year.