Excerpt from The Insects Destructive to Fruits
Insects are among the most formidable enemies to success ful fruit-culture. The losses occasioned by the plum curculio alone amount to more than a million of dollars annually. Orchardists are sometimes deterred, by the attacks of this in sect, from attempts to raise the apricot, nectarine, peach, and plum; and the market supply of apples and pears is often much disfigured by it. The apple-worm, or codling-moth, is even a more formidable insect pest. New York fruit-growers alone yearly furnish $2, worth of apples and worth of pears to feed this insect; and other similar apple-growing States report nearly as large an annual loss from its ravages. The depredations of many other insect pests, like the apple tree and the peach-tree borers, the canker-worms, the tent caterpillars, the apple maggot, and the pear psylla, each causes annual losses amounting to several hundred thousand dollars.
As a general rule those remedial measures are of little value, which attempt merely to repel insects without destroy ing them. Experiments show that rarely is an insect repelled from attacking any part of a plant by the application of odor ous substances, like carbolic acid, tar, etc.
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