REPORT OF STATE HORTICULTURIST. 6 1 



number is 85) on 80 apples, and half of these eggs develop 

 females, and each of these lays 80 eggs, how many dollars' 

 worth of apples, at fifty cents per bushel, reckoning 150 apples 

 in a bushel, will one codling moth and her progeny destroy in 

 one season ? When you have found the answer to be $5.50, 

 just consider how much each downy woodpecker is saving for 

 you, provided he eats only one larva per day for only one 

 month. 



Were the codling moth the only injurious insect destroyed 

 by this bird, we should owe him a debt of gratitude for this 

 work alone, but there are other hidden enemies tunnelling in 

 the wood itself, such as the round-headed apple borers, wood- 

 boring ants, wood-eating beetles, the birch borer, the maple 

 borer, and the pine weevil. All of these insects work serious 

 damage to our forest growths, and, if not held in check by their 

 natural enemy, would soon become a serious proposition to 

 owners of wild lands. 



Everyone who raises fruit for home consumption, or for 

 market, feels himself almost helpless when signs of the borers 

 appear in his trees. Their method of work is so insidious that 

 only the trained eye can detect evidence of their ravages before 

 the trees are ruined. The downy woodpecker is always on the 

 lookout for these borers. Expert at auscultation and percus- 

 sion, he explores suspicious localities and quickly detects evi- 

 dences of secret chambers within. Cheerful and industrious, 

 he gives utterances to his labor song, pick pick, and suits his 

 actions to his words by picking out the boring larva within. 



During the summer months, other tree-trunk inhabiting birds 

 come up from the South to aid the downy woodpecker in his 

 work. Chief among these in his importance to the fruit grower 

 is the black-and-white creeping warbler. This is a common 

 bird in the orchards and woodland, and may be called fairly 

 abundant in the groves and smaller clumps of trees around 

 New England villages. He is the particular favorite of the 

 young naturalist, being generally the first of the warbler family 

 to be carefully studied. Like the woodpecker, he is fitted for 

 a life upon trunk and branch, but the tail is not used in climb- 

 ing and his bill is too slender for cutting. He may be seen 

 during the summer season creeping about over the tree trunks, 

 often hanging:, head downward, searching dilis^ently here and 



