376 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



we do not always know (as I shall herein show) whether any of them are tenanted 

 or not; besides, the fruit is placed in an unnatural position ; the worm cannot 

 enter on the smooth, open side of the fruit, but seeks the stem or calyx end, 

 or where a leaf rests upon it, or two apples touch each other, in which latter 

 case the worm has been caught in its passage from one to the other, while its 

 plainly marked trail of transit is visible in other cases. 



One other proof : If we put the most enticing bands around the smooth body 

 of a heavily laden and infected tree, with no hiding places for the larvae under 

 it, and examine the bands, say about the middle of July, we shall probably find 

 at least ten larvae and pupa? under the trap. Now count the wormy apples on 

 and under the tree, and we shall find that they number over one hundred, or 

 more than ten times the number of larvae aud pupae caught. Now, if my 

 position is not true, where are the ninety or more worms? They are not on or 

 in the ground, as some suppose ; that would be contrary to all authority and all ex- 

 perience. "Oh," some may say, "the birds have taken them." I don't believe 

 it; the worms are in their hiding places during the day, and during the night the 

 birds are asleep ; besides, with me the insectivorous birds are never here except 

 during cherry and currant time, after which they leave. Some persons give 

 much credit to the robin as a destroyer of this vermin, but who ever saw a 

 robin hunting for an apple worm, or an apple pecked open to get the worm? 

 That the worms have been taken from under paper bands by some birds I have 

 good evidence, also that birds have taken them from under the scales of bark, 

 but I have no evidence that they have been taken from any other bands, or 

 from scales in any amount to materially affect the damage done. I have 

 claimed that the worm leaves the apple before it falls, and seeks a new place 

 for fresh food. Prof. Beal of the Michigan Agricultural College found that of 

 250 wormy apples found under the tree, not one had the worm in it, and of 

 250 infected taken from the tree, only about one quarter contained the larvae ; 

 "the rest had crawled out." It seems he did not suspect that they had gone 

 into sound fruit, a fact of which, I think, he will be convinced, if he follows 

 up the investigation with the care which he manifests in other matters. 



That one critic should say, "I don't believe a word of it," and another 

 should fail to effect the emigration by putting sound and unsound fruit together, 

 weighs little with me, for it takes a great many negatives to disprove one posi- 

 tive. Careful investigation in this case is worth more than a thousand obsolete 

 theories. It is not long since most people believed that these larvae went into 

 the ground to hibernate, like the plum curculio and the currant worm. 



What I have so far said relates solely to the first brood of the larvae ; the 

 second brood, or those which enter the fruit when nearly or fully grown, do 

 not necessarily kill the fruit, aud often remain in it till gathered and stored; 

 that they do sometimes even then change residences I had begun to suspect, 

 and on asking the opinion of an extensive apple-grower, "I know it to be so," 

 was his reply. Two other apple-growers thought the same. It is the first 

 brood that does most of the damage, but it is the second brood alone that 

 farmers generally notice. Another season I hope to become better acquainted 

 with this second brood. 



REMEDY FOR APHIS. 



A remedy for plant lice upon the terminal shoots of rose bushes (or similar 

 hardy plants), said to work like a charm, is as follows : Take four ouuces of 



