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STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



climb straight to the top and leave the lower limbs until the last, so that 

 they make the upper part appear dead, while the lower part will be in 

 blossom. Where the buds are eaten, the fruit and much of the foliage is 

 destroyed for the season and sometimes the trees are killed. 



There are several species of cut- worm that have this habit of climbing 

 trees and feeding on the buds. A figure of one of these in three of its 

 different stages will give an idea of the appearance of all of them. When 

 a cut- worm is full grown it measures from an inch to an inch and three 

 quarters in length and is very plump. It then ceases feeding, buries itself 

 in the ground, and transforms to a pupa as is shown at Fig. 11, c. 

 In this quiet stage it remains until July or August, sometimes 

 until the following spring, when it hatches out into a dingy moth, 

 resembling closely the one shown at h. The moth does not eat as 

 the caterpillar did, but merely sups sweets from the flowers at night, 

 resting in some secluded place, as did the cut-worm, by day. At this time 

 the moths mate and the female soon lays a number of eggs, perhaps from 

 50 to 200, and then, as her mission is done, she soon dies. The eggs are 

 deposited somewhere near the trees, or on the leaves, so that when the 

 young cut-worms hatch in the early spring they will not have to go far to 

 secure a good supply of food. The young cut-worms grow rapidly and 

 soon are matured to again go through the same cycle of life that their 

 ancestors did. 



a b e 



Fig. 11.— Climbing Cat-worm; a/.larva; b, moth; c, pnpa. 



Remedies. — Fruitgrowers in the regions where the climbing cut-worms 

 are most troublesome find good protection in the use of a wool band tied 

 around the trunk of the tree. The band should be four or five feet 

 from the ground and tied in such a manner that it will be tight to the 

 trunk, that the cut- worms can not crawl under, and left loose and fluffy on 

 the outside so that they can not crawl over. It should be placed on the 

 tree early in the spring before the cut-worms make their appearance. 

 Wool will not pack with rain and dew like cotton and similar material. 



The only fault found with such a band is that, when the caterpillars can 

 not crawl over the band, they soon become hungry enough to gnaw into the 

 bark beneath the band and so kill or injure the tree. To obviate this 

 Judge Russell of Oceana county has suggested standing small limbs, wet 

 with a strong solution of one of the arsenites, in the ground under the trees 

 close to the trunk. The cut-worms will climb into these limbs in prefer- 

 ence to the taller trees and will be killed by the poison. By the use of 

 both bands and poisoned branches one should be able to protect the trees 

 against the worst attacks. 



