152 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



-white shiny nest. The second brood or variety makes its appearance about the 

 widdloof summer, and makes its tent or nest on the Ijranches and leaves where 

 it feed:?. It eats clean the i)ulp of the leaves, and leaves them dry and dead, 

 •covered with their tents or nests. They don't seem to be very particular what 

 "kind of leaves they eat as they seem to do equally well on apple, cherry, hick- 

 ory, walnut, or oak. The sooner after hatching; they are seen and de.'^troyed, 

 the better, and every nest, whether on apple or other tree, sliould be destroyed. 

 But of all the pests in the orchard with which farmers have to contend, and 

 •the one most difficult to overcome, is the apple worm or codling moth. It is a 

 night worker and hates the light. It is hard to find untjl the mischief is done 

 and the apples ruined. It makes its appearance about the first of June, or 

 when apples attain the size of grapes. It may be seen about twilight on warm 

 evenings in the tops of the apple trees, flying close above and around the 

 branches, and darting in and out among the leaves. Soon after this the eggs 

 are laid, generally in the calyx or blossom of tiie apple, sometimes on the side 

 •of the apple, which is generally ruined and drops off. The worms mature in 

 about three weeks in warm weather and leave the apples and crawl down the 

 limbs of the tree to find a hiding place in which to undergo their transforma- 

 tions. In a week or two they attain their perfect or moth state ready to deposit 

 their eggs and thus begin anew their depredations. This process continues all 

 summer and fall, the last worms either being gathered with the apples or find- 

 ing a hiding place and passing the winter in the pupa or dormant state. They 

 do however sometimes pass the winter in the worm or larva state, as I have seen 

 them in the spring. No good remedy for the codling moth is yet known. It 

 has been recommended to keep hogs in the orchard during the summer and fall 

 to eat the worms in the fallen apples. But unfortunately the worms generally 

 leave the apple before it falls. I think not more than one apple in ten falls 

 with the worm in it, and that is an accident which the worm did not intend. 

 It may pay to keep hogs in the orchard, but not as a remedy against the cod- 

 ling moth. The best remedy known is to furnish the worms a good hiding 

 place on the body of the tree and fight it out on that line all summer. They 

 should be looked after and killed once a week till the apples are picked. If 

 a, poison could be discovered that would kill the worms on coming in contact 

 with it it would be of immense benefit to farmers. By scraping off the rough 

 bark of the trees and thus destroying their hiding places, and then furnishing 

 a better hiding place, it is possible to induce most of the offending tribe to 

 crawl into the trap. If now by having the paper band, or whatever might be 

 used, poisoned so that to enter the trap would be certain death, the battle would 

 be won. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Brown, of Stevensville, wished to know if decayed wood did not invite 

 itbe attack of the apple tree borer? 



Dr. Eoe. — The borer does not live on dead wood, although they kill it. 



John Irwin said he believed in pasturing an orchard. He has had his or- 

 •chard seeded ever since 3860, and he was willing to compare his fruit with that 

 of any one. When I kept hogs in my orchard I found no wormy apples. But 

 ■when I took the hogs out the apples got wormy. I would trim the trees from 

 the outside towards the inside, so that air, but no light, can get to the inside 

 •of the tree. I would have my lowest branches about five feet high. I do not 

 ijelieve in the work of professional trimmers. 



Mr. Brown, of Stevensville, said he was much interested in regard to the 



