The Codling Moth. 135 



knowledge goes, would be to combine the band treatment with that of 

 the poison spray, to be discussed next. Forbes arrived at the same con- 

 clusion in his experiments in IlHnois in 1885 and 1886, as also did 

 Popenoe, Marlatt and Mason in their Kansas experiments in 1888, and 

 experiments now in progress in Nebraska and New Mexico are along 

 these lines. 



Spray i?tg for the Codli?ig-Moth. 



Apparently the first suggestion to spray apple-trees to check the 

 codling moth was recorded in 1850 by Mr. Simpson, of Massachusetts 

 (Downing's Horticulturist, IV., 567). By placing a thin plate of bees- 

 wax over the '■'• eyes " of a number of apples, he found that he saved 

 them from attack by the apple-worm. He then reasoned : " But the 

 plan for practical purposes is to syringe the fruit with whitewash ; this 

 will fill the eye and thus prevent the moth from laying her egg." 



About thirty years later the same idea seems to have been conceived by 

 Dr. Hull, of Illinois. He recommended dusting air-slaked lime over the trees 

 just after the blossoms fell, especially when the dew was on. In 1885, 

 Forbes sprayed some apple-trees eight times with fresh air-slaked lime 

 mixed in water; the results indicated " the uselessness of this substance 

 against the codling-moth." In 1889, Gillette mixed some carbolic acid 

 with plaster and threw this on the trees when the dew was on ; two appli- 

 cations were made "with an apparent saving of 34 per cent, of the fruit 

 that would have been wormy." He states that as it simply repells the 

 moths from laying eggs and does not kill the insect, it could hardly be 

 recommended, even if it gave much better results. 



Spraying with poisons. — In 1872, Le Baron recommended fruit- 

 growers to spray their trees with Paris green to check the canker- 

 worms, and this method was soon adopted by many orchardists, some 

 of them using white arsenic instead of Paris green. In 1S78, a prac- 

 tical fruit-grower accidentally discovered that when he sprayed his 

 trees with Paris green, he " not only rid the orchard of canker-worms, 

 but that the apples on the sprayed part were much less eaten by 

 codling-moths." * 



* This fact seems to have been first discovered by Mr. E. P. Haynes, then 

 living near Hess Road, Niagara Co., N. Y. Mr. J. S. Woodward had advised 

 him to use the poison for the canker-worms, and in January, 1879, this dis- 

 covery was reported" to the meeting of the Western N. \ . Hort. Society by 

 Mr. Woodward. It seems that the Hon. J. M. Dixon, and others, had also 



