The Codling-Moth. 



145 



blossoms fall. 'I'he later the poison is applied while the calyx is still 

 open the better." 



The expense^ or will it pay to spray for the codling- moth ? — Your 

 neighbor who has been spraying his orchard for a year or more can 

 the most effectively answer this question for you. In Bulletin 84 

 of the Station was recorded the testimony of several fruit-growers 

 on this point. It not only pays to spray thoroughly, but it is a positive 

 necessity in many cases. Read Professor Bailey's remarks on this 

 point in Bulletin loi just mentioned. The cost per tree is a trifling 

 matter, and will not exceed from five to ten cents for the season, 

 depending upon facilities, rains, etc. 



It will be necessary to spray for the codling-moth every year that 

 there is a setting of fruit, for several reasons. Usually there are less 

 enterprising neighbors who do not spray and who thus breed a crop of 

 the moths annually, some of which will find their way into your 

 orchard. The insect breeds readily in wild haws, pears, and some 

 other fruits, so that even when there are no apples in a locality some 

 years, the codling-moth does not lack for food. And especially must 

 one remember that we cannot hope to reach with the poison spray the 

 15 or 20 per cent, or more of the worms which do not enter the fruit 

 at the blossom-end, and these are sufficient to develop a large crop for 

 the next season, where there are two or more broods of the insect in 

 a year. 



Is there any danger of poisoning the fruit with the spray, or the stock 

 pastured in sprayed orchards ? — No. For several years after the intro- 

 duction of spraying for the codling-moth, this notion prevented its 

 coming into general use. But to-day one scarcely ever hears the 

 question considered seriously. In 1889 Cook made some experiments 

 in Michigan which effectually settled the question that there is no 

 danger from pasturing stock in sprayed orchards. 



He drenched some apple trees with London purple, used twice as 

 strong as recommended. All the poison which dripped off was caught on 

 a paper and the amount of arsenic on this paper then determined by the 

 chemist. In one case, it amounted to .4 of a grain and in another to 2.2 

 grains. Although these analyses showed that there was little or no 

 danger, the matter was more fully tested by thoroughly spraying other 

 trees under which was growing some bright and tender grass. All of the 

 grass was cut close to the ground, and Professor Cook fed it to his horse ; 



