676 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



Thin sheets of the batting were unrolled and cut or torn into 

 strips about four or live inches wide and long enough to wrap 

 around the tree and overlap an inch or more. After being wrapped 

 about the tree, it is tied at the hotiom, as illustrated at a on 

 the tree in Fig. 147. After tying, the operator takes hold of 

 the top of the band and carefully rolls it down over the bot- 

 tom edge, thus forming a cotton-batting funnel, as represented 

 at h in Fig. 147. Mr. Glasser, who placed the cotton bands 

 on in this ingenious way, had found that ordinary white twine 

 was the best cord to use, for larger, stronger cord (like binder's 

 twine) would not stretch enougli to allow for the growth of young 

 trees ; some of his trees were so nearly cut through with 

 this large twine that they were broken off by the winds 

 during the winter. This method of applying the batting not 

 only makes it a more effective barrier against the cutworms, 

 but it is also not easily matted down by rains. We found that a 

 few hours of sunshine would make it as fluffy and effective as ever. 

 When properly put on, a cutworm very rarely got over them. In 

 Mr. Davis' experiments in Michigan last spring he found a cotton 

 batting band to be the best and cheapest device as long as it re- 

 mained dry, but its liability to mat down led him to recommend 

 that wool be used instead. 



In 1894, we took some wool to Forest Lawn to be used in this 

 way, but our observations convinced us that Mr. Glasser's ingenuous 

 method of applying the cotton rendered it unnecessary to use the 

 more expensive wool, except possibly in seasons of continuous rain- 

 fall. The wool bands will prove Cfjually as effective, and so far as 

 preventing the cutworms from getting to the buds of either grape- 

 vines or peach trees is concerned, nothing more simple or effective 

 need be asked for. They should be applied early in the spring, as 

 soon as the buds begin to swell or the cutworms appear. 



As preventive methods against climbing cutworms, we would 

 therefore advise the use of the cotton or wool bands, or possibly the 

 caterpillar lime, and also, as a part of the regular farm practice, 

 the growth of such attractive crops among the trees or vines as will 

 allow for a period of clean cultivation in late summer and eai'ly fall. 



How to kill the cUmhing cutworms. — One should not be satisfied 

 with simply preserving the buds from the greedy creatures. They 

 should not be allowed to remain a constant menace to the trees and 

 other near-by crops, but a war of extermination should be in- 



