Discussion. 35 



iron with the ends cut off square into these holes, and then jar the 

 trees with light blows with a hammer. If this jarring process was 

 faithfully followed up for a few years, we would save our fruit and 

 exterminate the foe. This is rendered much more certain by the 

 fact that the egg is not deposited by the curculio until some days 

 after he makes his first appearance. The fruit is often stung earlier, 

 but the egg is not deposited until the plum is one-third or one-half 

 grown. 



Mr. Plumb remarked that insects were very numerous the present 

 season; great damage was being done throughout the state by the 

 canker worm and leaf roller; in many sections whole orchards were 

 being ruined by them, and they had already destroyed much of the 

 fruit which was left by the frost. On the University farm, in Mad- 

 ison, the foliage and fruit on whole rows of apple trees had been 

 destroyed by the leaf roller; other trees were nearly stripped of 

 leaves by the canker worm. He found both of these insects were 

 doing great damage in this section. He had brought specimens of 

 two kinds of worms that were at work on friend Tuttle's orchard, 

 one the old canker worm, a small, dark-colored looper, known 

 everywhere as the regular canker worm; the other a larger worm, 

 also a looper, with yellow stripes along the back. This was not 

 usually found on fruit trees, but was now destroying the foliage and 

 fruit of the orchards through our state. Various methods have 

 been tried to destroy these insects. The one most commonly used 

 is to encircle the body of the tree with a band or trough covered or 

 filled with tar or some other sticky substance, and thus to entrap 

 the wingless female moth as she progresses up the tree to lay her 

 eggs. To make this a sure remedy it is necessary to keep close 

 watch, and often to renew the liquid used, so as to prevent its being 

 hardened or bridged over, so as to allow the moths to pass up. 

 Hatching out as they do at different seasons of the year, from early 

 spring until fall, it requires long and close watching to make this 

 effectual. A better method is to shower the young leaves soon 

 after they appear in the spring with a solution of arsenic. If done 

 at the right time and in the proper manner one application will be 

 sufficient. Mr. B. B. Olds, of Clinton, has found this an effectual 

 remedy, killing the worms in a large orchard with it. The cost of 

 the material is very light, and the expense lies mostly in the labor 

 required, but this is not great, for when the preparation is once 



