STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 103 



Mr. Foster — The canker worm got into my orchard one season, 

 and I took my men and teams, and hauled some straw under the trees. I 

 studied upon the subject one day, and I brought my big artillery to bear, 

 and destroyed them completely with fire. On a still, calm day, using a 

 good deal of caution, there is no need of damaging the tree. Before I 

 got there, the wind changed a little, and my men managed to burn two 

 or three trees, but I saved the orchard. Now, that is a simple remedy. 

 Take a little dry straw, set fire to it, go from tree to tree with the team, 

 and you may shake them all down into the fire. It is simple, effectual, 

 and easy, but it wants a good deal of caution. In the orchard where 

 Mr. Galusha went, the same thing might have been done. 



Mr. McWhorter — The canker worms have been in several localities 

 in my district. I have good evidence of their being in Mercer county. 

 How they got there I do not know ; but they existed and disappeared 

 again without any apparent reason. They have been there since then and 

 disappeared again, for no known reason, and there was no particular 

 means taken to combat them, and there was no Mr. Riley there to find 

 out what was the cause. 



Mr. Huggins — I have been a close observer of the canker worm for 

 many years. For quite a number of years there was a small orchard oppo- 

 site to me that was neglected, and finally the canker worm got into it. I 

 felt uneasy about it, though they never troubled me to any extent. This 

 orchard became so much infested that the one I\Ir. Galusha speaks of 

 reminded me of it. The remedy was scraping the trees at the time the 

 eggs were laid, turning in hogs, and cultivation. I have great faith in late 

 fall plowing for the canker worm, and turning the hogs in. That is the 

 only remedy that I know of for them. This orchard has fallen into the 

 hands of people who are careful in cultivation ; there is no grass in it, 

 and it is plowed in the fall and every thing kept down, and the canker 

 worm has entirely disappeared. I do not know that our leading scientific 

 entomologists would agree with me, but I have faith in that plan. 



Mr. Rutz — Five years ago I feared that the canker worm would 

 take my orchard. The next year we sowed it with oats and turned the 

 hogs in, and the canker worm has disappeared, as far as its effects are 

 concerned. 



Mr. Flagg — I had it in my orchard once, but not to any great 

 extent, and it disappeared just at the same time the orchard was plowed, 

 being in this case an early spring plowing. I do not know whether it was 

 caused by the plowing or not, but I always thought so ; and Dr. Hull has 

 told me that he thought in two cases he had destroyed it by plowing. 



