34 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



the bud-moth selects one leaf and feeds on it, usually killing 

 it and later, crawls out and ties down another and another as 

 the season goes on. As a rule, it does extensive damage to 

 the blossoms but very seldom prevents bloom, absolutely, in a 

 bud. From our observations, about 35 per cent of the blossoms 

 in the buds infested are noticeably injured, but the real injury 

 is more extensive as we have proved, amounting to from 75 to 

 80 per cent reduction in set in the blossom clusters infested with 

 bud-moth. 



In one case, on Wagners we found 1,205 apples set in 1,000 

 blossom clusters free from bud-moth, while in 1,000 clusters 

 infested with bud-moth we found only 305 apples set. In an- 

 other observation on Wagners, we found 223 apples set in 100 

 blossom clusters free from bud-moth, while in 100 clusters in- 

 fested with bud-moth we found only 45 apples set. As over 90 

 per cent of the buds in this last orchard were infested with bud-, 

 moth, you can see that the set of fruit in it was reduced by 78 

 per cent on account of bud-moth. About two or three weeks 

 after the blossoms fall the bud-moth pupates in the cluster of 

 dead leaves that it has gathered about itself and in three or 

 four weeks emerges an adult moth, to deposit its eggs for the 

 next year's brood. 



Some varieties are much more heavily infested than others. 

 Crinkly twigged trees, such as Ribston Pippin, Early William, 

 Wagner and Nonpareil, invariably have more bud-moth in then? 

 than clean-limbed trees, such as Northern Spy, Ben Davis, 

 Stark, etc. The difference seems to be accounted for by the 

 fact that the crinkly twigs offer better hibernating quarters for 

 the young larvae. 



COiXTROLS. 



The bud-moth has proved one of our most difficult insects to 

 control. In orchards that have been carefully sprayed for a 

 number of years we find, often, only one or two buds infested 

 in a thousand. In other orchards, unsprayed or carelessly 

 sprayed or even well sprayed for only one or two years pre- 

 vious, we often find infestation ranging from 20 to 95 per cent 

 of the buds infested. I know of no method whereby a man can 

 entirely rid his orchard of bud-moth in one year, but I can 



