Green Fruit Worms. 583 



which were not cultivated. This fact led him to recommend that 

 many of the insects could be destroyed by the cultivation of the 

 orchards during July and August, while the worms are in the 

 ground undergoing their transformations. We believe that thor- 

 ough cultivation during the summer will tend to greatly lessen 

 the crop of green fruit worms for the following year. 



The fact, as reported by several correspondents, that the cater- 

 pillars will at once drop to the ground (not spin down as do can- 

 ker worms) when the branch upon which they are at work is un- 

 naturally jarred, affords a vulnerable point of attack against 

 them. Why not jar them off into sheets and then kill them? We 

 saw this successfully accomplished last spring in an orchard near 

 Geneva, N. Y. " Curculio catchers " were in daily use to catch 

 this most serious pest of stone-fruits, and hundreds of the green 

 fruit worms were being caught at the same time, thus " killing 

 two birds with one stone." On young trees this is the most effi- 

 cient and practicable method of fighting these caterpillars we 

 can suggest. Three or four good thorough jarrings ought to ef- 

 fectually check their ravages for the season. Of course, on old, 

 large trees it would be a big undertaking to jar them, and when 

 there was such a setting of fruit as we had last spring, it might 

 not pay to do it. But with a small setting of fruit, it might mean 

 the difference between a good crop and no crop at all, in which 

 case it would certainly pay. 



In brief then, our recommendations for fighting these fruit- 

 eating caterpillars are to always spray the trees at least once 

 with Paris green in the Bordeaux mixture before the blossoms 

 open, to kill some of the worms while they are young. Later 

 sprayings, after the fruit is large enough for them to eat, will 

 avail but little. After the fruit sets, the only successful and 

 practical way to fight them seems to be by jarring them off into 

 sheets or "curculio catchers" and killing them. Follow this 

 with thorough cultivation of the soil during the summer, and 

 thus kill many of the insects while they are undergoing their 

 transformations in the soil. They are difficult pests to fight, and 

 it is to be hoped that at least another nineteen years may pass 

 before our fruit growers receive a third visitation from destruc- 

 tive numbers of them. 



MAKK VERNON SLINGERLAND. 



