240 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



1-2 EDWARD VII., A. 1902 



ently absorbed by tbe bark, and a second may be necessary in about a week. This will 

 keep fresh a good while, and is certainly a good trap for Cankerworms in either the 

 moth or caterpillar stage. We have taken as many as 250 females on a single small 

 plum tree. The cost of this sticky bandage and of putting it on several times amounts 

 to a considerable sum, where many trees are involved. I am thinking of trying a 

 collar made of tar paper.' 



Tent Caterpillars (CUsiocampa). — Nearly all correspondents, except those from 

 south-western Ontario, report a conspicuous absence during the past summer of Tent 

 Caterpillars. Considerable harm, however, was done in the Niagara Peninsula, and 

 along the north of Lake Erie. Mr. L. Woolverton writes : ' The Forest Tent Cater- 

 pillar is committing great ravages in orchards bordering upon woods. They come in 

 great numbers from native trees to the orchards, and are very destructive and difficult to 

 cluck.' When upon orchard trees, spraying with the ordinary Taris green mixture is 

 the best remedj- for Tent Caterpillars, but, at the time they spread from woodlands to 

 adjoining orchards, they are as a rule nearly full grown. In this case, mechanical tree 

 protectors or loose bands of cotton batting will probably be the most satisfactory way 

 of keeping them off the trees. 



Apple-tree Borers (Chrysohothris femorata, Fab., and Saperda Candida, Fab.). — 

 The recognized methods of fighting these enemies of the apple-grower, are the applica- 

 tion of washes to the trees to prevent the females from laying their eggs, and the 



digging out of the larva in the autumn and spring, when indica- 

 tions of their presence are observed. Although both of these old 

 remedies are good ones, and in many instances all that are 

 required, there are occasionally found localities where these 

 insects are in such numbers that some other and better remedy is 

 still a desideratum. Mr. Francis S. Wallbridge, of Belleville, 

 Out., has an orchard which is situated in one of these localities 

 Fig. 15.— The Flat- where the borers seemed to defy all efforts to control them. The 

 headed Apple-tree orchard is a voung one, has received every care, and many experi- 



Borfr ■ larva, hdo v 



beetle— enlarged. ments have been tried to clear it of these insects, but with little 

 effect. It seems, therefore, necessary to try more experiments 

 before we can claim to have a practical remedy against Apple-tree Borers. I shall be 

 obliged if fruit-growers living in the districts infested by the San Jose scale will report 

 to me whether whale-oil soap and crude petroleum, now used to a considerable extent 

 on apple trees for the destruction of the San Jose Scale, do not also prevent attack from 

 the Apple-tree Borers. A series of experiments has been planned with various mixtures 

 containing carbolic acid, which will be reported on later. Fig. 15 shows the Flat- 

 headed Apple-tree Borer (C. femorata) twice the size of nature. 



The Rose Chafer (Macrodactylus subspinosics, Fab.). — This troublesome beetle, 

 which every year does so much harm to the flowers of grape vines and to young apples, 

 has this year been rather abundant in the Niagara district, attacking apples and 

 peaches. Mr. II. Gordon Ball, when sending specimens, at the end of 

 June, wrote : ' I think that in one peach orchard they have destroyed 

 from 15 to 20 per cent of the fruit, and this year the trees require all the 

 peaches that form to make a good crop. These beetles do not seem to eat 

 the leaves or anything but the fruit. A wild-grape vine along the fence 

 seemed to be alive with them. The beetles fly around the trees readily, 

 Rose Chafer but, when touched, they are more apt to fall to the ground than fly. Many 

 —life size. f t} ie peaches, when bitten by the beetles, fall off.' As has been fre- 

 quently observed, the Rose Chafer is an extremely difficult insect to destroy with 

 poisons, and a satisfactory remedy has long been wanted. Although very active during 

 the hot hours of the day, the beetles are sluggish early in the morning, and are fond 

 of congregating in numbers on trees upon which they feed. Many may, therefore, be 



