ESTIMATE OF THE RESULTS. 229 



much each individual tree can carry. Mr. John J. Thomas 

 has formulated a rule which it is perfectly safe to follow, the 

 substance of which is this, — that no ordinary medium-sized 

 pear should grow within six inches of another. That is a 

 safe rule : you will not lose any money if you follow it. In 

 many cases it ought to be ten inches instead of six. 



Now, what I was coming at was this : wherever the cod- 

 ling-moth larva has been at work, those pears or apples, if 

 left undisturbed, sooner or later drop upon tlie ground. 

 They are worthless, but every one that has a worm in it 

 should be at once secured. I am, therefore, in the habit of 

 going through the orchard about twice a week, and picking 

 off all the wormy fruits before they drop : these are kept in 

 a basket as gathered ; and, if worth feeding to hogs or other 

 animals, I get rid of them in that way ; if they are not, I 

 have a very convenient place where I can dump them into 

 the river, and trust, for the benefit of people who live below, 

 the worms are prevented from transforming. That is the 

 quickest way with me. I suppose, that, in that way, there 

 were apples enough picked off of this same orchard to de- 

 stroy a number of codling-moths equal to those I caught in 

 the traps upon the trees, making about four thousand worms 

 that were secured. Well, my crop was about a hundred 

 and seventy-five barrels of good apples, generally free from 

 the codling-moth. We found but very few when we came to 

 pick the crop. 



Now, let me ask, what will the result be to me next year ? 

 I will suppose that two thousand of the four thousand 

 were females, and that they lay eggs to the amount of thirty 

 each : I believe that is the ordinary estimate. I never have 

 ascertained, and do not know ; but entomologists tell us, I 

 think, that each female lays about thirty eggs. Suppose 

 that two thousand of them lay thirty eggs each that come to 

 maturity, and we have sixty thousand codling-moths that I 

 have headed off. Now, supposing that each one of those 

 codling-moths should have gone on to maturity, and should 

 take one apple each next year, there would be a hundred and 

 twenty barrels of apples spoiled. If my orchard should hap- 

 pen to bear a hundred and twenty barrels of apples next year, 

 I have killed just codling-moths enough to save the whole 

 crop. Now, is it worth doing ? Will it pay ? That every- 



