304 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



will stand to accomplish the desired result. Whether the eggs can be 

 reached as readily when they are laid on the fruit, can be determined only 

 by experiment. On the whole, we doubt it the codliny moth can ever be 

 combated in its egg stage nearly so successfully and easily as at some other 

 time. 



CAN WE REACH THE PUP.-E V 



As the pupal period lasts only about two weeks, and is passed in the cocoon 

 hidden in some crevice of the bark or in the storerooms, it offers but little 

 opportunity for attack. Many pupte are killed during the summer when the 

 "banding " system ( to be discused later ] is thoroughly carried out. Many 

 of them could also be killed in the spring in storei^ooms by fumigating the 

 room, as suggested by Wier, of California, with carbon bisulphite or hydro- 

 cyanic acid gas. But the insect can be just as effectually gotten at while it 

 is yet a caterpillar, or in the f ruitroom, even after the moths have emerged : 

 so that although the pupae can be reached to a limited extent and killed, we 

 can fight the insect much easier and more successfully at some other time. 



HOW TO KILL THE APPLE WORM OR CATERPILLAR. 



Having discussed the possible chances of reaching the insect in its moth, 

 egg, and pupal stages, we now turn our attention to combating it in its more 

 vulnerable stage, as an apple worm. From the time the caterpillar leaves 

 the egg until it is snugly ensconced in its cocoon, it can be reached in several 

 different ways, none of which, however, are a complete success. 



Jarrinq or picking infested fruit f rout the trees — The fact that one can often 

 easily detect the wormy fruit soon after the insect has begun work, by the 

 pile of brown excrement thrown out at the blossom end ( as shown in Fig. 

 133 ) led several orchardists about 1870 to adopt the practice of jarring or 

 picking off' such fruits and destroying them. In 1871, Mr. Chapin, of East 

 Bloomfield, New York, reported that by this means he was able to preserve 

 the fruit in an orchard of a hundred acres, at the rate of about an acre an 

 hour, with two men and a boy. The men would knocked off" the wormy fruit 

 with poles about as fast as the boy could gather them into baskets. This 

 simple expedient would be practicable nowadays in the case a of a few trees 

 in a dooryard, but even there equally as successful results can be secured 

 with less labor by other methods. 



The desti'uction of the ^^ windfalls^' — Among the earliest recommendations 

 made for the destruction of the codling moth, both in Europe and this, 

 country, was to destroy all " windfalls " as fast as they fell. Careful experi- 

 ments by Forbes and Munson have shown that about eighty-two per cent, 

 of these "windfalls" are caused by the codling moth; the observation of 

 Le Baron, Beal, and Cook led them to conclude that about one-half of thi' 

 wormy apples which fell still contained the worms : many have also observed 

 that the worms do not remain long in "windfalls." From these facts one 

 can readily see that the prompt destruction of the ' ' windfalls ' ' would con- 

 siderably lessen the numbers of the pest, but it could be only partially effec- 

 tive since about half of the worms leave the fruits before they fall. Many 

 have reported good results from pasturing hogs or sheep in orchards to eat 

 the "windfalls," and wherever this is practicable, it would prove a valuabht 



