306 REPoirr of state board of horticulture. 



easily made and (juickly applied by 25lacing- fhem around the tree and either 

 putting a tack through the overlapping ends and into the tree or else by 

 simply tying a cord around the middle of the band. To work the most suc- 

 cessfully, the tree should be scraped quite smooth where the band is applied ; 

 the band should be arranged to present one or more folds in which the 

 worms like to spin their cocoons : and two bands should be put on each tree, 

 one near the crotch and the other near the base, thus offering convenient 

 places for the worms which may come down from the apples on the tree and 

 also for those which may go up from the "windfalls." The bands should 

 be put on in June or about the month after the blossoms have fallen, and 

 they should be kept on until the fruit is gathered. They must be removed 

 and examined every ten days until the latter part of August, when it will 

 not be necessary to examine them again until .late in the fall, except where 

 more than two broods of the pest occur. All of the cocoons with their living 

 contents must be destroyed at each examination ; this can be done either by 

 burning the cheap paper bands and putting on new ones each time, or, in 

 the case of cloth bands, by putting them in hot water or by running them 

 through a wringer. The necessity for this frequent examination of the bands 

 arises from the fact that some of the worms will be changing to pupae and 

 the moths would soon escape, thus defeating the whole object of the use of 

 the bands. All those who have expressed an opinion after using the bands 

 extensively, state that the expense during the season need not exceed four 

 cents per tree, or that they can be used with decided profit. 



In 1887 Wickson carried on an experiment to get at the exact proportion 

 between the worms on a tree and the number caught by bands during the 

 season. He bandaged four hundred and fifty-seven apple and pear trees at 

 the California Experiment Station, and caught only one thousand one hun- 

 dred and eighty-eight worms while two thousand seven hundred and four 

 fruits were found from which the worms had escaped ; the bands had thus 

 captured only forty- four per cent, of the worms. The trees were quite 

 smooth, and only one band was used ; doubtless better results would have 

 been obtained by the use of two bands. However, forty-four per cent, is a 

 good showing, and as Mr. Wickson well says: " the destruction of this pro- 

 portion of fully fed and healthy lai'vag must be considered very satisfactory;" 

 and "it will be seen that this old method of treatment is still one of the 

 most effective that can be employed. ' ' The next year a similar experiment 

 was made at the Kansas Experiment Station, but in this case all of the trees 

 were also sprayed with poisons, thus somewhat complicating matters. The 

 record shows that the bands captured only about 8.5 per cent, (two hundred 

 and thirty-eight thousand infested apples and only twenty thousand three 

 hundred and ninety-eight insects) of the insects which 'had done the injury ; 

 one band was used, and it seems as though there must have been some con- 

 ditions not mentioned in the record which might explain the great differ- 

 ence between these results and those obtained in California. Yet with even 

 this small per cent, of worms captured it was considered that the bands 

 could be used with profit in Kansas. 



It is surprising how many of the worms can be captured sometimes under 

 these bands. In 1873, Beal thus entrapped on two hundred and eleven ti^ees 

 bearing light crops, six thousand eight hundred and eighty-four of the in- 

 sects during the season, the largest catch being one thousand four hundred 

 and fifty on July 18, and the smallest, two hundred and ten on August 15. 



Previous to the discovery of the spraying method for combating the cod- 

 ling moth, this banding system was the most successful method suggested, 



