442 MISSOURI STATE HORTIOULTURAL SOCIETY. 



THE CANKER WORM. 



This destroyer of the foliage of the apple tree appears to be con- 

 stantly spreading in various portions of the Western States. It has 

 largely extended in some parts of the East, while in others its progress 

 has been promptly checked. It seems remarkable that the owners of 

 farms,who will employ very prompt means to turn maurauding cattle out 

 of their wheat and corn fields, will look on and do nothing to rid orchards 

 of this equal destroyer, which may be easily and readily extirpated by 

 spraying early in the season with Paris green. For large orchards, fill 

 with water and with a seven-hundredth of its part of Paris green, or 

 its equivalent with London purple, one of the wagon tanks used by 

 steam threshers, and drive through the orchard and shower the trees 

 with a force pump. A pound of Paris green will treat an acre; and 

 with these appliances fifteen acres may be gone over in a day. For 

 smaller orchards barrels will do. We have known whole neighbor- 

 hoods thoroughly cleared of the canker worm in this waj^ where it had 

 before infested thousands of trees. This remedy seems to require many 

 repetitions before all owners are willing to apply it. 



THE RED SPIDER. 



C. L. Allen, who has had much successful experience in the culti- 

 vation of ornamental plants, said at the meeting of the Society of 

 American Florists,- that the red spider is a small and beautiful insect^ 

 and as it is customary with many to abuse and misuse the weak, this 

 insect has come in for its full share. Like other spiders, this is 

 carnivorous, and never ate a plant in its life, and he regarded it as a 

 friend and not a foe. A healthy condition of plants from care in 

 watering, repels the minute destioyers the red spider feeds on, and 

 thus drives it away. Mr. Allen greatly amused the meeting with the 

 theory ascribed to Darwin, of the fertilization of red clover by the 

 bumble bees, namely, that as the field mouse destroys the bumble bee 

 nests, and cats destroy the mice, and that the reputed patrons of cats 

 are old maids, therefore, the amount of red clover in any locality is in 

 proportion to the number of old maids residing there — for they protect 

 the cats, which destroy the mice, which eat the bumble bees, which 

 fertilize the clover blossoms. 



