LECTURE ON ENTOMOLOGY. 445- 



No apple worms were found until the 14th of June, and, though many 

 other insects had previously taken advantage of the shelter, yiot a single plwiv 

 curculio ivas found. While, therefore, there is no harm in having the band- 

 ages on as early as recommended last year, in ordinary seasons, little, if any- 

 thing, will be lost by waiting till the first of June. Where three of the Wier 

 traps were on the same tree, I obtained more worms than where there was but 

 one; and where there was but one, there was no difference in favor of position 

 as regards direction or altitude, — taking the season through. The lath canvas 

 encircling the tree secured, on an average, five times as many worms as any 

 single Wier trap. The rag, paper, and hay bandages allured almost as many^ 

 and either kind more than the single Wier trap. 



I hope, therefore, that the patentees have already realized the anticipated' 

 fortune from their invention; for while I should be sorry to injure their 

 chances in the least, truth compels me to state that, after a year's trial, I am 

 not quite as favorably impressed with the usefulness of this shingle-trap as 1 

 was before trial, and am more thoroughly confirmed in the opinion expressed 

 last year, that 'notwithstanding all the theories of my friend Wier, it must 

 always be inferior to any trap that encircles the tree.' I do not wish to detract 

 from its merits one jot, and where old shingles are abundant and other mater- 

 ial scarce, the former will still prove valuable for the reasons given a year ago ; 

 and Mr. Wier would deserve our thanks for showing us how to use them, did 

 he not persist in claiming too much for them, and in making us pay for their 

 use. 



"Time, expense, and efficiency considered, and so far as one year's compar- 

 ison will warrant conclusions, I place the different materials enumerated in the 

 following order of merit: 



"1. Paper bandages. Common straw wrapping-paper, 18x30, can be bought 

 for sixty cents per bundle. Each bundle contains two hundred and forty sheets, 

 and each sheet folded lengthwise thrice upon itself will give us eight layers, 

 between two and three inches wide, and be of sufficient length to encircle most 

 ordinary trees. It is easily drawn around the tree and fastened with a tack,. 

 and so cheap that when the time comes to destroy the worms, the bandages 

 containing them may be detached, piled in a heap and burned, and new ones 

 attached in. their places. If eight bandages are used to each tree during the 

 season, the cost will be just two cents per tree; and the owner could well afford 

 to treble the number of sheets, and keep three on each tree, either together or 

 in different places. 



"2. Rags. These have very much the same effect as paper, but are more 

 costly and difficult to get of the requisite length. Where they can be had 

 cheaply, they may be detached from the tree and scalded with their contents. 



" 3. The Wier trap used as recommended last year, is perhaps the next most 

 useful; but both cost and time required to destroy the worms are greater than 

 in the first two methods. 



" 4. The lath-beit is the very best of all traps, as far as efficiency goes ; but it 

 is placed fourth on the list, because of the greater cost and trouble of making. 

 On the same kinds of tree (Early Harvest), and in the same orchard, I have 

 taken, with this belt, between June loth and July 1st, as many as sixty-eight 

 and ninety-nine larvaj and pupre, against fourteen and twenty in the single- 

 Wier trap. 



"5. Hay-bands, on account of their greater inconvenience, I place last. 



" The experiments were mostly made in a large and rather neglected 

 orchard, belonging to Mr. Spencer Smith. 



