SUMMER MEETING. 113 



which I am very thankful, about the strength of the solution. I got 

 information from one man that he had sprayed with London purple — or 

 it might have been Paris green — and that he had exferminated the 

 canker worm ; what I want to know is whether or not it would be 

 practicable to spray at any time? Whether or not they wouldn't be so 

 numerous they would destroy the foliage before you could conquer 

 them ? While the canker worm is increasing so rapidly what can we 

 expect next year? 



Prof. Stedman — I presume it would be just as well if I gave a 

 very short history of the canker worm so you will know why you are do- 

 ing certain things. There are two species of canker worm, and they are 

 much alike, the only difference practically, being in the life history of 

 the two; one appears, as a rule, in the adult condition in the fall, and 

 the other appears, as a rule, early in"the spring. Sometimes the one 

 will appear at one time and the other at another. In either case the 

 female canker worm has no wings ; it is a moth and should hav« wings, 

 but apparently has not. The male has two pairs of wings and flys 

 about. Now, that female, when she hatches out is somewhere besides 

 on the tree, and in order to lay her eggs she has to climb that tree, and 

 she will climb up that tree and deposit her eggs on the limbs. If she 

 is hatched oat in the fall her eggs pass the winter, if in the spring they 

 will develop late in the season. 



Now in order to get in the tree she has to climb up, having no 

 wings she cannot fly, and if you will place some kind of a barrier around 

 that she cannot pass that barrier and cannot get into the tree to de- 

 posit her eggs and will deposit her eggs in the grass where they will 

 perish. We have a spray for the coddling moth and other insects, 

 and with it reach a number of those canker worms, but it has to 

 be a much stronger solution of Paris green for the canker worm than 

 for the other insects. Now when these larvi^e hatch they do not hatch 

 until spring, they begin to feed rapidly upon the leaves of the tree 

 and they keep those leaves eaten down and keep the tree from leaving 

 out properly, and sometimes in a few days they reach maturity. I am 

 under the impression it would be just as well if we went back to the 

 old method and put bands around our trees where the orchards are in- 

 fested, for the simple reason that we do not spray thoroughly, and 

 therefore we are not going to reach such ravenous feeders as the can- 

 ker worm, and it requires — except in the very early stages — a much 

 stronger solution. You can put a band of tin around the tree just a 

 short distance above the ground, or you can take a band of cotton 

 wool, not the smooth cotton batting, but the cotton wool that is fluffy, 

 H— 8 



