EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 587 



disk-like bodies, oval and very small. The egg stage is said to last from 

 seven to ten days. The little caterpillars immediately commence to eat 

 the outer covering of the leaves, usually on the under side, leaving the 

 skeleton of veins untouched. The young larva? spin a delicate tube of 

 silk, in which they live. When they are grown to about one-fifth of an 

 inch in length, they spin a tube in some protected place on the bark, and 

 in this pass the winter. In the spring they come out and attack the bark 

 as described. 



REMEDIES. 



The bud-moth may be destroyed most easily at the time when it first 

 attacks the buds in spring. Prof. Slingerland says:* 



"Undoubtedly it can be checked somewhat by spraying in July, when 

 the larvse are at work on the under side of the leaves, but the time to 

 combat the pest most profitably and successfully is in the spring when 

 a little poison can easily be sprayed upon the opening buds; and thus 

 the little larva, hungry from its long winter's fast, will be quite certain 

 to get the fatal dose at its first meal." 



This spraying should be repeated several times, as the period during 

 which the insects can be reached is a short one, and thev do not all come 

 out together. The opening buds should be kept thoroughly poisoned, 

 and the trees should be sprayed once or twice after the blossoms fall. 



THE ARMY-WORM. 



(JLeucania unipv/ncta.) 



The first recorded army-worm invasion in the United States took place 

 in 1743, and from that time to the present we have been subject to 

 greater or less loss from this source. During the past summer several 

 complaints have been received from residents of the northern part of 

 this State, and while the damage has not been so very serious to the 

 State as a whole, it has caused some loss to individuals. The eggs of this 

 well-known depredator are laid on the leaves and stems of grasses and 

 grains. The young cut-worms that hatch from these eggs soon com- 

 mence to cut off the leaves of their food-plants after the manner of other 

 cut- worms, for the army- worm is really a cut-worm which has the habit 

 of breeding in great numbers in a restricted area. 



These little worms work mainly at night and during cloudy weather, 

 and after cutting off a number of leaves and allowing them to wilt, they 

 descend and eat. hiding during the day. After a time the leaves are all 

 eaten and the hungry caterpillars are forced to attack the heads. It 

 is at this time that the farmer usually first notices them. On looking 

 into an infested field of oats or wheat before the tops are cut off all the 

 stems are seen to be bare, making it possible to see for some distance 

 into the grain, and if one kneels down and looks below the level of the 

 heads the stems appear like a forest of minature fishpoles. As the worms 

 usually appear by millions and all mature about the same time, the cut- 



*Bull. 107. Cornell University Ag. Exp. Sta., January. 1896 



