1088 Rural School Leaflet 



LETTERS FROM GIRLS AND BOYS 



District 14; Town of Danby; Tompkins county 



Brookton, N. Y., January 15, 1913 

 Dear Mr. Tuttle: 



It will be a great pleasure to tell you about the destroying of the tent- 

 caterpillars. 



In the fall of the year, when it is just beginning to get cool, the moth 

 of the tent-caterpillar lays her eggs around the little branches of nearly 

 all kinds of trees, but mostly apple and cherry trees. She sticks the eggs 

 together with a waterproof substance, and the next spring they hatch out, 

 every egg a caterpillar. So there are hundreds of caterpillars in one 

 nest. Mr. Loomis, our teacher, showed us a nest and told us about the 

 damage the caterpillars do. There are seven pupils in the school, and 

 altogether we have gathered one thousand forty-five. I have gathered 

 four hundred and twenty-six of that number. We will gather a lot more, 

 early next spring. 



It is not a hard thing to do, and it not only helps to save the trees from 

 this pest, but increases the fruit crop, for many trees are very badly 

 injured by these tent-caterpillars. We all look forward for the March 

 leaflets, for we all like to read them. I think they help any one along 

 the line of nature-study a lot. 



Robert J. Griffen 



Editors' note. — We are greatly interested in the work that Robert and 

 his schoolmates are doing. This is a suggestion that other rural schools 

 can adopt. Ask your teacher to read the article on apple-tree tent- 

 caterpillars in the September leaflet. Learn carefully the life history of 

 this insect pest. You will find there are two stages that may be destroyed : 

 1. The egg cluster before the eggs hatch. These clusters are very care- 

 fully concealed and it will require sharp eyes in order to find them. 2. The 

 web, or nest, of the young caterpillars. Observe that these nests should 

 be destroyed on dark, cloudy days or at night. On bright days the cater- 

 pillars leave the nest in order to search for food. In your work of 

 destroying these insects be very careful not to injure the trees. If the 

 tent-caterpillar is very abundant in your neighborhood, consider the 

 question of removing unnecessary breeding-places, such as hedges of wild 

 cherry trees and the like. One school is doing good work, as you will see 

 from the letter above. In a later letter from Clara Dukoff , a member of 

 a school of twenty-five pupils in Mountaindale, Sullivan county, we find 

 the following paragraph: "We are now trying to collect as many of 

 those tent-caterpillars' eggs as we can, and our teacher offers a prize to 

 the pupil who picks the most. I don't believe that we are collecting 

 them just for the prize but we are doing it to rid this part of the country 

 of this pest. If all the girls and boys of all the country schools would do 

 the same, I believe we would soon get rid of them. We have collected 



