114 TENANTS OF AN OLD FARM. 



weeks. The sluggish females instinctively make their 

 way to the nearest trees, and creep slowly up their 

 trunks. Their husbands, having better facilities for 

 traveling, inasmuch as they are winged, delay their ad- 

 vent a few days, when they also leave their earthen 

 cells and join the females, tluttering about and accom- 

 panying them in their ascent. 



" Soon after this the females lay their eggs upon the 

 branches of the trees. They place them on their ends 

 close together in rows, forming clusters of from sixty 

 to one hundred eggs or more, which is the number 

 usually laid by each female. The eggs are glued to 

 each other and to the bark by a grayish varnish which 

 is impervious to water ; and the clusters are thus 

 securely fastened in the forks of the small branches, or 

 close to the young twigs and buds. The eggs are 

 usually hatched between the first and the middle of 

 May, or about the time that the red currant is in 

 blossom and the young leaves of the apple-tree begin to 

 start from the bud and grow. The liltk' canker-worms, 

 upon making their escajoe from the eggs, gather upon 

 the tender leaves and begin to eat. If there comes a 

 snap of cold, and during rain}- weather, they creep for 

 shelter into the bo^om of the Inid, or into the tlowers 

 when Ihey appear. The leaves first attac^ked will be 

 found pierced with small holes ; these become larger and 

 more irregular wlien the eanker-worms increase in size, 

 and at last nearly all tln' pulpy parts are consumed, 

 leaving little more than the midrib and veins. 



"The worms when well f » d grow to be an inch long; 



