1906 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



the petals have fallen, the stem curls over, the apple hangs down, and the 

 calyx closes. If you spray after this has taken place, you are simply throwing 

 away material, as there is no chance of its getting into that little calyx cup. 

 To do your spraying, then, so that it should be efficacious, you should spray 

 as soon as the petals fall, while the apple is erect. You then have a chance, 

 a good chance, but even then nothing more than a good chance, of getting 

 a small portion into the calyx cup. If you do, when the larva goes into 

 the calyx cup and makes its first meal with the intention of entering the 

 apple, it is very likely to be its last. Very little poison will be necessary 

 at that time. The insect is remarkably weak and small. You cannot, how- 

 ever, hope to get a little poison into every apple on the tree, some will be 

 missed and escape. But that is the point you must bear in mind, to spray 

 at the proper time. Having done that and reduced very largely the number 

 of larvae that are in your apples, you should supplement that treatment 

 by afterwards bandaging the trees. If you do that, the probability is that 

 it will not be a very great tax upon the product. A farmer in my neighbor- 

 hood has a large orchard of old trees. He sprayed at the proper time, and 

 be thought by so doing he had done everything that was necessary, and 

 others had told him the same. I told him to bandage his trees as well, that 

 it is much better to be safe than sorry, but he ridiculed the idea. So I took 

 an old bag and did it myself, and eight days afterwards I went back. We 

 took that bag off and there were seventy-two cocoons beneath the bag. These 

 are the two remedies that are certain. 



Another point to consider, and this is one that I think you should take 

 into your deepest consideration, and that the government should enforce. 

 It is that every man who has apple trees should be compelled to take pre- 

 cautions against the Codling-worm. A man who has large interests at stake 

 will undoubtedly make some effort to protect his property, but the man 

 on the small village lot with a few straggling trees — what does he care? 

 The result is that these few scattered trees_ here and there enable cocoons 

 to mature in a sufficiently large proportion to provide codling-moths for the 

 whole Province. It has come to this, that unless a man will take care of 

 his trees he should not be allowed to have them. I have tried myself for 

 very many years to find out if there is any parasite affecting the codling- 

 moth likely to be of any service. I have consistently failed to do anything 

 of the kind. It was very rarely that I ever found a parasite. It may be 

 that in some sections and in some seasons they are abundant. The parasites 

 will have to be more abundant to show their effects, but so far as the codling- 

 moths are concerned, I think you will have to look to your own efforts to 

 reduce them. The very nature of the moth makes it almost exempt from any 

 attack by insect parasites. It is practically exempt from any injury by out- 

 side enemies. In the pupa stage it is destroyed by birds. If we had more 

 trunk-cleaning birds the orchards would have fewer codling-moths. You 

 should take into consideration some means of compelling persons who main- 

 tain apple trees to look after them, or else see that they are prevented from 

 keeping them. 



Dr. Fletcher said that the experience in this country of trying to con- 

 trol people by legislation proved that such efforts were almost entirely use- 

 less. Now, the question of whether it is worth w^hile to spray or not is one, 

 I think, I need not discuss. All evidence and statistics show that it does 

 pay to spray, and instead of losing 75 per cent, of the crop you can save 

 it, as an average. At most the cost of spraying trees the number of times 

 that it is necessary is less than 25 cents for large trees, and the number of 

 bushels you will get off them will more "than pay that expenditure many 



