18 THE REPORT OF THE No. 19 



done this year is even greater than that of last year. I visited a good many 

 apple orchards from Fruitland to St. Catharines and I believe that fully 50 

 per cent, of the apples were rendered unmarketable by worms. Strange to 

 say, comparatively few pears were injured, not more, I think, than 5 to 10 

 per cent, where the trees had been sprayed with poisoned Bordeaux mixture. 

 The damage to apples, however, was most discouraging. I cannot help feel- 

 ing that the farmers do not know how to deal with the pest. Some of them 

 use poisoned Bordeaux and bandage their trees as well and yet have simply 

 hosts of Codling-worms. It may, of course, be that the spraying is not done 

 at the right time and tkat the bandages are either not properly put on, or 

 not opened and the worms taken out so frequently and thoroughly as is neces- 

 sary. Something will have to be done or else farmers will give up apple 

 growing in that district. I know one man who will have from 8,000 to 

 10,000 barrels of apples this fall, but of these fully 4,000 barrels will be un- 

 fit to put on the market, simply on account of the Codling-worm. 



Prof. HuTT : The Codling-worm has certainly been very bad this season 

 in the Niagara district and the remedies applied are not sufficient. The 

 fruit-growers do not seem to know how to fight the pest. 



Mr. Jarvis : I do not think many of the farmers bandage their trees, 

 and some who do fail to remove the bandages once every ten days as they 

 should. 



Dr. Fletcher : Great care should be taken to see that all the worms 

 under the bandage are destroyed each time. 



Mr. Caesar : This is greatly facilitated by the trees being scraped in 

 the winter. 



Dr. Bethune : Do the farmers gather up the fallen apples each day and 

 destroy them, or sell them to cider factories? 



Mr. Caesar : There are many orchards where the fallen apples are not 

 gathered ; in fact I think that in none of th.e orchards is this done daily. 



Dr. Bethune : Could they not in some cases let their hogs or sheep run 

 in the orchards? 



Mr. Caesar: Most of the orchards are not fenced, and very few hogs or 

 sheep are reared. 



Dr. Fletcher : If the fruit-growers will spray with poisoned Bordeaux 

 at the proper times and will put bandages on when the worms are beginning 

 to emerge from apples, and remove these at least every tenth day and destroy 

 the worms underneath, they will control the Codling-worm. At Ottawa we 

 have had no Codling-worms in our orcKard on the Experimental Farm for 

 ten years because regular spraying has been done ; and even in districts where 

 there are two broods similar good results can be obtained. 



Mr. Caesar : Do all the worms that fall to the ground in the apples, or 

 otherwise, find their way up under the bands? Do not a large number hide 

 under lumps of earth or any kind of refuse or shelter on the ground? 



Dr. Fletcher : Many of course will get under the bark below the band- 

 age, unless it has been scraped; some will Eide under loose bark around the 

 base of the tree or under boards, but I do not think any pupate under lumps 

 of earth or among grass, at least I have never found any. 



Apple growing in the Niagara district is not considered so remunerative 

 by the fruit-growers there as the raising of peaches and other kinds of fruit, 

 80 that there has been a great deal of neglect of apple orchards, with the 

 natural result that every opportunity has been given to the Codling-worm 

 to increase at a very rapid rate, and even where one farmer looks after his 

 orchard well, the neglect to do this on the part of his neighbor prevents satis- 

 factory results being obtained. 



2a EN. 



