WINTER moth; emulsions. 167 



■which may have been laid during the winter, a kerosine 

 emulsion may be used. This should be done in the end of 

 March."— (J. F.)* 



The folloicinfi recipe is one of the DeiJartment of Agriculture 

 of the United States of America. In this the plan is to add 

 one gallon of water in which a quarter of a pound of soft-soap 

 (or any other coarse soap preferred) has been dissolved, 

 boiling or hot, to two gallons of petroleum or other mineral 

 oil. The mixture is then churned, as it were, together by 

 means of a spray-nozzled syringe or double-action pump for 

 ten minutes, by means of which the oil, soap, and water are 

 so thoroughly combined that the mixture settles down into a 

 cream-like consistency, and does not, if the operation has 

 been properly performed, separate again. This is used diluted 

 with some three or four times its bulk of water for a watering ; 

 if required for a wash, at least nine times its bulk is needed 

 — that is, three gallons of "emulsion," as it is termed, make 

 thirty gallons of wash. Warning is given that care must be 

 taken with each new crop to ascertain the strength that can 

 be borne by the leafage, and this equally applies to all appli- 

 cations to live bark. 



Tlie above mentioned methods of treatment to prevent autumn 

 and winter ascent of the wingless moths for purposes of egg- 

 laying on the twigs, and also to destroy eggs from which 

 caterpillars might presently hatch and crawl up the trees, 

 have been found to answer very well for these purposes ; but 

 there are further difficulties which require other and also 

 broadscale treatment to meet them at a paying rate. 



One very important point is the circumstance that there 

 may be late appearance of the Winter Moth, of which de- 

 velopment has been delayed until spring, and it is very un- 

 likely that watching (and testing) for its passage up the trees 

 and a new course of grease-banding would then be adopted. 



Another point is. the transportation of the tvingless female 

 Winter Moths to the trees by the males ivhilst pairing. This 

 point was not sufficiently observed until within the last two 

 or three years to be taken into practical consideration, but it 

 bears to a very important extent on presence of attack. But 

 though placing a light at night under an open shed of which 

 the lower part of the roof has been tarred has been found to 

 answer to some degree, this can hardly be considered satis- 

 factory broadscale treatment. 



As a special preventive measure, where the plan can be 

 carried out, late pruning, and burning all the pruned-off shoots, 



* Various recipes for soap and kerosine or paraffin oil mixtures will be found 

 at pp. 148-150, under the heading of Plum Aphis. The above is repeated here 

 to save trouble in reference. 



