APPLE-TREE CATERPILLAR SOAP AS A REMEDY. 



have spent more or less time in inserting sulphur in the trunks 

 of trees infested with worms have hereby benefitted these vermin 

 more than they have injured them. 



Soap being so efficacious a remedy against some insects in- 

 duced me to test its effects upon these. A nest of late caterpil- 

 lars, only half grown upon the last day in May, were upon the 

 limb of a small garden cherry, when I placed a band of soft soap 

 around the limb, slightly below the nest. Several worms started 

 out of the nest to feed, but each on touching its nose to the 

 soap retreated back hastily into the nest. Three worms coming 

 in from feeding, on touching the soap, turned about and crawled 

 away from it, whereupon I placed a second ring around the limb, 

 below them. On coming to this they again turned around, up 

 the limb, and continued traveling backwards and forth from 

 one barrier to the other, without attempting to pass either of 

 them. My hopes were high that this substance would prove in- 

 valuable in combating these insects. Other rings quarentining 

 more worms, were placed around other limbs, and a quantity of 

 the soap was put in the forks of all the larger limbs. But, two 

 hours afterward, the surface of the soap having become dry so 

 as to give the worms a foothold, they were found everywhere 

 traveling over and scarcely noticing it. 



Next, to ascertain whether the alkaline matter of the soap 

 would be absorbed and pass into the circulating juices of the 

 tree and impregnate the leaves sufficiently to render them un- 

 palatable to the caterpillars, the main trunk of the tree from 

 near the ground to the limbs, a distance of five feet, was pro- 

 fusely coated over with soap, and some of the larger limbs were 

 also rubbed with it. A slight rain coming on aided in washing 

 this substance into the small crevices of the bark. But I could 

 not discover that it had any effect upon the worms. They con- 

 tinued to feed and to thrive upon this tree. A fortnight after- 

 wards, when the caterpillars had almost universally forsaken the 

 trees, a few were still remaining upon this tree. And I may 

 add that the leaves of this tree after the soap was thus copiously 

 applied to it, appeared as much infested with the black aphides 

 or cherry plant lice described in my First Eeport, as were the 

 leaves of other trees around it. It thus appears that this sub- 



