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New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 247 
SLUDIES’ON FRUIT INSECTS: 
CODLING MOTH 
(Cydia pomonella Linn.) 
An important advance in the methols of controlling leaf-eating 
insects was made when it was demonstrated that the potato beetle 
(Leptinotarsa decemlineata Say.) could be efficiently combated by 
the use of paris green. The success attending the employment of 
an arsenical in the destruction of this pest naturally suggested its 
application to other plants that suffered from insects with similar 
habits. Among the insects that were thought to be amenable to 
treatment with paris green was the codling moth, a very destructive 
pest of the apple crop. As it was desirable to ascertain the merits 
of an arsenical treatment for this insect, an experiment was con- 
ducted by this Station in 1885, to ascertain to what extent the 
losses usually sustained by the codling moth could be avoided. 
For the test nine Fall Pippins and two Rhode Island Greenings 
were sprayed, the number of trees having of necessity to be limited, 
as the spraying machinery in vogue was rather crude and not 
adapted for large orchard operations. The paris green was used 
at the rate of a teaspoonful to ten gallons of water, and the appli- 
cations were made on June 3, 5 and 17, the young apples during 
the first treatment, as described, being the size of cranberries. Al- 
ternate trees were left unsprayed for comparison. 
As the apples began to drop in August, the windfalls were col- 
lected and examined, under the sprayed trees, and those not sprayed ; 
and the number of sound and wormy fruits counted. On October 
5 and 6, the remaining fruit was picked, assorted and counted 
in the same manner. The results of the examination showed that 
there was an average of 13 per ct. of wormy apples from the 
sprayed trees while the untreated trees had an average of 35 per ct. 
of wormy apples. The percentage of wormy apples from the trees 
sprayed with paris green was about 22 per ct. less than those not 
sprayed. The details of this test were published in the Annual 
Report of this Station’ for that year, which was the first publica- 
tion by an official experiment station of results from the use of 
paris green for the control of the codling moth. The utility of 
arsenical poisons for this pest has been firmly established, and spray- 
ing with arsenicals for the codling moth is now a recognized prac- 
tice among our most successful fruit growers. 
* Rpt. 4:246-248 (1885). 
