3 
3 
; 
es 
New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 257 
the more extensive adoption of spraying methods in their respective 
communities as the means best calculated to reduce the importance 
of this insect. 
APPLE-TREE TENT-CATERPILLAR. 
(Malacosoma americana Fab.) 
This insect, although very easy to control, was probably never 
more abundant throughout the State than during the summers of 
1897 and 1898. ‘The unsightly nests of the caterpillars were very 
conspicuous along the roadsides of otherwise well kept farms, and 
comparatively few apple orchards escaped injury. With the appear- 
ance of so many caterpillars on the trees, there was an unusually 
‘favorable opportunity to ascertain the value of arsenical poisons as 
a means of protection, which demanded further experimentation. 
In 1897, tests’ were made of green arsenite, paris green and arsen- 
“ite of lime, and it was concluded that standard arsenicals are 
efficient remedies if applied early enough, the first application being 
made before the caterpillars are half grown. The results of these 
experiments were given in Bulletin No. 152, which also contained 
a complete account of the insect and called attention to various 
remedial and preventive measures, which should be employed to 
afford protection to orchards. In those communities suffering from 
the orchard tent-caterpillars, where spraying has not been practiced, 
the Station, through its bulletins and at farmers’ meetings, has 
persistently advocated the spraying of fruit trees with the bordeaux 
mixture containing an arsenical poison, as a means of not only 
controlling the codling moth and the apple scab, but many insects 
of minor importance as the tent-caterpillars and case-bearers. Ex- 
perience has shown that the systematic spraying of fruit trees af- 
fords complete protection against many of the insect pests which 
are so frequently destructive to neglected orchards. 
FOREST TENT-CATERPILLAR. 
(Malacosoma disstria Hubn.) 
In the summer of 1899 and 1900 a serious outbreak of the forest 
tent-caterpillar occurred in central, western and eastern New York. 
It was not a new insect, but there were no records that it had ever 
before occurred in such great numbers over so wide an area. The 
caterpillars were of economic importance over almost the entire 
State, but in certain communities they were unusually destructive. 
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