TUE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 71 



" During the last two years at least, young apple-trees in this lo- 

 cality have been much injured by having their buds destroyed. My 

 observations last spring led me to conclude, that a worm very like the 

 cut-worm, and having the same habit of hiding just beneath the sur- 

 face of the soil during the day and feeding by night, was the cause of 

 the mischief. ****** 



" Soon after snow had gone in 1865, 1 pruned a lot of apple-trees 

 then four years planted. The wood at the time seemed alive and 

 sound. When older trees were coming into leaf, these remained al- 

 most destitute of foliage ; and on examining them, it was found, that 

 most of the buds, especially those on shoots formed the preced- 

 ing year, were gone — removed as clean as if they had been picked 

 out with a point of a knife. The bark in small patches near the ends 

 of some of the shoots had also been eaten or chipped off. As many 

 small birds had been seen about the trees, the conclusion was arrived 

 at that they had probably eaten the buds. In the fall, mounds of 

 earth were thrown up around the stems of these trees, and of another 

 lot two years planted. These mounds were being leveled on the 6th 

 of May last; and soon after commencing the work, several large cut- 

 worms like grubs were noticed. This, coupled with the fact, that in 

 the preceding spring, I had caught a worm like these in the very act 

 of eating out a bud high up the stem of a young Oatalpa, around 

 which I had thrown a blanket the evening before, to shield it from 

 frost, induced me to suspect that they and not the birds destroyed the 

 buds. This led to an examination of the untouched mounds ; and in 

 the soil immediately surrounding the stem of each tree, I found from 

 about five to ten of these worms. Twenty-three were taken from the 

 soil around a plant of the Rome Beauty apple. * * * Q n 

 a warm dewy night about the middle of the month, I took a lamp and 

 suddenly jarred several of the trees ; when some of these worms 

 came tumbling to the ground. The evidence against them would 

 have been more conclusive, if I had searched the branches and found 

 them there and at work. That however, I omitted to do. I have had 

 fruit trees planted here sixteen years, but never had the buds de- 

 stroyed so as to attract my attention before the last two years ; nor have 

 I had any complaints from my neighbors on this point, except during 

 that time. Orchards are not very common here, but in three others 

 in this town, I know young trees have been injured as in my own 

 during the last two years. * * * j g row n0 dwarf 



apples ; mine are all standard trees worked on the ordinary apple 

 stock." 



Mr. Cochran also found them last spring, up among the highest 

 branches of his standard as well as his dwarf trees. 



The subject is all important to the orchardist, and to those espec- 

 ially who have young and newly planted trees on a light soil; for 

 there are many who have had their trees injured by the buds being 

 devoured in this manner, who never dreamed of preventing sucli. an.. 



