98 SECOND ANNUAL REDOUT OP 



farms of Dr. Varnum and Mr. Foster. Mr. Win. M. Beal of Edina" 

 tells me that it is considered one of the very worst enemies in Knox 

 counf} T , and as I am informed by Mr. J. D. Dopf, editor of the Jour- 

 nal, Rockport, Atchison Co., it was exceedingly troublesome to tho 

 elms there in 1866. Where they have once become established, and 

 are neglected, their ravages soon become very great; and they were 

 so bad in certain parts of Michigan a few years ago, and especially in 

 the Grand Traverse region in 1865, that, unless my memory fails me. 

 a certain Eastern editor, in response to an appeal for a remedy from 

 Mr. San ford Howard, the Secretary of the Michigan State Board of 

 Agriculture very foolishly urged the Wolverines to cut down their 

 trees. May I hope that these Entomological Reports will be the 

 means of protecting Missouri from the fearful ravages of this worm 

 which has so often discouraged the orchardists in Massachusetts, 

 Rhode Island, Connecticut, and some of the Middle States. 



It is the apterous condition of the female moth which gives us 

 such complete control of this enemy, and which indicates 



TUE PROPER REMEDY. 



The sole object of the female, after she leaves the earth, seem? 

 to be to provide for the continuance of her kind, and she instinctively 

 places the precious burden, which is to give birth to the young which 

 she herself is destined never to behold, upon the tree whose leaves 

 are to nourish those young. All her life-energy is centered in the 

 accomplishment of this one object, and she immediately makes for 

 the tree upon issuing from the ground. Consequently, anything that 

 will prevent her ascending the trunk will, in a great measure (but as 

 we shall presently see, not entirely) preserve the tree from the 

 ravages of the worm. 



Numerous indeed have been the devices — patented or unpatented 

 — which have at different times and in different parts of the country 

 been used to accomplish this desired end; and every year our Agri- 

 cultural journals report individual experiments with some one or 

 other of these devices — some favorable and others adverse. Tar, 

 applied either directly around the body of the tree, or on strips of 

 old canvas, on sheep-skin, or on stiff paper; refuse sorghum molasses, 

 printers' ink, or slow-drying varnishes, or melted India rubber v 

 which always retains its soft viscid state, applied in a similar man- 

 ner; tin, lead, and rubber troughs to contain oil; belts of cotton- 

 wool, etc., etc., have all been used, and with both good and bad 

 results, very much according as they have been used intelligently or 

 otherwise. Now, all these appliances, of whatsoever character, are 

 divisible into two classes: first, those which prevent the ascension of 

 the moth by entangling her feet, and trapping her fast, or by drown- 

 ing her; and, second, those which accomplish the same end by pre- 

 venting her from getting a foothold, and thus causing her repeatedly 

 to fall to the ground until she becomes exhausted and dies. 



