THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 99 



'The first class of remedies are thoroughly effectual when applied 

 \mderstandingly and persistently. And by this I mean, that the 

 orchardist must know that many of the moths issue in the fall of the 

 year, and that the applications must, in consequence, be made at 

 ieast as early as the latter part of October, and that they must 

 be kept sticky, through all but freezing weather, till the leaves have 

 well put out, in the following spring. Furthermore he must know 

 that many of the moths—frustrated in their efforts to climb the tree — 

 will deposit their eggs near the ground or anywhere below the appli- 

 cation, and that the young worms hatching from them are able to 

 pass behind the slighest crevice or over the finest straw. Thus, if 

 troughs are used, they must be fitted over a bandage of cotton- wool, 

 bo that when the trough is drawn tightly around the tree, it will do 

 no injury, and will at the same time cause the cotton to till up all in- 

 equalities of the bark; the joint must likewise be kept smeared 

 ^either with tar or molasses, and then the worms will not be able to 

 pass. In the neglect to thus fasten them, lies the secret of failure which 

 many report who use such troughs. The second class of contrivances 

 are of no avail whatever, for although the moth is unable to travel over 

 a very smooth surface, I know from experience that the young worms 

 can march over the smoothest glass by aid of the glutinous silken 

 thread which they are able to spin from the very moment they are 

 'born. For these reasons, even the "Merrittfs Patent Tree-Protector," 

 which was so well advertised by Mr. Howard in his otherwise excel- 

 lent article on the Canker-worm, in the Michigan Agricultural Re- 

 port for 1865, must be classed with the worthless patents. This 

 *' Protector" consists of a ring of glass grooved below and hung from 

 the tree by a tent of canvas, to which it is fastened by an iron 

 clamp. 



I might enumerate a number of such ingenious contrivances both 

 of glass, wood, tin, and isinglass, for headingoff the female moth only, 

 and some few which are sufficiently thorough to head off the young 

 larvae also ; but they are all so expensive, that I am perfectly convinced 

 they will never be adopted in our large orchards; nor are they nec- 

 essary, for some of the remedies already mentioned are altogether 

 more simple and more effectual. 



It cannot be denied that it requires a great deal of time, labor 

 and expense to continually renew the applications of tar on every 

 tree in a large orchard during so many months of the year; while its 

 application directly to the bark is more or less injurious to the trees. 

 For these reasons, refuse sorghum molasses will be found much bet- 

 ter for the purpose, as it does not harden so rapidly, and is said not 

 to be injurious to the tree. In neighborhoods where sorghum is 

 grown, it is also much cheaper. That it will pay to do this work in 

 orchards where the Canker-worm is known to be numerous, there can- 

 not be the least doubt. The old adage, " What is worth doing at all 

 is worth doing well," was never truer than in fighting this insect. 



