US 



THIRD ANNUAL RErORT OF 



dress, these nests, which are then small, speak volumes of the negli- 

 gence and slovenliness of the owner of the orchard, and tell more 

 C Fi S- 50 truly than almost anything else 



.»|l why it is that he fails and has 



•^ \^ bad luck with his apple crop. 

 Wherever these nests abound 

 one feels morally certain that 

 the borers, the Codling-moth, 

 ^ and the many other enemies of 

 r the good old apple tree, men- 

 tioned in the beginning of this 

 Report, have full play to do as 

 they please, unmolested and un- 

 noticed by him whom they are 

 ruining; and when I pass through 

 an orchard with two, three or 

 more "tents"' on every tree, I 

 never pity the owner, because 

 K there is no insect more easily 

 kept in check. 



The small, bright and glist- 

 ening web, if unmolested, is 

 soon enlarged until it spreads 

 over whole branches, and the 

 caterpillars which were the architects, in time become moths, and 

 lay their eggs for an increased supply of nests another year. 



This insect is so well known throughout the country, and has 

 been so well treated of by Harris and Fitch, that it is only necessary 

 to give here the most prominent and important points in its history, 

 the more especially as the figures alone which are given herewith 

 will enable the novice to recognize it the moment it appears in a 

 young orchard. Though some years quite abundant, it is not as com- 

 mon with us as in some of the Eastern States. 



The eggs (Fig. 50, c) from which these caterpillars hatch are de- 

 posited mostly during the month of June, in oval rings, upon the 

 smaller twigs, and this peculiar mode of deposition renders them 

 conspicuous objects during the winter time, when by a little practice 

 they can easily be distinguished from the buds, knots or swellings of 

 the naked twigs. Each cluster consists of from two to three hundred 

 eggs, and is covered and protected from the weather by a coating of 

 glutinous matter, which dries into a sort of net- work. The little em- 

 bryonic larvae are fully formed in the egg by the commencement of 

 winter, and the same temperature which causes the apple-buds to 

 swell and burst, quickens the vital energies of theselarva? and causes 

 thr m to eat their way out of their eggs. Very often they hatch dur- 

 ing a prematurely warm spell and before there is any green leaf for 



