24 FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



It was too late in the season when the trap was brought to my notice, 

 to give it a thorough trial, but I was at once very favorably impressed with 

 its usefulness, and what little I have seen of its work has not altered that 

 impression. * 



The trap (Fig. 13, A closed, B open,) consists simpl}^ of two, three or more 

 thin pieces of board, 12 to 20 inches in length, and 2 to 4 inches wide, 

 with a screw (a) through their center. The screw must be long enough 

 to be firmly driven into the trunk of the tree, so as to hold the boards in po- 

 sition. The boards are cut out on each side of the screw, as at c, to facili- 

 tate their separation when fastened together by the silken threads of the 

 worms, and so as to better expose the latter when the trap is opened. 



The advantages of this trap, to my mind, may briefly be stated as fol- 

 lows, and I think they so far outbalance the disadvantages that it may be 

 considered the best trap we yet have : It is cheap, accessible to all, easily 

 placed on the tree and removed again ; wood forms, perhaps, the most nat- 

 ural covert for the worms ; the traps may be collected with little trouble by 

 the barrowfull, submitted to a killing heat, in one way or another, and re- 

 placed again ; they may be used on the ground as well as on the tree. Its 

 disadvantages are few. One it has in common with all other snares or traps 

 for this insect, namely, that it can never exterminate the Codling moth, for 

 the several reasons given in previous Eeports. Another is that where one 

 only is used it can be attached to but one side of the tree, and in this single 

 respect, notwithstanding all the theories of my friend Wier, it must always 

 be inferior to any trap that encircles the tree. 



The worms will spin their cocoons between the inner shingle and the 

 tree as freely as between the shingles themselves, and I suspect that it will 

 be found less tedious and cheaper to detach the traps and kill the worms by 

 wholesale, than to open them on the tree. Those who prefer the latter 

 method, will be pleased to learn of the means described by Mr. D. B. Wier, 

 who says : " The quickest and best way to do this is to have a large tin pan 

 bent in on one side, so as to fit closely to the trunk of the tree. When you 

 reach the tree drop upon your knees, place the depression in the pan against 

 the trunk of the tree, hold it there by pressing jowy body against it, and 

 you have both hands free to open the trap. When opening it many of the 

 pupje or chrysalids will fall into the pan and some of the worms. Kill the 

 rest or scrape them into the pan. The trap must be turned clear around, as 

 many will be found between it and the bark of the tree. A person will 

 open and kill the worms in from 400 to 800 traps in a day." 



The inventor informed me that he believes his trap is more apt to come 

 into general use by being patented, than if offered without price to the pub- 

 lic. If in his hope to realize a fortune from it, he sends out agents among 

 the fruit-growers of the country-, I am not sure but he is correct ; especially 

 if such agents are enabled, by proper circulars giving a true and condensed 

 history of the Codling moth, to disseminate important information. But 

 the danger is, that patentees are sure to claim too much for their pet 

 -creations. This fact is well exemplified in the present instance, for already 



