EXPERIMENT STATION REPORT. 573 



attention is needed until fall. Then, any time after the crop is off, 

 the bands may be removed and either burnt with all their contents, 

 or boiled long enough to kill all "worms" that they may harbor. 

 In the former case it means a new set of bands next year; in the 

 letter, the cleaning and sorting out for convenient use the follow- 

 ing season. 



In those localities where there is a second brood some of the 

 bands should be examined every five or six days until caterpillars 

 are noticed beneath them. Thereafter all the bands should be 

 examined once every week, at least, and all larv?e or pupae found 

 beneath them should be killed. As every female moth is respons- 

 ible for 50 or more eggs, meaning nearh- that many wormy 

 apples, and as, even in well sprayed orchards from ten to a dozen 

 of the caterpillars are sometimes found under one band, the direct 

 benefits of this method are obvious. 



Accessory Measures. 



This bandmg process is not intended to be a substitute for early 

 spraying. Under present conditions there are so many chances 

 for successful hibernation of apple worms, that the protection 

 given by a proper application of an arsenical poison cannot be dis- 

 pensed with. The banding method will pay best as an accessory 

 in a well sprayed orchard and will tend to greatly lessen the num- 

 ber of infested fruits that the imperfections of our spraying 

 methods seem to render inevitable. 



Yet another method that should be more regarded is the sys- 

 tematic disposal of dropped fruits. Where hogs or sheep can- 

 not be utilized to dispose of them, they should be picked up as 

 often as possible, and utterly destroyed in some way. The num- 

 ber of curculios developing in dropped apples is legion, and so 

 long as these insects are allowed to^ multiply, practically un- 

 checked, there will be imperfections in the fruits, due to their 

 punctures. Plowing or cultivating under does no good, since 

 that is exactly where the curculio larva wants to get, and will 

 get of its own accord, if left to itself. But the mass of apples, 

 if not used, might be buried beneath at least a foot of soil, with 

 a good chance of preventing the emergence of many specimens. 

 I am quite aware that the labor problem enters into the accept- 

 ance oi this recommendation ; but it is an important one, never- 

 theless. 



