184: 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



THE CANKER WORM. 



This destructive pest is making sad 

 havock in some of the apple orchards 

 of Western New York. It is there- 

 fore quite possible that some of our 

 readers will find the enemy at work in 

 their own orchard, and will be glad to 

 read the following which we clip from 

 the Michigan Farmer on fighting the 

 Canker Worm. 



The New England Farmer recom- 

 mends the following method of reducing 

 the numbers of the Canker Worm : 



" It is very common for writers on 

 Canker Worms to recommend that the 

 trees to be protected be treated with 

 printer's ink quite frequently, beginning 

 in October or November, and continuing 

 the practice till the trees are leaved out 

 in spring. It is not improbable that 

 the moths may occasionally mature 

 sufficiently in their pupa skins to burst 

 them and come forth, during unusually 

 mild weather in autumn, but in average 

 years the number that come out of the 

 ground before spring will probably be 

 found to be very small. Mr. O. A. 

 Hillman, whose apple orchard is one of 

 the best in the vicinity, has made the 

 habits of the canker worm a study, 

 and has found that the female moths, 

 which are wingless, very seldom crawl 

 up the trees till the first really warm 

 day in spring. His method of protec- 

 tion is printer's ink, spread upon strips 

 of paper some six inches wide, which 

 are wound round the trunks of the 

 trees and fastened by two or more car- 

 pet tacks it each end of the band, the 

 paper receiving one application of the 

 ink early in the spring, and then the 

 trees are examined every warm day till 

 the moth begins to move, when the ink 

 is again applied. His observations lead 

 him to believe that the moths move 

 almost solely by night, and that the | 



greater portion leave the ground the 

 same night and immediately following 

 the first warm day. By watching 

 closely, and by having the papers all 

 in place and covered by one application 

 of ink, he is able to know by the few 

 scattering moths caught, just about the 

 right time to give them a sticky path 

 to travel in. Last spring a very warm 

 day in April gave promise of starting 

 out the moths in full numbers, and by 

 painting the bands of the entire orchard 

 one afternoon, he was enabled the next 

 morning to see nearly the whole previ- 

 ous year's crop of moths imprisoned in 

 the sticky mass. The number which 

 crawled up late was too insignificant 

 to be worth paying much attention to, 

 unless utter extermination of the species 

 be aimed at, which would be an under- 

 taking of no small moment where an 

 orchard is surrounded by trees belong- 

 ing to careless neighbors. 



"At the close of the pairing season, 

 the tacks are drawn out from one end 

 of the paper bands, and they are allowed 

 to hang loosely during the growth of 

 the tree in summer. Before winter the 

 papei-s are replaced, and if the trees are 

 now too large to be encircled by the 

 bands, the ink is brushed over the in- 

 tervening space on the bark itself." 



SALSIFY. 



Salsify, or Vegetable Oyster, is one 

 of the easiest crops to raise, and every 

 garden should have a row or so. Salsify 

 is excellent, fried or boiled. If boiled, 

 it should be scraped, cut in half-inch 

 pieces, and thrown in water (made acid 

 with a little vinegar) immediately, or 

 the pieces will turn a dark color. Boil 

 for half an hour, and add milk, salt, 

 pepper and butter. Our readers should 

 try this really delicious vegetable, 

 cooked as above. The culture is much 

 the same as that for parsnips or car- 

 rots. Sow earli/ in drills 10 inches 



