NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



color that it surely would sell like " hot 

 cakes " in the market. The sample 

 sent us measured 2 inches in diameter, 

 the flesh was amber yellow, tender and 

 juicy, and of very agreeable flavor. It 

 will be remembered that this plum was 

 originated by the celebrated Luther 

 Burbank, of Santa Rosa, California. 



The Green Fruit Worm, Xylina 

 antennata, was very abundant in Ontario 

 orchards during the months of May 

 and June, and did much destruction to 



Fig. 1636.— 



the young fruit, eating large holes in the 

 sides of many of the finest samples. In 

 1896 a bulletin was issued by Prof. 

 Slingerland, of Cornell University, on 

 this worm. It was calcuated that in that 

 year, 25 per cent, of the apples in New 

 York State were ruined by it. The 

 insect was first noticed in Missouri and 

 Illinois in 1870, eating holes in the fruit, 

 and in 1877 they appeared in large 



Fig. 1637.— 



numbers about Lockport, N. Y. ; on 

 one young pear orchard 45 per cent, of 



the fruit being injured. Collectors have 

 found the moths in widely distant dis- 

 tricts in Canada and the United States, 

 so that they have now become widely 

 distributed. 



Mr. Slingerland Says : During the 

 first week in June most of the cater- 

 pillars get their full growth and then 

 burrow into the soil beneath the trees to 

 a depth of from an inch to three inches. 

 Here they roll and twist their bodies 

 about until a smooth earthen cell is 

 formed. Most of them then spin about 

 themselves a very thin silken cocoon ; 

 some spin no cocoon. Within the 

 cocoon or the earthen cell, the cater- 

 pillar soon undergoes a wonderful trans- 

 formation which results in what is known 

 as the pupa of the insect. Most of 

 these insects spend about three months 

 of their iife in the ground during the 

 summer in this pupal stage. Some 

 evidently hibernate as pupae, and thus 

 pass nine months or more of their life 

 in this stage. Usually about September 

 15th, the moths break their pupal 

 shrouds and work their way to the sur- 

 face of the soil. Most of them emerge 

 in the fall before October 15th, and pass 

 the winter as moths in sheltered nooks ; 

 some evidently do not emerge until 

 spring. Warm spells in winter some- 

 times arouses a few of them from, their 

 hibernation. 



During the first warm days of early 

 spring, all the moths appear, and doubt- 

 less the mothers soon begin laying eggs. 

 No observations have been made on the 

 eggs or young caterpillars in the North, 

 but in a newspaper article published in 

 the South in 1872, it is stated that the 

 eggs are deposited in the spring on the 

 underside of the leaves. They hatch in 

 a few days, and the young worms begin 

 at once to eat the foliage, or the fruit, 01 

 both. 



321 



