A Struggle witb the Web-worm 



enemy while yet insignificant ; forever 

 penny wise and pound foolish, man tole- 

 rates a moderate evil until it becomes in- 

 ordinate, and then wastes a fortune which 

 might well have been saved, in doing in- 

 effectual battle with his foe. It is the 

 fable of Epimetheus forever renewed, and 

 the appeal I would now make is to have 

 this Pandora's box closed before the rest 

 of the web-worms escape to plague the 

 world, and help make an end of the race. 

 It is idle to scoff at this idea as that 

 of an alarmist. A few years ago the 

 spring web-worm was an unimportant numbers 

 factor in our orchards. The fall worm 

 gave some trouble, but he was not impos- 

 sible to cope with. Now, not only do 

 we have to fight for every apple we pos- 

 sess in the autumn, but all through the 

 months of April and May, when work 

 presses, when every moment is precious, 

 it takes not only all the hands on a 

 farm to fight caterpillars, but also all the 

 eyes of the family to detect their lurking- 

 places ; and this not as one job, but as a 

 perpetually recurring duty for weeks at a 

 time, and all on account of the crying neg- 

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