OUR RIVALS 133 



pieces of old carpet or sacking until it is a soft pad. 

 Now get some strong sheeting and make a cloth that 

 will cover the whole ground underneath the tree. 

 Let this be ripped up to the middle so that when 

 spread the tree will stand in the middle. 



Now rap suddenly and sharply the larger limbs of 

 the tree, and every curculio will drop on the ground, 

 with his legs rolled up, playing 'possum. Be spry 

 and catch these before they begin to fly away. Crush 

 them or put them into a bottle to be killed later. 

 This process of jarring the trees must be carried on 

 for about two weeks. The number will decrease very 

 rapidly after the sixth day. Only this: remember to 

 begin your work just as the petals are falling from 

 the earliest plums the Magnum Bonums and 

 Abundance. 



In the apple orchard we must have begun our work 

 already, that is just before the blossom petals of the 

 earliest varieties open. The codling moth has been 

 our chief rival with this glorious fruit for at least 

 one hundred years. A pretty and innocent bit of 

 fluttering life, it goes through several stages of exist- 

 ence before it is a full-fledged flier. Its larval state 

 is lived most advantageously in the young apple. 

 The moth lays its eggs in April or early May in the 

 blow end of the fruit. The egg hatches into a small 

 worm, which takes a curved line for the center of the 

 fruit. When it enters the core the apple is likely to 

 weaken on the stem. 



If it falls to the ground the larva finds a hiding- 



