1 86 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



with a sharp pointed knife, or follow them through 

 their tracks with a flexible wire, until crushed. Then 

 pile around the tree a good supply of coal ashes. 

 This material serves at once for mulch and to pre- 

 vent the easy working of the moths and beetles. As 

 for the nest-making worms or caterpillars, any one 

 with common sense and energy can manage them. 

 Wind a bunch of cotton around the end of a pole, 

 saturate it with kerosene, set it on fire and burn them 

 out. Persistency will keep the upper hand of any 

 foe of this sort. 



Plums you must jar with a pole padded at the end, 

 so as not to bruise the tree, and the curculio or sting- 

 ing bug will fall on sheets spread below. These 

 must be quickly picked up and destroyed. Begin the 

 jarring just as soon as the petals drop and keep it 

 up for about ten days. The plum knot must be cut 

 off as soon as it appears, and you had better burn 

 it. Cherries give us little trouble, except that they 

 must be covered with mosquito netting to exclude the 

 birds. Netting will last for three years if carefully 

 preserved, and you should leave some of your trees 

 for your allies in the air. 



On the whole, the fight for our fruit is not so 

 severe as one would judge, where no effort has been 

 made to meet the difficulties. In 1909, however, 

 there was a loss of three-fourths of the whole apple 

 crop in New York and New England from the louse 

 and lack of thinning. The country really cannot af- 

 ford this shiftless way of dealing with the great 



