Insects Injurious to the Apple. 



75 



PREVENTION AND TREATMENT. 



We can, however, lessen their number ourselves very easily. To 

 accomplish this all we have to do is to tie a band of hay or old cloth 

 around the trunk of the tree close to the ground about June. If we 

 examine the band in the winter we shall often find it full of the 

 cocoons of the Codling Moth. These bands can be burnt, and so very 

 great numbers of the pest may be destroyed. Several correspondents 

 have written stating that they have collected large numbers of the 

 maggots during the past few years by banding the trees, and that, 

 in consequence, the number of maggoty apples have been much 

 reduced. Old manure sacking is very suit- 

 able for this purpose. 



A few remain, having come down from 

 above, and will hatch out and lay their 

 eggs, these may be coped with by spraying 

 the trees with an arsenical poison directly 

 the blossom has fallen. The poison lodges 

 in the eye of the apple, and the first meal 

 the young caterpillar takes is arsenic, instead 

 of apple, arid so it is killed. 



This spraying should take place not later 

 than ten days after the blossom has been 

 shed. At the same time the fungicide 

 Bordeaux mixture may be used with the 

 arsenate of lead. The latter can now be 

 obtained in paste form (Swift's Arsenate of 

 Lead Paste), which is more convenient to use than the home-made 

 mixture. 



This spraying must be done properly to be successful. As 

 fine a mist as possible must be thrown out, so that it penetrates 

 well into the calyx. A great deal depends upon the right time of 

 application. In a mixed orchard, it is of course impossible to do 

 this at one operation, owing to the various times of blooming. For 

 other reasons as well, it is thus advisable to grow only one or two 

 kinds of apples in each plantation. 



Of the three arsenates used for this purpose, viz., Paris green, 

 London purple and arsenate of lead, there is no doubt that the 

 last-named is much the most potent. The following table (3) 

 may here be quoted showing the benefit derived from arsenical 

 spraying. 



FIG. 70. THK HAY-ROPE BAND 

 IN OPERATION. 



(Reduced from Dr. Trimble's 

 picture.) 



