42 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICXTLTtTRAL SOCIETY. [1877. 



Cherry, or La Versaillaise, as either name may best suit him, yet neglect- 

 ing to warn him tliat tliey are but synonyms, after all. 



The Plague of Insects was never more grievous than during the year 

 just expiring. Whether due to the dryness of the earth, which was thereby 

 kejot from freezing to any considerable depth, and to the dense covering 

 of snow that prevented the usual alternations of frost and thaw in the 

 Spring; certain is it that orchard, and forest, and land seemed utterly a 

 prey to the Canker-Worm, the CurcuUo, the Tent, and Web Caterpillars, 

 and the Colorado Potato Beetle. And most discouraging of all was the 

 too evident neglect of obvious precautions against this invasion by our 

 leading terraeculturists. They would spend hours, or days, periiaps, to 

 secure a crop of potatoes, by haud-iDicking; nourishing the Yankee con- 

 ceit which cannot make use of Paris Green because its suggestion and 

 eifectual test comes from the Western iSTazareth; but their Orchard and 

 Forest trees were denuded of leaves, before their very doors, and not 

 a hand was raised to sta}'- the foe. As it was here, so everywhere. A 

 writer from the Western part of the State, says: " the Web-Worm spe- 

 " cies of the Caterpillar is very abundant this Summer, more so than for 

 '' years. Apple-trees, Cherry-trees, Butternuts, Alders, White-Birches, 

 " and almost every species of tree or shrub show these webs. They are 

 "not as voracious eaters as the Tent Caterpillars; yet they make bad 

 " work when so plenty as they are this season." 



But, it may be urged, both Agricola and Horticola have been members 

 of the Great and General Court. They remembered the consistent legis- 

 lation which has protected Birds ; and doubtless felicitated themselves 

 upon the acute prescience that provided for the guardianship of flower 

 and fruit by beak and talon. That your Secretary is a thorough sceptic 

 in this particular, you have not now for the first time to learn. That 

 scores of your associate members share in his unbelief will not astonish 

 you. But you may not know how wide-spread is this distrust of Birds as 

 an insect-destroying agency, and will not object, therefore, to be better 

 informed in the premises. Says a farmer in Maryland, after enlarging 

 upon the pains that he had been at to shelter and save every species of 

 birds: " I can say with truth that the birds build in every tree on my lawn, 

 " and there are myriads of birds here, and myriads of Curculios, and 

 " myriads of cherries ; and nearly every one of the myriad of cherries is 

 " stung by the Curculio, and all the plums and gages, most of the apples, 

 " and many peaches and pears. The large fruits do not seem to mind it, 

 " but the puncture leaves a knot in the fruit which hurts the sale." 



If he makes the acquaintance of the Codling-moth, he will find that the 

 " large fruits " are not so phlegmatic. Another writer, in the Country 



