43 



beetle or May-bug ; but that it proceeds from a moth, 

 of which an account, by Joseph Tufts, Esq., was printed 

 in the Journal of the Massachusetts AgricuUural Socie- 

 ty,* and that it has also been described by the Euro- 

 pean naturalists Rosel and Reaumur. These worms or 

 caterpillars instinctively leave the fruit soon after it 

 falls from the tree, and retire to some place of con- 

 cealment to become pupae ; in order, therefore, to 

 get rid of these noxious vermin it is necessary daily 

 to gather wind-fall apples, and make such immediate 

 use of them as will ensure the destruction, or prevent 

 the metamorphoses, of the insects. 



A sketch of the history of the common caterpillar of 

 the apple-tree has already been given, f Crushing 

 them while young and within their encampments, is 

 the best mode of destroying them. The use and 

 merits of the brush, invented by Col. Pickering, are 

 too well known and appreciated to require any ad- 

 ditional recommendation. It is much to be wished, 

 that some penalty could be enforced against those 

 who neglect to employ the appropriate means for 

 destroying caterpillars in the proper season, and thus 

 expose their neighbours' orchards to continued depre- 

 dations. 



It is highly probable that the canker-worm moth X 

 will prove to be identical with the Phal^na brumata^ or 



* Vol. IV. page 364. f Page 14. 



I Phalana ( Geomdra) vernata. Peck. See his Prize Essay, published 

 in the " Papers of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society " for 1796. 

 See also the Rev. Noah Atwater's Prize Essay, ibid. ; Dr. Mitchell's 

 Remarks on the Canker-Worm, in the " New York Magazine," Vol. VI. 

 p. 201, with a plate ; Dr. R. Green on the same insect, in " The 

 Medical and Agricultural Register" for 1806, p. 134. 



