92 



ly trimmed, a. special effort being made to cut out and bum 

 most of the infested branches. Recent experiments with a 

 close ally of this pest show that considerable protection 

 may be obtained by coating the trunks and larger limbs of 

 trees with whitewash. A lime-sulfur wash would probably 

 be equally effective. The first application should be made 

 in early spring at about the time we apply the lime-sulfur 

 wash for San Jose scale, and a second might well be given 

 in midsummer to guard against infestation by a later brood. 



A relatively new pest, mentioned above, deserves raore 

 than a passing notice. It is the blister mite. This is an 

 extremely small, semi-transparent, spider-like pest, barely 

 visible to the naked eye and measuring only about 1-100 

 of an inch in length. The Avinter is passed under bud scales. 

 The tiny mites leave their retreats in the spring, enter the- 

 developing foliage and produce light green elevations, which 

 latter turn brown in June or July. These irregular, reddish 

 brown, blister-like spots rknge in size from 1-16 to 1-8 of an 

 inch and on the more badly infested leaves, may run to- 

 gether to form an irregular, brownish area sometimes cover- 

 ing a fourth of the leaf. The work of this blister mite pre- 

 sents a superficial resemblance to that of the casebearer. 

 The blisters are easily distinguished by the distinct thicken- 

 ing of the leaf and the invariable, minute, irregular hole 

 near the center of the blister while the venation of the leaf 

 has largely disappeared. On the other hand, the case-bearer 

 produces no thickening, the center of the irregular, brown^ 

 mined area is marked by a sharply defined, circular hole- 

 and the venation of the leaf is rather more marked than on 

 areas which have not been mined. This blister mite has- 

 been exceedingly abundant and injurious to many orchards 

 in western New York and also to orchards here and there- 

 in the Hudson Talley. This pest was earlier known as the 

 pear blister mite. It is only recently that it has appeared 

 in numbers upon our apple trees. As stated above, spray- 

 ing with a lime-sulfur wash in early spring, is a most satis- 

 factory method of controlling this blister mite. 



This paper would hardly be complete without mention 

 of the gypsy and the brown tail moths. Both of these de- 

 structive leaf feeders, as many of my hearers are aware, 

 are able to subsist upon a large variety of trees and shrubs. 

 They have already laid an enormous burden of taxation up- 

 on this Commonwealth, and particularly communities in the 



