EXPERIMENTS IN "SUGARING." 259 



Willet and myself earlier. Concerning Professor Smith's results, we 

 quote from his letters : 



October 10, 1878. Since writing to you last I have done all I could towards observ- 

 ing the habits of the moths, experimenting with poisoned sweets, &c. As yet I have 

 not been fortunate in getting a solution by which the moths are readily killed. I have 

 tried corrosive sublimate and arsenious acid, and with them molasses and water in 

 various proportions. The solutions I have smeared upon pine trees standing in the 

 field, upon little shelves set up at places in the field, and upon a dish placed upon a, 

 stump. To one pine tree in particular the moths seemed to be attracted most strongly. 

 The shelves attracted very few comparatively. I am still engaged in these trials with 

 shallow dishes with perforated shelves, according to your suggestion, and I shall let 

 you know if I find out anything. 



October 16. Since writing you last I have continued my experiments with various 

 poisoned sweets ; but, I am sorry to say, with but very poor success so far as killing 

 the moth is concerned. I have used for poisons arsenious acid, corrosive sublimate, 

 strychnia, and potassium cyanide ; these I have mixed in varying proportions with 

 rum and sweetened water. The bait appears to be attractive enough and I see the 

 moths partaking of it, and yet no dead moths are visible next morning. The propor- 

 tion of rum which I have mixed with these poisons has been sometimes one-half, and 

 from that down. Of the poisons named above the potassium cyanide is perhaps most 

 easily soluble in the liquids used. Smearing the sweetened liquids upon the trunks 

 of trees is, according to iny experience, the best way of exposing them ; I have not 

 seen many moths around the dishes set up on shelves and on stumps. I constructed 

 a shelf against a pine tree and upon that placed a dish with the sweets, and provided 

 with a floating perforated platform. The tree was at the same time smeared with 

 the liquid, and upon visiting the place after dark I noticed a number of moths on the 

 tree, on the smeared shelf, and on the dish with the platform, those on the dish 

 being much less numerous. * * * About the time that the worms were moving oft 

 and webbing up, very few moths visited the sweets at night for several nights, but 

 last night and the night before that they were more abundant. Perhaps the cool 

 weather was the cause of their being absent for several nights, since they have come 

 in numbers again after the warmer nights have set in. 



November 4, 1878. I send by to-day's mail a few specimens of the moths attracted 

 by my baits. No. 1 is, I presume, Aletia (Aletia argillacea) ', No. 2 isAgrotis ypsilon, 

 always present in cold as well as warm weather, and No. 3 (Lencania unipuncta) also ; 

 No. 4 (Amplupyra, sp.) resembles 3 and may be same species ; No. 5 ( Orthosia ferruginoides) 

 I see occasionally on warm evenings; No. 6 (Chrysis, sp.) I found to-day. I should 

 be very glad to get the names of the specimens as they are numbered. I inclose a 

 few of the chrysalides of the last brood of worms. 



The evening of October 26 was warm (66 at 7 p. m.), and more than 50 cotton-moths 

 were counted at my baited tree. It rained before morning and then cleared oif cold, so 

 that on the 27th and 28th no moths were seen. On the 29th it was warm and cloudy 

 and rained slightly, and I counted 7 or 8 Aletia moths. On the 30th, 3 1st, jlst, and 2d 

 cold and frosty nights ; no moths seen. 



Professor Smith continued his sugaring all through the winter, cap- 

 turing many other moths, but no Aletia later than December 1. 



The observations of Professor Willet and myself were reported by 

 Professor Willet as follows : 



" Pea dies. Professor Comstock heard in Alabama that the Aletia 

 moths had greatly injured the August crop of peaches. On the night of 

 September 10 Professor Comstock placed two peaches clear-stoned and 

 quite ripe one on each side of two stumps on whose sides molasses had 



