No. 4.] FRUIT GROWING. 169 



While you are preparing to do so, I wish to say that Professor 

 Fernald is here, and will be obliged to leave early in the 

 afternoon to return home. He has been spending a portion 

 of the past season in investigating the enemies of the cran- 

 berry. Although that is not so universally cultivated over 

 the State as the fruits of which the doctor has treated, it has 

 become an important crop of the State, and is growing more 

 important every season. Will the professor give us his 

 experience the past year in ascertaining and in combating 

 the enemies of the cranberry? 



Professor Fernald. I was written to some two years ago, 

 and asked to investigate the insects injurious to cranberries 

 on Cape Cod. I knew nothing of the industry at that time, 

 and supposed it to be rather a small affair, involving perhaps 

 ten thousand dollars. I had never been down there, and 

 knew but little about the plants ; and I wrote to ascertain 

 how much money was invested in the industry, feeling that 

 it was my duty, as the entomologist of the State Board and 

 working at the Experiment Station at Amherst, to put my 

 time where it would be most valuable. I received the reply 

 that there was a large amount of money invested in the cran- 

 berry industry on Cape Cod. That was very indefinite ; but 

 I finally went down there, and was surprised at the amount 

 of money that was invested in the industry, and also at the 

 amount of injury that was being done by the cranberry 

 insects. I knew the cranberry insects ; they had been sent 

 to me; I had them in my collection ; but I did not know the 

 best method of treating them while in the caterpillar stage. 

 I found that last year there was sent out over the Old Colony 

 Railroad eight hundred thousand dollars worth of cranber- 

 ries, and I was told b} r cranberry growers on the Cape 

 that the insects destroyed half the crop. I did not know 

 how correct that estimate might be, but it impressed itself 

 upon me that there was a loss sufficiently large to warrant 

 my spending time in making investigations. So last summer 

 I spent nearly all my vacation on Cape Cod, studying the 

 cranberry insects. I found that I had more than one insect 

 to study. I had the fire worm, the girdle worm, and the 

 span worm to deal with. I sent those insects to Amherst, 

 and established a small Cape Cod bog there in the green- 



