128 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO APPLES. 



"Apples for shipping have sometimes been packed in char- 

 coal dust, dry sand, and at other times separately wrapped 

 in paper, in the same manner as oranges are shipped, but 

 they can be shipped with as much success without anything 

 with them, if only managed with care in other respects. 



" In shipping fruit, none but the very best should be sent ; 

 all that are small, imperfect, or the least bruised, should be 

 rejected. Those persons who pay from nine to twenty-one 

 dollars per barrel for apples, expect to have the best.*" 



DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS. 



7he. Caterpillar, (Clisiocampa Americana.) This has 

 been a most serious enemy to the apple in most parts of 

 the country. It has its seasons of increase and decrease. 

 Some years it has nearly stripped whole orchards ; and 

 again it has diminished in numbers in successive years, till 

 few could be found. 



There are many species which feed on the apple leaf; 

 but the only one of importance, is that known as the com" 

 mon orchard caterpillar, which is hatched in spring as soon 

 as the leaf buds begin to open. At this time, it is not the 

 tenth of an inch long, nor so large as a 

 cambric needle, but it continues to increase 

 constantly in size for several weeks, until 

 two inches long and a quarter of an inch 

 in diameter. It then spins a cocoon and 

 passes to the pupa state. In the latter part 

 of summer, it comes out a yellowish 

 brown miller, lays its eggs and dies. The 

 eggs are deposited in cylinders or rings, 

 containing three to five hundred each, 

 encircling the smaller branches, and 

 usually within a few inches of the ex- 

 tremity. The accompanying figure (fig. 

 104,) represents one of these masses of 

 eggs of the natural size. They remain 

 through winter, protected from the wea- 

 ther by a vesicular water-proof varnish, and 

 hatch in spring, as just stated. Each collec- 

 tion of eggs, makes a nest of caterpillars. 



B. G. Boswell. 



Fig. 104. 



