98 CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT 



might object to this mode ; but it is really far less 

 offensive than the bare sight of large and numerous 

 nests with which apple trees are sometimes filled. 

 And if the operation be performed early, when the 

 caterpillars are only from a quarter to half an inch 

 long, the operator (man or boy) will feel no repug- 

 nance to the process. But in full grown trees, some 

 nests, towards the extremities of their small limbs, 

 would escape, because not accessible by ladders. 

 A narrow brush, formed with small bunches of bris- 

 tles, in a single row, I once thought would reach 

 and destroy them ; but it was not found effectual 

 nor convenient. Last Saturday morning the idea of 

 the proper kind of brush occurred to me, and in 

 the forenoon I tried it with complete success. 



I presume every farmer has observed, that the 

 clusters of eggs, producing caterpillars, are laid 

 round the slender twigs of the apple tree and wild 

 cherry, and effectually guarded by a gummy cover- 

 ing, until vegetation commences in the ensuing 

 spring. When first hatched, the worms appear 

 about the eighth of an inch long. The same 

 warmth in the air, which opens the buds, hatches 

 the caterpillars to feed on the embryo leaves. 

 Their first object is to provide for themselves a 

 tent for shelter, in their new state, against the in- 

 clemencies of the weather. For this purpose, they 

 crawl to a small fork of a limb, where the branches 

 form a sharp angle, and there spin t and weave a 

 web, with which they surround it, and where they 

 are secure against undue cold, and heat, and rain. 

 By this small white web they are discovered, and 

 are then most easily destroyed. But the clusters 

 of eggs are not all hatched at the same time. Ac- 

 cording to their situation for warmth or coolness, 

 they are hatched some days earlier or later. At 

 a distance, therefore, of a week or ten days after 

 the first visit, an orchard should be again inspected, 

 and all the latter broods destroyed. If neglected 



