142 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



spieuoiis to be readily seen and removed in winter ; thus much labor 

 may be saved for the busy months of spring and early summer. In, 

 Newton and some other neighboring towns this practice has been 

 encouraged ; children have been taught to become quite interested 

 in the work, and, so employed, spend many hours out of doors in 

 healthy, useful exercise. As a boy, in my father's orchard, I 

 have frequently, as the result of my efforts during a school holi- 

 day, collected four hundred or five hundred rings, each of which, 

 if left to hatch, would mean a web with several hundred caterpillars. 

 As a reward for my industry, I was paid a cent a dozen for the 

 rings. 



Apple pickers should be told to remove the rings whenever seen. 

 As the insects are partial to the Black and Choke Cherries, these 

 should also be examined and all the eggs that are found should be 

 destroj^ed. 



I understand that a committee has been appointed by this Society 

 to see to the " extermination of the Tent Caterpillars." As these 

 insects extend from Canada to Texas and from Maine t'o California 

 it will be seen that the committee has a long and hard task 

 before it. 



In July and August there appear other tent-building caterpillars 

 which are very different from the earlier kind, both in appearance 

 and habits. These are known as the Fall Web-worms {Hyphan- 

 tria cunea). The moths of this species are of a milk-white color, 

 with or without a few black dots on the wings. They deposit 

 their eggs in broad patches, on the under sides of the leaves, 

 about the end of May or in June. The caterpillars become fully 

 grown at the end of summer, or in early autumn ; then go to the 

 ground to pupate and reappear as moths in the next spring and 

 early summer. Farther south, there are two broods of this insect 

 in the year. From their habits it will be seen at once, that egg 

 collecting is not practicable, and that the insect can best be con- 

 trolled by the removal of the webs and caterpillars whenever seen. 

 Until they are almost fully grown the caterpillars will always be 

 found within or about their webs. The moths also should be 

 killed whenever found. This species seems most partial to 

 Poplars, Willows, i:ims, and some Maples; but they commonly 

 affect a great variety of shade trees, fruit trees, and shrubs. 



The Canker-worms {Aniaojderyx vernala and A. povietaria), 

 which, besides other plants, particularly affect our elm and apple 



