winter flowage late enough in the spring to satisfactorily control this 

 insect, in ^lassachusetts, would prove decidedly injurious. 



Repeated reflowing to destroy the young caterpillars as they 

 hatch will not clear a bog satisfactorily, unless it be kept up later 

 than is advisable. Such treatment seems to prolong the hatching 

 period, and usually the last worms to hatch are not destroyed. Re- 

 liowing seems to kill the caterpillars in all stages, but fails to reach 

 the eggs, and, as experiments show, the same treatment applied to 

 the pupoi at the time of general pupation would probably have to be 

 continued for several days to be successful. Such a redow, neces- 

 sarily late as it would be, would be attended with considerable risk. 

 Apparently then, the time for an effective refiow is before the worms 

 begin to pupate to any extent and yet as late as possible before any 

 pupation begins, so that a complete hatching of the eggs may be 

 assured. 



On bogs which cannot be reflowed, spraying with arsenate of lead, 

 as the best of the arsenical poisons, seems to be the only treatment 

 advisable. It has been a matter of considerable discussion among 

 the growers as to whether spraying with this poison is really effective 

 against the fire worm. The insect could probably never be perma- 

 nently cleared from a badly infested bog by such treatment, were the 

 poison used at any strength. Each brood of worms must be fought 

 season after season until, perhaps, exceptional weather conditions or 

 some other natural factor may step in and assist the grower in getting 

 rid of the pest, but the results of experiments leave little doubt that, 

 if the poison be thoroughly applied at the right time, at sufficient 

 strength and with proper spraying apparatus, it will prove effectual 

 in keeping the insect under control. These experiments were tried 

 on the second brood, but there seems to be no reason to suppose 

 that such spraying would be any less effective against the first. The 

 spraying should be done as soon as the worms begin to hatch, so 

 that their first meal may be a poisoned one. If they are allowed to 

 work long before the poison is applied, they will spin themselves up 

 in the leaves of the uprights iii such a manner that the poison will 

 not in most cases be placed so that the insect will get it. Further- 

 more, in the case of the second brood, they will very soon destroy 

 the buds from which the fruit-buds of the following season are to be 

 produced and thus do serious injury in their early stages. The eggs 

 of both broods are oval in outline, fiattened against the leaves, bright 



