NEW ENG1.AND FARMER. 



Publisked by JoH.N iJ. RcssEi.1., at JV». 52 JVorlh Market Street, (at the JlgricuUural Warehouse) Thomas G. Fessenden, JSrftW. 



VOL. VIII. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 183o! 



No. 48. 



SI ® BJ s a © w a ^ w sj la a 



FOR THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



The President, Hon. II. A. S. Ds/^RBORit, read the following at 

 tiie last meeting of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society : — 



REMARKS ON THE CANKER WORM. 



Last December, I sent a coinmiinication to the 

 Editor oftlie New England Fanner, containing 

 some experiments, which I had made to [)revent the 

 ravages of the Canker worm, with remarks on 

 their character and hahits ; and having pursued the 

 inquiry, during the present season, I offer the re- 

 sult of my observations, with the lio|)e, that some 

 effectual mode may be devised, for clearing our 

 gardens and orchards of this diminutive, yet de- 

 vastating tribe of insects. 



It was generally believed, that the eggs deposi- 

 ted in the autumn, were rendered unproductive by 

 the rigors of winter ; to ascertain the truth of this 

 position, I marked several branches of apple trees, 

 sn which eggs had been deposited, and left a chain, 

 an which were eleven clusters, suspended on a 

 xee, exposed to the open air, until the period 

 rth&D the worms appeared, from eggs, laid this 

 ieason, and, as I anticipated, all produced their 

 Tarvse, at the same time. The instinct of quad- 

 j -upeds, birds, fishes and insects, never is at fault, 

 , md the supposed mistake of the season, seems to 

 lavc been the result of an intelligence, a pre- 

 cience, or an economy which to us is incxpli- 

 able. Instinct is a vague, and unmeaning erm, 

 -liic-h. to vail our ignorance, is used to e .^ ^.^ 

 jil:er the ej/ec(, than the ccrnse, — like gravitation 

 II physics ; it appears also to be regulated by 

 qually undeviatirig laws, as that mysterious power. 

 On the fourtli of March I began to tar my Ap- 

 ilt, Quince, Plum, Apricot, Cherry and Elm trees, 

 ciiig with the Honey Locust all the species, I 

 lavc noticed, on whose leaves the Canker worm 

 eed^i. As the weather continued cold and the 

 roimd frozen, for several days after, no insects 

 ppcared, before the 13th, when a few millers 

 ^ /crc seen ; on the evening of the 16th, the grubs, 

 r females, passed up the trees in considerable 

 umbers, and during the following nights with 

 111: ■ exceptions, owing to the state of the wea- 

 111% until the 20th, and 21st, when innumerable 

 i;i!rs came forlh, previous to which, but a few had 

 01 11 seen. During the evenings of the 2.3d and 

 Oili, such numbers of nsales and females ascend- 

 I, tliat the belts of tar which were six or eight 

 iIkjs wide, were bridged over by them, and it 

 ?rame necessary to rc-tar the trees, after eight 



The quantities caught, almost nightly, were j' paper. I had also placed in the glass several 

 enormous ; amouniing to many thousands, on the scions, ns deposits for the eggs, but only one was 

 trunks of each of the largest trees. [used by the insect.s for that purpose, which hap- 



As my trees were pruned, after the insects hid j pening to be S|ilit, the fissure was filled with eggs. 



ceased to appear, care was taken while pruning, 

 to examine the branches to ascertain whether any 

 eggs were deposited on them ; hut only a very kw, 

 were found, which were laid during the autumn, 

 and I felt quite satisfied that none of the grubs 

 had passed the tar. The trees were scraped to 

 the main branches, by a triangular instrument 

 u.-^ed by caulkers and seamen, and then thorough- 

 ly covered with a wash, composed of lime, ashes 

 and cowdung, in the manner recominended by 

 Forsyth, in his Treatise on Fruit Trees. 



As the trees of a neighbor had been stripped of 

 their leaves, last season by the Canker Worms, 

 and were not tarred this spring, I concluded, that 

 innumerable depositions of eggs, must have been 

 made on the branches, but to my astonishment, on- 



With these facts, I again examined my neigh- 

 bor's trees, and by the aid of a lens carefully- 

 sought under the rough bark, and in its interstices 

 for eggs ; but not one was to be found, and I gave 

 up the investigation. The ne.\t day, I again visit- 

 ed the trees, to examine among the scales of the 

 buds and the moss for eggs, being the only remain- 

 ing receptacles, which the trees afforded. On 

 opening tufts of the latter with the point of a pen- 

 knife, and applying the lens, I discovered from one 

 to thirty, or more eggs, scattered among the fibres, 

 of nearly every spot of moss, and resendding those 

 laid on the paper, and in the cleft scion placed un- 

 der the glass. I immediately went into my or- 

 chard, to ascertain whether any were to be found 

 there, and after considerable research detected but 



I ])resumed there might be some truth in the com- 

 mon remark, that Hhe canker worms run out 'in 

 three years, but as will be seen there was no foun- 

 dation for such an hypothesis. 



Dssirous of testing the efficacy of the mercurial 

 ointment, recommended by Dr Spofford, in the 

 4th vol. of the New England Farmer, I put 

 strips of woollen list, covered with unguentimi 

 round thirty trees, miilway between the belt of tar 

 and the ground, in order to prevent the ascent of 

 tlio insects, by the tar, if the ointment should not 

 prove a barrier. I found they passed over the lists 

 as readily as over the smooth bark of the tree ; 

 not one was stopped or turned back. It then oc- 

 curred to me, that it was possible they might im- 

 bibe enough of the mercury, during their transit, 

 to produce death, before they could go through 

 the process of depositing their eggs ; I therefore 

 caught several females and millers, after they had 

 passed the inircurial hands, and placed them un- 

 der a glass in my library. In two or three days 

 numerous eggs were laid ; but instead of being 

 arranged in regular rows and of the peculiar form 

 and color of those noticed last autumn, they 

 were either scattered loosely over the paper, on 

 which the insects were placed, or piled up in ir- 

 regular clusters, — were smaller, of an elliptical 

 or true egg shape, and of a shining pearl color. I 

 therefore, concluded that the insects had been en- 

 feebled, from the effects of the mercury, and that 

 the eggs were consequently so imperfect, as not to 

 .'k, although they were thoroughly tarred | produce any worms ; but on the 22d of April 

 ijring the afternoon. i they all Iiatched out, the room being kept continu- 



ly a very few were to be seen, and those were made few', and concluded that not enough had been scat- 

 luring the autumn. This was so remarkable, that I tered over tlie trees, to endanger them. 



As the secret receptacles of the eggs had been 

 discovered, it was important to ascertain, whether 

 they coidd not be removed, or something applied 

 that would destroy them, or prevent them from 

 hatching. As there were only eleven trees in the 

 lot I recommended that the trunks and branches 

 should be scraped and washed with Forsyth's com- 

 position ; this was most faithfully done, except as 

 to the small extreme branches ; and as they were 

 cover' ' with ;noss, it was. evident enough eggs 

 were there concealed, to furnish a sutficicnt num- 

 ber of worms to greatly injure, if not to entirely 

 defoliate the trees. Anxious that the experiment 

 should be made more perfect, all the branches of 

 one tree, to the end of every twig, were covered 

 with the wash, carefully applied with a brush, 

 which employed a man more than half a day, and 

 three men had been employed two days in the 

 previous work, on the whole number of trees. 

 Unfortunately, all this labor has been useless; the 

 leaves have been entirely consumed, on all the 

 trees, and they appear, as if a fire had passed over 

 them. 



The shells of the eggs laid this spring, as soon 

 as the larva' left them, appeared like little glass 

 globules, and were beautifully iridescent, while 

 those deposited last autumn, were dark colored 

 and opaque. 



The number of trees tarred on my own ground 

 exceeded four hundred, and although the leaves 

 have been considerably eaten, the destruction of 

 the foliage has not been so extensive, as to ma- 

 terially disfigure the orchard, but still a few small 

 The grubs and millers continued to ascend un- 1 ally warm by afire. I then recollected that 1 elms have been completely stripped of their leaves, 



1 the 8th of April, but during the latter part of these grubs deposited their eggs in a manner very 



e time, there were but few grubs, while the 

 ales were in greater numbers than at any form- 

 period. 



As the expanded wings of the millers cover a 

 eat surface of the tar, they facilitate the passage 

 the whole corps, by sooner forming a cross- 

 ly in the sacrifice of their lives ; it is therefore 

 cessary to keep a good look out, during the 

 enings when the males are numerous, and un- 

 iaried efforts were made to render the ascent 

 Dve the tar, to either sex, impracticable. 



different from those I confined last autumn. They 

 protruded a flexible tube more than three sixteenths 

 of an inch in length, with which they appeared 

 to feel, as with a finger, under the edge of the 

 glass, for a proper place to insert their eggs. I 

 had folded up a piece of paper, and placed it un- 

 der the glass, so as to elevate it a little, for the ad- 

 mission of air, and having observed one of the 

 grubs passing over it, and inserting this tube be- 

 tween the folds, I took it out for examination, and 

 found that the eggs had been thus placed in the 



and some of the apple trees appear seared at their 

 summits. 



Thus it appears these insects are endowed with 

 that intelligence called instinct, to an extent that 

 is truly wonderful. They know that it is impor- 

 tant, to guard their eggs more effectually in the au- 

 tumn, than in the spring, to resist the cold and vi- 

 olent storms of winter. And even in the spring, 

 they do not tru.« their eggs to the unsafe crevices 

 of the rough and loose bark, which is continually 

 liable to fall off, but select the parasitic moss, 

 which adheres to the smaller branches, with a 



