CODLING MOTH 147 



It was in spraying for scale on some old apple trees at the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural College. These trees had been 

 used for a number of years for testing new, and for the most 

 part worthless, sprays for scale. Many of the trees had become 

 completely covered with scale and were dying rapidly, and 

 though they were not very valuable in themselves, they were a 

 constant menace to other trees that were valuable. It did not 

 look well for the college to have such a disreputable orchard 

 around, even for experimental purposes. So it was decided to 

 clean it up. It was sprayed as here outlined, oil in the autumn 

 and lime-sulfur in the spring, and the work was done with a 

 reasonable degree of thoroughness. The next season the trees 

 were examined from time to time through the summer, and at 

 first everything looked well, and we said, "What a fine thing 

 it was to get those old trees cleaned up." But gradually we 

 began to see a few scales, and then more and more, till finally we 

 were back about where we started. Too many of the tips of the 

 branches had been missed in spraying. The next year the same 

 program was followed, only these tips were looked after, and 

 out of thirty trees that were literally alive with scale only two or 

 three were found that had any scale at all, and these had very 

 few indeed. 



Some Varieties Injured more than Other y. A point which 

 is worth mentioning in this connection is the varying degree 

 to which different varieties are injured by the scale. Any 

 neglected orchard that is suffering from scale will show this. 

 Rhode Island Greening trees will be found half-dead, while 

 Kings and Baldwins, under the same conditions, are in fairly 

 good condition. 



Codling Moth. This is the insect that is responsible for 

 the wormy apple, and no one can visit our markets without 

 having it borne in upon him what a fearful responsibility it is. 

 Simple as the treatment for this insect is, and long as the life 

 history has been well understood, the pest is still allowed to do a 

 tremendous amount of damage. 



The moth itself is small and inconspicuous and is seldom 

 seen by the orchard man. It deposits its eggs sometimes on the 



