56 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



CHESHIRE INSTITUTE (1898) 



AN INVITATION was accepted from Cheshire Grange 

 . to hold an institute in that town, March 23, 1898. 

 There was a good attendance of farmers and fruit 

 growers and a lively interest was shown in the subjects 

 under discussion. 



After an address of welcome by Chas. T. Hotchkiss, 

 Master of the Grange, both Grange and Society listened 

 with great interest to the following paper : 



OUR INSECT ACQUAINTANCES 



BY PROF. W. E. BRIXTON 



To the fruit grower the study of insects is a question of economy, 

 pure and simple. He is interested in entomology only so far as the 

 insects help or hinder him from obtaining a crop of fruit. The average 

 grower probably looks upon ninety-nine out of every hundred insects as 

 his enemies. They are robbing him. He will almost invariably destroy 

 them when he finds them, and yet will often take no other measures 

 toward forestalling their injury. In this way he is quite as likely to 

 destroy beneficial as injurious species, and the result is scarcely extensive 

 enough to be of much importance either in aiding or hindering the 

 advancement of his business. 



We all know far too little about some of our common species of 

 insects. Their life-histories were worked out perhaps fifteen or twenty 

 years ago, and we are quite willing to take these accounts as authorita- 

 tive, though the insects in question may have changed their habits 

 considerably in a score of years. 



It was formerly supposed that the codlin-moth always laid its eggs 

 in the calyx of the apple about the time that the blossoms fall, and this 

 has been taught for years. This insect was named by Linnaeus in 1758. 

 It has been known in Europe for centuries, but its real history dates 

 from 1635. About eighty years ago the first account of the insect in 

 America was published, and an American was the first to suggest a 

 treatment for controlling the insect. 



Much has been written abroad about the codlin-moth, and far more 

 in this country. It has an enormous literature. Notwithstanding the 

 fact that the species has such an important bearing upon fruit growing, 

 in all of these writings, according to Slingerland, not a single author 

 mentions, or probably ever saw, the egg stage, which was first figured 

 by Washburn in 1893. 



In 1896 and 1S97 Slingerland and Card made careful observations, 

 which show that the eggs are not laid until at least a week or more after 

 the blossoms have fallen. Instead of being deposited in the calyx of the 

 apple, as had been supposed, they are almost always laid elsewhere. 



