88 The Seasons of 1865 ajid 1866. 



The only complete remedy that I know of to prevent these ravages is 

 the tedious process and patient continuance of the application of tar. I 

 succeeded the last season in getting the mastery over them ; so that my 

 trees retained their beauty, and I secured fruit enough for my own use, and 

 should have had many barrels to sell but for the apple-worm, and, as I 

 suppose, the effects of last year's drought, combined. I have from thirty to 

 forty apple and cherry trees in my garden, which I was determined should 

 not mar the beauty of my place. I had some faith in Ellis's protector, and 

 had them applied to about twenty trees which he attached to my trees on 

 the 23d of October. On the same day, we saw the first solitary female 

 grub. I was not sure about the safety of the protectors : so I thought it 

 prudent to tar the trees above, which I did after tacking a strip of tarred 

 paper, six or eight inches wide, around the tree ; and commenced tarring. 

 Mixing a little poor oil with the tar, I found it was not necessary to apply it 

 every day. I watched very carefully day by day, and found the grubs were 

 not numerous until the 8th of November. The thermometer had fallen 

 that morning to 18°, and the ground froze. In the afternoon and evening 

 of that day, the thermometer at 35°, the grubs began to go up in consider- 

 able numbers, but scarcely a male attending them : some few got over the 

 protector, and were caught in the tar; but large numbers were stopped, and 

 remained below the protectors. They continued their movement upwards in 

 small numbers ; when on the night of the 13th, thermometer 46°, cloudy, 

 wind south-west, they swarmed in immense numbers ; and ten thousand were 

 crushed by the hand on the bodies of the trees, below the protectors. I 

 had whitewashed the trunks of the trees near the ground, that I might 

 more plainly watch the operations of the insects, which I did every night 

 by the light of a lantern. I had also covered the ground an inch thick 

 about some of the trees with muriate of lime, which had no effect in 

 checking or injuring the grubs. 1 also applied quicklime to other trees 

 with the same result. After this grand rally of the 13th, they were seen 

 in small numbers to the close of the month, or until the ground was frozen 

 deep. 



On the night of the 15th of March, and a few following nights, thermome- 

 ter in the neighborhood of 70°, or on the first warm night after a severely 

 cold spell, they swarmed again in such numbers, that I thought the earth 



