More of Canker -Worms. 339 



' MORE OF CANKER-WORMS. 



By W. C. Flagg, Alton, 111. 



Reading Mr. Manning's article on the " Canker-Worm," in the October 

 number of this Journal, reminds me of a little experience and observation 

 of my own that may be of some value in this connection. ' 



Mr. Manning alludes only to another method of destroying this pest in 

 saying " that by ploughing to the depth of six inches in the autumn many 

 would be crushed, and others destroyed by the cold." 



The canker-worm has never, that I know, done great damage in the 

 apple-oichards of the West, except in Michigan four or five years since ; 

 but I have known of it in this neighborhood in insignificant numbers and 

 varying localities for many years. Perhaps our clay soils and changeable 

 winter and spring weather do not furnish very favorable conditions for its 

 propagation. Still it is a great pest, what there is of it. 



Downing, in his " Fruits and Fruit-Trees of America," as long ago as 

 1845 said, " Experiments made by the Hon. John Lowell and Prof Peck 

 of Massachusetts lead to a belief, that if the ground, under trees which 

 suffer from this insect, is dug and well pulverized to the depth of five inches 

 in October, and a good top-dressing of lime applied as far as the branches 

 extend, the canker-worm will there be almost entirely destroyed." 



Without having noticed this paragraph, I observed that the canker-worm, 

 after appearing in considerable numbers in my orchard, disappeared after a 

 late fall ploughing. 



Dr. Benjamin F. Long, a large orchardist near Alton, gave the following 

 testimony at the annual meeting of the Missouri Horticultural Society in 

 1867: "When I was with my father, he was much troubled with them 

 [canker-worms]. He let in his hogs ; and they rooted up the orchard, and 

 destroyed the larvae [chrysalids]. The next year the trees bore well, while 

 other orchards were stripped of their leaves. Some years ago, the orchards 

 of some of my neighbors were much affected by the canker-worm. They 

 spread to my orchard, the trees of which were ten to twelve years set. I 

 ploughed late in the fall, just before freezing, and destroyed all the canker- 

 worms in the orchard. I have gotten them thus two or three times, and 



