194 Dailing^s Address upon Ivjitrioiis Insects. 



Much has recently heen written, in our pages, upon the 

 Curculio, but there is another insect, scarcely less destructive, 

 though its depredations are confined to that valuable fruit the 

 apple, of which too little is known ; at least, about tico-thirds 

 of the apple crop, is yearly cut off by this insect, and scarcely 

 any thing is done to stop its ravages. After reading the fol- 

 lowing, we hope every owner of a garden or orchard will have 

 his apples picked up as fast as they drop from the tree : — 



" After the plum-ueevil has done its work, comes the Apple-moth (Car- 

 pocAPSA Pomonella,) by which I mean the flesh-colored worm, found in ap- 

 ples, and pears, and sometimes in peaches. The moth flies by night ; of 

 course it is not often seen. You may know it, if you happen to see it, by 

 this description : a grayish-looking moth, about half an inch long, with an 

 oval, brown spot, edged with copper, on the hind part of its wings. The 

 injury done by this insect appears to be increasing from year to year. If we 

 estimate the proportion of apples and pears grown in the neighborhood of 

 this city, which have been injured the present season by this worm, at nine- 

 tenths of the whole number left by the plum-weevil, we shall probably be 

 very nearly correct. For three years past, very few fair apples of Connec- 

 ticut growth, have been brought to the New Haven market. The increase 

 of this insect is owing, in part, to a cause which seems almost to justify the 

 remark, that there is no good without an evil. Formerly, when the whole 

 country drank cider and cider-brandy, the early-fallen apples, worms and all, 

 were picked up and ground into pomace. In this manner we wrought a vast 

 destruction of the apple-worms. These apples are now, in many cases, un- 

 touched, and the worms multiply unmolested. Our best course is to let the 

 swine have that disgusting food — more appropriate surely to their use than 

 ours. If they cannot be allowed to run in the orchard, the apples should be 

 picked up and fed to them every day. The worm, after it leaves the ap- 

 ples, crawls into some crevice or under the rough bark of the trees, where 

 it makes a cocoon, and changes to a chrysalis. The benefit to be derived 

 from hunting out the cocoons, and from scraping off the rough bark of the 

 trees, will be abundant compensation for the labor. This may be done any 

 time from October to May." 



We might follow the author farther in his address, but our 

 space would fail us ; and we close with the concluding re- 

 marks of the author, commending them to the earnest atten- 

 tion of our readers : — 



" I took occasion to observe, in a former part of this address, that a prin- 

 cipal reason for our failure to obtain dominion over the insect tribes, was our 

 ignorance of their history and habits. At present we know not how to at- 

 tack many of our enemies to advantage. Our guards against their inroads 

 are often misplaced ; we fight friends instead of enemies. The retreats 



