104 HATCH EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



how to destroy them. The best method, so far as known, is 

 to spray the trees with kerosene emulsion ; but in spraying 

 it is very difficult to reach every insect, and, as they multiply 

 very rapidly, they soon become as abundant as ever, and it 

 becomes necessary to spray the trees or shrubs repeatedly 

 after short intervals. 



Tobacco Cutworm. 

 Earlj' in the season cutworms were said to be destroying 

 the young tobacco plants in the tobacco fields of the Con- 

 necticut valley, and specimens that were brought in and bred 

 to maturity developed into moths which proved to be Car- 

 neades messoria. The caterpillars of this species partake of 

 a rather varied diet, consisting not only of tobacco, but also 

 of cabbage, corn, potatoes, spinach, onions, lettuce and 

 fruit trees. The usual method taken by our tobacco growers, 

 so far as I can learn, is to reset tobacco plants where they 

 have been cut oft* by the worms, and at the same time dig 

 out and destroy the worm that has done the mischief. 



Canker Worms. 



Four years ago canker worms began to increase so rapidly 

 in this town that public attention was called to them, and a 

 general account of the species occurring in Massachusetts 

 was given with illustrations in Bulletin No, 20, published in 

 January, 1893. In that bulletin the usual remedies were 

 given. These consisted of tacking bands of heavy paper 

 around the trunks of the trees and painting these bands with 

 prepared printers' ink, repainting Avith the ink as often as it 

 became dry or hardened enough to permit the females to 

 cross the band. The method of protecting the trees with oil 

 troughs of zinc or tin around the trunks was also mentioned. 

 It was finally stated that probably the most effectual method 

 was to spray the trees with Paris green in water as soon as 

 the eggs hatched in the spring. A further account of canker 

 worms was given in Bulletin No. 28, published in April, 1895. 



A careful study of the difierent methods used to destroy 

 these insects, which are so prevalent in manj^ parts of this 

 Commonwealth, has been made on thirteen apple trees on my 

 own premises in Amherst. Three 3'ears ago these trees were 



