STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 43 



estimated that one-half of our apple crop is destTOyed everv year 

 by the havoc of this insect. I have sometimes wished that not an 

 apple might be raised in the country for one year, so that the moths 

 would all perish for want of sustenance. I have noticed that when 

 we have a good crop of apples for several years in succession, the 

 apples are more wormy each succeeding year. Applying a circle 

 of tar or printer's ink around the trunk of the tree is said to be a 

 partial protection, but I have not seen much benefit from this 

 application. A rope of straw or braided corn husks, fastened 

 around the tree a foot or two from the ground, will afford a place of 

 deposit for their eggs, and this should be often removed and dipped 

 in scalding water or destroyed by fire. I have sprinkled dry ashes 

 or air-slacked lime among the branches of the trees while the}' were 

 in blossom, but did not find that it was a preventative of wormy 

 apples. 



Within a few years another destructive insect or worm has 

 attacked our apples, and I fear it will prove one of the most serious 

 our orchardists will have to contend with. Some five or six years 

 since, I noticed that the earliest sweet apples we received from the 

 south were infested with a minute worm, which had thoroughly per- 

 forated the fruit. Three years since, I noticed my earliest sweet 

 apples were similarly affected ; and last season all my sweet apples 

 and most of m}- pleasant tart apples, such as the Haley, Hurlbut, 

 Nodhead, Primate and Porter, were more or less infested with this 

 new enemy. These apples appear perfectly sound on the outside, 

 with no signs of the entrance or exit of worms through the skin of 

 the apple, but on cutting them open they are found worthless, being 

 thoroughly perforated in every direction by a ver}' minute worm. 

 I had supposed that this new enemy of our fruit might be confined 

 to this immediate vicinity, but a friend residing in the northern part 

 of Somerset county, informs me that the apples in that locality were 

 similarly affected the past season. If some of our entomologists can 

 discover a remedy for this new enemy of our apples, they will merit 

 and receive the grateful thanks of all who are engaged in the prop- 

 agation of this excellent fruit. [See remarks of Mr. Gilbert on this 

 sul)ject, hereafter. Spc.'\ 



Another enemy of our apple trees, which in form^^r years we had 

 to contend with, has nearly ceased its depredations in the orchards 

 in this vicinity. I refer to the tent caterpillar — although 1 often 



