318 



THE POMOLOGIST AND GARDENEE. 



1871 



of two practical orcbardlsts, who have devoted 

 much time and study to this insect, its habits, and 

 means for its destruction 



Fig. 2. 



This trap as we call it, the patent on which bears 

 date of October 10th, 1871 — and we would say here, 

 that the patent covers the wTwle ground for a con- 

 struction of this kind completely, for this purpose, 

 and that the owners intend that their rights under 

 it shall be respected — may be constructed of thin 

 boards of most any kind; fresh green pine timber 

 will not answer, owing to the turpentiny sap being 

 offensive to the worms, and perhaps a few other 

 kinds of wood might have the same objection. Old 

 pine shingles, those from an old roof are excellent, 

 pieces from a foot to twenty inches long and placed 

 in contact and fastened to the tree. 



The best practical form we have been able to de- 

 vise is shown by Fig. 1. ' It is made of old shingles 

 3 or more pieces, varying slightly in width, the nar- 

 rowest is placed next the tree and then the next 

 widest one next that, and so on. They are then fast- 

 ened firmly to the trunk of the tree just below the 

 branches, sheltered from the noon day sun or on 

 the north side of the trunk, by the screw or nail a. 

 The straws 6 are placed between them, not par- 

 ticularly to keep them slightly apart, but they ap- 

 pear to act as a great help in guiding the worms be- 

 tween them. The traps are cut out as at c, so that 

 the worms will be exposed when the parts of the 

 trap are turned apart as at fig. 2, which shows a 

 trap turned open on the fastening a, so that the 

 worms may be killed, which may be done in any 

 thorough and expeditious manner. I draw the 

 point of a sharp knife through the cocoons. A 

 quicker and more economical plan would be to 

 scrape them off into a pan and then feed them to 

 poultry. 



WILL THIS TKAP SAVE OUR APPLES PROM WORMS? 



I can answer unhesitatingly yes. If the above 

 history of the insect and its habits are facts — and I 



know that they are— any one can see at once that 

 this trap can be made an instrument for their de- 

 struction. I have given it a thorough test in my 

 extensive orchards, the past season, and know it to 

 be effective. Others have done the same. All who 

 have studied the insect, or that have tried other 

 means for its destruction, who have seen this trap 

 and had it explained to them, have exclaimed at 

 once that it was right in principle and construction, 

 and were confident that if it were properly used 

 it would make a clean sweep of this most perni 

 cious foe to the orchardist. 



COMPARISONS. 



We have at different times during the summer 

 made thorough trials with this trap in competition 

 with the two other most highly recommended 

 plans of destroying the worms — namely, carefully 

 prepared and placed cloth and hay bandages. 

 These trials were full and complete, more so for the 

 reason that I could not believe in the results of the 

 first trial, as I had hung my faith on the cloth bands. 

 I give the number of worms of the fir.st brood, 

 caught by each method on 39 Raule's Jannette trees 

 in full bearing, trees of the same size, age, and 

 quantity of fruit, or as near so as we could select 

 them. 



Fig. 1. 



Cloth bandages, 0, 0, 0, 4, 1, 4, 3, 1, 5, 3, 3, 3, 0—37. 

 Straw ropes, 4, 4, 5, 4, 0, 6, 3, 3, 1, 0, 4, 3, 1—36. 

 Wier's traps, 10, 4, 2, 4, 8, 6, 8, 4, 4, 10, 18, 6, 10—74. 



These are the numbers of the first brood caught 

 June 33d and July 1st to 6th. When the second 

 brood began to spin up, from the middle of July to 

 the middle of August, in an orchard where none of 

 Xhe first brood had been caught, we found from 43 to 

 188 in a trap at the end of each ten days. 



Repeated trials averaged the same result, but this 

 is not all, we found it at least ten times the labor to 

 place the hay or straw ropes on the trees, take 

 them off and hunt the worms out of them, as it was 

 the cloth bandages ; in fact we found this plan en- 

 tirely impracticable; and at least four times the la- 

 bor to take the cloth bands off, kill the worms and 

 replace them that it was the wooden traps. Besides 

 we found that the worms would gnaw the cloths all 

 to pieces in one season, and they would have to be 

 renewed at least in part each season, while the 

 wooden traps were the better of use, and would 

 last as long as the material of which they were 

 made. 



