NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



297 



THE APPLE-WORM IN DIFFERENT STA'GES. 



a. The young larva or worm in a small apple. 

 h. The full-grown worm, usual size. 



c. The same greatly magnified. 



d. The cocoon. 



e. The pupa or chrysalis state. 



f. The perfect insect, usual size. 



g. The same greatly magnified. 



h i. The passage of the worm in the fruit 

 j. The larva or worm in the apple. 

 k. The place of egress. 



The apple-worm, or codling-moth, (corpocaiisa po- 

 moneUa) is a foreign production, and has been intro- 

 duced into this countrj- doubtless in packages of 

 fruit trees. It is very numerous on the seaboard, 

 and it has become common in the interior of New 

 England and the Middle States, and it will probably 

 spread all over the country. 



Dr. Harris, author of that invaluable work, The 

 Insects of Massachusetts, describes the parent of 

 the apple-worm as a beautiful moth ; the head and 

 thorax brown mingled with gray ; the four wings 

 look like watered silk ; the hind wings and abdomen 

 are light and yellowish-brown. Its wings expand 

 three fourths of an inch. A distinguishing mark in 

 this insect is a large, oval, brown spot, edged with 

 copper color, on the hinder m.argin of each of the 

 fore wings. 



The body of the j^oung insect is of a whitish color, 

 its head black. As it grows older, its body becomes 

 flesh-colored, its head brown. 



In the latter part of June and in July, these moths 

 fly about apple-trees in the evening, and lay their 

 eggs in the eye of the apple, sometimes in summer 

 pears, preferring early to late fruits ; the eggs hatch 

 in a few days, and the young worms burrow in the 

 apple, making their waj', gradually, to the core of 

 the apple. In three or four weeks, it conies to its 

 full size, having burrowed to the core, and through 

 different parts of the apple. 



The injury from the worm produces a premature 

 ripening of the fruit, which falls, and the insect, in a 

 few days, makes his escape at an opening that has 

 been used for the ejection of its excrements. On 

 leaving the apples, the worms crawl into the chinks 



in the bark of trees, or other sheltered places, which, 

 they hollow out with their teeth. Here each spins 

 a cocoon, or silken case, as fine and Avhite as tissue 

 paper. Some of the worms change to chrysalids, 

 and in a few days more turn to moths, come out, and 

 lay their eggs for a second generation of worms in 

 the fall. 



The apple-worm is very destructive, generally ; 

 and in a year of scarcity, like the present, they injure 

 nearly all the fruit. 



As a remedy, let small animals run in the orchard 

 and eat all the fruit as it falls ; or pick up all fallen 

 fruit, every day, and cook it for swine, or in sonae 

 way destroy the worms contained in it. If old cloths 

 be hung around the crotches of trees, the worms 

 will take shelter therein, and may be destroyed. By 

 carefully scraping off the loose bark of apple-trees in 

 the spring, many chrysalids Avill be destroyed. 



POTATO RUST. 



The potato rust has made its appearance in this 

 quarter to a small extent. But from present appear- 

 ances, it is thought it will not injure the crop mate- 

 rially ; but it is hardly time to know how injurious 

 it may prove. If the potato crop should be cut off 

 this year, the hay crop being already reduced one 

 half by the drought, there will be more suffering 

 from destitution in this county, and in the Province 

 of New Brunswick, than has been experienced for 

 forty years past. — Calais Advertiser. 



APPLES AS AN ARTICLE OF HUMAN 

 FOOD. 



The importance of apples, as food, has not hitherto 

 been sufficiently estimated in this country, nor un- 

 derstood. Besides contributing a large portion of 

 sugar, mucilage, and other nutritive matter, in the 

 form of food, they contain such a fine combination 

 of vegetable acids, abstractive substances, and aro- 

 matic principles, with the nutritive matter, as to act 

 powerfully in the capacity of refrigerants, tonics, and 

 antiseptics ; and when freely used at the season of 

 ripeness, by rirral laborers and others, they prevent 

 debility, strengthen digestion, correct the putrefac- 

 tive tendencies of nitrogenous food, avert scvirvy, 



