WINTEK MOTH. 105 



it up, but we have been grease-banding foi* six yeai-s, and I really 

 think we have got the upper hand of the pest." — (C. D. W.) 



Those who have attended of late years to the prevention and 

 remedy of attack of orchard moth caterpillars, will know well of what 

 an immense amount of careful thought, and experiments, and adapta- 

 tions of measures to meet each weak point in practical working, and 

 also of steadiness in adhering to new methods of treatment, this 

 success, both at Toddington and elsewhere, is the outcome. 



So far as I am aware, from reports to myself, it was in the winter 

 of 1883-84 that experiment in sticky banding was first tried with us 

 on a somewhat large scale to stop the ascent of Winter Moths. This 

 was done by painting the stems for the breadth of a foot or two with 

 Gishurst's compound, by Mr. W. Charman, gardener to J. CI, 

 Strachan, Esq., of Farm Hill Park, Stroud, Glos. 



This answered very well, but (as I said before), as far as I am 

 aware, it was not until the great outbreak of destructive orchard cater- 

 pillars in the spring and early summer of 1888, that attention was 

 drawn forcibly, and in many localities, to the need of more thorough 

 measures of prevention. Care and preventive measures were taken 

 previously, but an advance was seen to be needed. 



On June 11th, 1888, Capt. Corbett (then Superintendent) wrote 

 me from the Toddington grounds : — " The Winter Moth has indeed 

 been bad here. We caught the moth by thousands with the band of 

 tar and grease put on in October, and by renewing it lately we have 

 caught numbers of the caterpillars ; but for all this, the destruction is 

 terrible." 



Successively it was shown that however well tar, or common 

 grease, might do for occasional applications, or on the bark of old 

 trees, yet that in modern arrangements of fruit farming, much less 

 rough and haphazard treatment was required for the tender bark 

 which was still alive and subject to injury from applications melting 

 into it, whicii were liable to choke the cells. 



To meet this difficulty experiments as to effects of different lands of 

 sticky or greasy smears were tried to find which were least injurious 

 to the bark. These experiments being promptly followed by the 

 improvement of application of the smear, not on the bark itself, but on 

 a band of grease-proof paper, fastened round the tree on whicli the 

 smear cou^ld be spread with little risk of touching the bark beneath. 



By this means va.st quantities of wingless moths were caught, but 

 still the matter was anything but wholly met. Grease dried so that 

 the banding ceased to be sticky ; moths (where numerous) so choked up 

 the sticky surface, that their companions passed in safety over their 

 bodies, and, besides, many eggs were laid on portions of the sticky 

 banding, or on dead moths, where these eggs could hatch in spring, 



