THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



113 



of ISIoths takes its origin, wliidi lay their eggs 

 upon the youug apples when they are about the 

 size of hazel-nuts, as already explained. 



It is remarkable that both Harris and Fitch 

 seem to doubt the fact of there being two dis- 

 tinct broods of this insect every year, the one 

 generated by the other, although Kollar (p. 231) 

 and other European writers expressly assert 

 that it is so in Europe. AVe have elsewhere 

 shown that there are certainly two broods in 

 Xorthern Illinois, and surely there must be two 

 broods likewise in Kew York and New England ; 

 for Mr. "W. Saunders has recently proved that the 

 species is double-brooded in I'ltper Caniula. 

 {('(inada Fanner, Oct. 1, 18G8.) 



Ordinarily this insect, as with other noxious 

 species that have been introduced into America 

 from Europe, is much more destructive in this 

 country than on the other side of the Atlantic. 

 Kollar, however, records that in Germany, in 

 the year 1822, "more than the half, particularly 

 of the choice fruit, was eaten into by the Apple- 

 worm, and Moths were still seen laying their 

 eggs at the end of September." And in Eng- 

 land, in 18G8. it appears to have been still more 

 destructive, at least in the neighborhood of Eon- 

 don. For wc have been personally iiifornied 

 by the English entomologist, Stainton. that in 

 that year, and in that locality, ''although there 

 was an abundant apple crop, it was yet scarcely 

 possible to tind a single apple uninfested by the 

 larva of the r'o<lling moth (f'iirpi)caps<i pomon- 

 ella)." 



Pears, as well as apples, arc attacked by this 

 insect, not only in America but also in Europe. 

 Indeed, Mr. Parker Earle, I'resident of the 

 Fruit Growers" Association of Southern Illinois, 

 and who is himself a very extensive grower of 

 pears, informs us, in his annual address to that 

 society in 18G7, that "in many sections of coun- 

 try nine-tenths of the pears are reported as ruined 

 liy the Codling-moth." Wc haveourj^clves bred 

 several s\)ecinicns of the Moth from wild crabs: 

 but, luckily for the plum growers and the peach 

 growers, it is restricted to pip fruit, and never 

 attacks any kind of stone fruit whatever, whether 

 peach, nectarine, plum, cherry, or apricot. 



It has long been known that, by placing an 

 old cloth, or anything of that nature, in the 

 crotch of an apple tree, the Apple-worms may 

 be decoyed into building their cocoons under- 

 neath it, and thus be destroyed wholesale. Dr. 

 Trimble's metliod — which amounts to the same 

 thing, and has been found to be practically very 

 beneticial — is to fasten two or three turns of a 

 hay-baud round the trunk of the apple tree, and 

 pverv few d.avs. from the middle of Jnlv to the 



middle of September, to slip the hay-band up 

 and destroy the cocoons that have from time to 

 time been formed on the bark underneath it. 



All authors are agreed as to the practical im- 

 portance of picking up and destroying tlie wormy 

 apples as fast as they fall, either by hog-power, 

 or, when that is inconvenient and impracticable, 

 by man-power. In the tirst number of this jour- 

 nal (pp. 4 and 6) we quoted several cases, prov- 

 ing the practical utility of allowing a gang of 

 hogs the range of the apple orchard throughout 

 the summer: and wc could now, if necessary, 

 add several more such cases to the list. When 

 we consider that every female Moth that hatches 

 out in July or August, from the tirst brood of 

 Apple-worms, will probably deposit an egg in 

 some two or three hundred nearly matured ap- 

 ples, thereby rendering them more or less unsale- 

 able, the importance of destroying the wormy 

 wind-falls — in the forepart of the season at all 

 events — becomes at once apparent. The larvw 

 that leave these early wind-falls lie so short a 

 time in the cocoon before they come out in the 

 Moth state, that there is not much chance for 

 birds and other insect-devouring animals to get 

 hold of them; more inirticularly as insects of 

 various other kinds arc always to be met with 

 abundantly in the summer time. But with the 

 second brood of larva', ■which have to He for six 

 months in a torpid state, all through the long' 

 and dreary winter, when wood-peckers, and 

 such other birds as do not migrate to warmer 

 climates in the cold season, are often hard put to 

 it for food, we are satistied that the case is very 

 dift'erent. From the careful inspection of sevcriil 

 large orchards in the early spring months, we 

 are convinced that almost all the cocoons of the 

 Apple-worm Moth, that have been constructed 

 in the autumn on the trunks and limbs of apple 

 trees, are gutted of their living tenants by hungry 

 birds, long before the spring opens, llow then 

 is the breed propagated in the ensuing spring? 

 Partly, perhaps, from such few cocoons as have 

 been placed under boards lying flat on the 

 ground, under logs, etc., but in a great measure, 

 as we believe, from the cocoons contained in 

 such vast numbers, as has been already shown, 

 in empty apple-barrels. To these, situated as 

 tliey generally are in cellars, or in barns or other 

 out-buildings, birds have no access ; consequent- 

 ly, as the spring oj)ens, the Moths mature from 

 them in great flocks, without let or hindrance, 

 and, flying forth into the apple orchards, im- 

 mediately commence their evil works. AVe have 

 ourselves noticed the Moth in early spring, in the 

 windows of a house in the cellar of which a few 

 bushels of apples had been stored through the 



