No. 115.] 93 



two parts, and the stragglers seemed to be moving to reacli the 

 other cluster — the whole evidently advancing upward. The clus- 

 ters that I have found have been on apple, plum, cherry and maple 

 trees. They seemed thicker on the maples. I was plowing in a 

 garden under an apple tree, when, having been disturbed by my 

 horse, I suddenly found myself in a cloud of them, dropping down 

 on their silken thread like spiders. I had swabbed out the nests of 

 the common kind with kerosene, when they were not a half-inch 

 long, for several days in succession, until there was not a nest in 

 either orchard, when all at once we were overrun with this species. 



This statement of Mr. Babcock contains items of interest in the 

 history and habits of this species, and therefore deserves record. 



The species referred to in his communication as building nests 

 on the ends of the limbs and inclosing leaves, in the early autumn, 

 is the '.' fall web-worm," Ilyphantria textor Harris. 



Remedies — The remedies for the forest tent-caterpillar are the 

 following: Hunt for and destroy the eggs late in the season after 

 the leaves have fallen, which will be found encircling twigs in short 

 rings, like the well-known egg-clusters of the common apple-tree 

 caterpillar. These are distinguished by terminating flatly at the 

 ends instead of being rounded, and in not being covered with 

 a thick coating of a varnish-like substance. Or, jar the tree sud- 

 denly upon which they occur, and as they drop and hang suspended 

 by their silken threads, sweep them off and destroy them. Another 

 way : Search for the colonies in the early morning or late in the 

 day, when not scattered for feeding, and crush them upon the 

 limbs or trunks. 



The Spring Canker-Worm. 



Anisopteryx vernata (Peck). 



The inquiries received for information concerning this pest of 



our apple orchards have been quite frequent, and among them have 



been several from different sections of the State of New York, 



showing an increase of its depredations and a lamentable lack of 



knowledge respecting its natural historj' and means for preventing 



its ravages. Mr. Henry D. Barry, of Dutchess county, N. Y., has 



written of it as follows : 



The past two years my apple orchard has been stripped of leaves 

 by a worm which comes the last of April or first of May and dis- 

 appears the last of June or first of July. The worm is three- 



