117 



Following the reading of these papers, they were opened for dis- 

 cussion. 



Mr. Fisher asked how the cankerworiu was most successfully 

 treated. He stated that there was a very serious outbreak of the 

 cankerworm in his orchard in Canada and that he had used bands, 

 saturated with a castor oil and resin mixture, around the trees. Sev- 

 eral thousand trees had been banded and on these trees, so far as he 

 knew, there had been no cankerworms the present spring. It had 

 required some time to inspect them and some experimentation was 

 necessary before the effective proportion of the ingredients had been 

 determined. It was extremely satisfactory as far as his experience 

 had gone. . 



Mr. Quaintance inquired what proportion of oil and resin had been 

 used, to which Mr. Fisher replied that 3 pounds of castor oil was used 

 to 5 pounds of resin. The materials were warmed to thoroughly break 

 up the resin, but were applied cold. 



Mr. Osborn stated, in reference to the treatment of the canker- 

 worm, that it was the practice to spray the trees with arsenate of lead 

 or Paris green as soon as possible after the larvse had made their 

 appearance. He stated that at this time the insects were much more 

 susceptible to treatment than later when the larvse were more nearly 

 full grown. 



Mr. Smith stated that Dr. Howard had desired the observation of 

 members in reference to the elm leaf beetle, and in regard to this 

 insect he stated that it was more abundant in New Jersey the present 

 year than for some time past. Four years ago there had been a great 

 scarcity of the insect and two years before this it had not been neces- 

 sary to do anv spi'aying at all. Last year the insects began to increase 

 to some extent and it was necessary to spray to destroy the larv«. 

 This year thev were in large numbers and it had become necessary to 

 spraj' while the beetles were feeding. By this means the beetles 

 were largely killed off, but quite a number of larvse had come through 

 from the egg. In speaking further of shade-tree insects, Mr. Smith 

 stated that the fall webworm promises to be more abundant in New 

 Jersey this year than last. There had been a very great increase of 

 this species the latter part of that year, and trees were considerably 

 injured. The insects were not especially abundant in the early part 

 of the season, but this year they had been destructive already. They 

 had appeared so abundantly at the experiment station that he found it 

 necessary to spray with arsenate of lead, and he thought, from the 

 present condition, there would likely be a great increase of this species 

 throughout the State before the season was out. 



Mr. Felt spoke of the increase of this beetle and of the work of the 

 green fruit worm. 



Mr. Smith replied that he had not observed the green fruit worm 



