324 



CASSELL'S POPULAE GAEDENINa.. 



eggs hatch with amazing rapidity, and slender white 

 grubs are the products. These instantly turn their 

 attention to piercing through the Apple, either from 

 top or bottom towards the core. During its progress 

 the grub grows rapidly in size, and having reached 

 the core, it finds more room, generally partially or 

 wholly devours the seeds, and from about a month 

 to six weeks from the time of entering the fruit, 

 finds its way out of it, having accomplished the ruin 

 of the fruit. No sooner does the latter find it- 

 self the prey of the ravenous worm than it seems 

 doomed ; and when it reaches the core, and begins 

 to prey on the seeds, the Apple generally lets go its 

 hold of the tree and falls to the ground, the maggot, 

 however, being mostly equal to the occasion, and 

 quitting the fruit before it falls. But this is not 

 always the case, as many are found on the ground 

 with the destructive maggot inside them. No 

 sooner is the maggot at large than it changes into 

 a chrysalis, weaves itself into a cocoon, and attaches 

 itself to the stem. More moths are speedily produced, 

 which again begin the work of destruction, and this 

 largely accounts lor the two series of Apple-droppings 

 — one early, and another late in the season. Both 

 arise from the serious depredations of two separate 

 families of the same or kindred maggots or moths, 

 such as the Lackey Moth, Olisaiocampa neustria, the 

 Gipsy Moth, .Bomii/a; dispar, and others. 



There are three obvious periods and modes of 

 destruction. Catch and kill the moths on the wing 

 in the early spring, and the second brood of them 

 in the summer. This requires a good knowledge 

 of the insects and much industry and patience, still 

 it is worth the trouble, and numbers may be thus 

 caught and destroyed. Drive them away by forming 

 a smothpring smoke of brush- wood and weeds among 

 the trees about the season of their greatest preva- 

 lence — say April ^nd June. This, in duU heavy 

 weather, may also suffocate not a few of the moths, 

 as well as ward ofE the others. Eender the trees 

 distasteful by nauseous washes over-head, such as 

 sewage, tobacco, and gas water, aU weak, yet suffi- 

 ciently strong to give out noxious odours. 



Destruction in the cocoon or chrysalis state is 

 comparatively easy. Collect so soon as seen ; place 

 in a flower-pot, with a cork in the bottom, or a box ; 

 convey to the nearest fire and burn. A whole garden 

 may thus be cleared of the second brood in a few 

 hours. The whole of the summer and winter hiding- 

 places for chrysalis or larvse, such as the loose bark 

 of trees and rough and uneven cankered wood, &c., 

 should also be smeared over. 



The grubs may also be trapped as they are making 

 their exit from their feeding-grounds. They are 

 sluggish and lazy when full, and seek shelter in the 

 first secret place, such as a crevice in the bark, a soft 



hayband or a lath fixed around the branch or bola 

 If such traps are set and frequently examined, 

 quantities may be found and destroyed before they 

 reach the chrysalis state. But the best way is to 

 catch the maggots in the Apples before the latter fall. 

 Of course, all maggot-bored Apples are useless. So 

 soon as they fall, they should be collected and burned. 

 A good many maggots will thus be destroyed, but a 

 sharp eye wiU detect these maggoty Apples on the 

 tree ; they loose their verdure and hasten to put on 

 a look of forced maturity. Each Apple manifest- 

 ing such symptoms has a grub eating out its sub- 

 stance at its core, and it ought, if within reach, to 

 be softly and promptly gathered and destroyed. 

 This insures not only the destruction of a grub, but 

 of a colony of future maggots. 



The Apple Saw-fly, Tenthredo testttdinea, pierces the 

 fruit in a similar way to the Codling Moth, and with 

 similar results as testified by the falling fruit, and 

 should be prevented and destroyed by the same 

 means. 



Caterpillars. — Numbers of varieties of these prey 

 on the leaves and young shootlets, so as not seldom 

 to almost wholly defoliate the trees, to the total 

 ruin of the current year's growth. Among these 

 the caterpillars of the Wood Leopard Moth, Zeuzm-a 

 asculi ; the Goat Moth, Cossus ligniperda ; the 

 Small Apple Moth, Yponmnenta malivorella; the 

 Figure 8 Moth, Epiamia caruhocephala ; and the 

 Winter Moth, Sybemia brnmata, axe the more trou- 

 blesome. Several of these, notably the last, use the 

 giound for a resting-place, which rather increases the 

 difficulties of their destruction. The caterpillar of 

 the Winter Moth is specially destructive, clearing off 

 young fruit as well as leaves and tender shoots. 

 They are very small when they first appear in the 

 spring, and are not very easily seen ; but they 

 speedily enlarge in size, and finish theii- work of 

 destruction on the trees about the second week in 

 May. They let themselves down gently to the 

 earth, with a long gossamer thread, after the manner 

 of spiders. So soon as they reach the ground, they 

 bury themselves to a depth of two or three inches, 

 and change into pupas, in which state they remain 

 till near the end of the year, at which period they 

 crawl up the stems, and deposit their eggs, which 

 are changed into caterpillars in the early spring. 



Two modes of destruction at once suggest them- 

 selves, arising out of the habij; of the insects. The 

 females have no wings, and hence if a band of any 

 sticky mixtm-e, such as tar or manure, is made round 

 the stems, it will either set them fast, or arrest their 

 upward career, and so baulk the progress of the 

 insects. Another mode is to make them prisoners in 

 the ground. Heavy surface mulchings applied any 



