TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



163 



plication must be made while the tree is in full bloom. If delayed 

 until after the majority of the petals have fallen, we have positively 

 determined that in some cases no poison will be placed in any of the 

 fruit, since in these cases none of the late blossoms produced apples. 



Again, there seems to be very good evidence that many of the worms, 

 often those hatching upon the surface of the fruit, may be killed with- 

 out ever gaining entrance either to the blossom end or to any other 

 portion of the fruit. We have never observed the actual feeding upon 

 the leaves in the orchard by the freshly-hatched worms, but have 

 repeatedly made such observations on Avorms hatched in the laboratory, 

 and it was very evident that the ratio between the number of eggs and 

 number of entrances was very appreciably larger upon unsprayed trees 

 than upon sprayed trees, and the only explanation of this difference 

 would seem to be that upon sprayed trees many of the worms would 

 obtain the poison and die which would otherwise ultimately find an 

 apple and enter the same. 



By far the greater part of the worms enter the fruit away from the 

 blossom end, and the process has been followed Avith great care, both in 

 the laboratory and in the orchard. The commonest procedure after 

 the worm emerges from the egg is to crawl about the surface of the 

 fruit until finding a satisfactory spot and then to proceed to burrow 

 itself beneath the skin of the apple without tasting a bite of the fruit, 

 simply chipping it off with its jaws and using the particles to aid in 

 forming a protection over the mouth of the burrow. The whole opera- 

 tion from the breaking of the egg shell until the entire disappearance 

 of the insect ordinarily does not require more than fifteen or twenty 

 minutes, jind during the whole time the worm has evidently taken no 

 food, so that it is very doubtful if any of the poison that might be upon 

 the surface of the apple would cause the death of the worm. 



As to the places selected for entrance, there seem to be two classes 

 of localities selected. That which is evidently preferred by the worm 

 is the point where two fruits touch, or Avhere a leaf lies against the 

 fruit. In the orchard the upper side of the fruit was very com- 

 monly chosen, generally in the most exposed point. This was ap- 

 parently due to the difficulty experienced by the worm of walking over 

 the surface of the fruit. Like most caterpillars, the codling-moth spins 

 a small quantity of silk as it walks, and this aids materially in its 

 progress by affording a foothold for the minute claws with which the 

 feet are provided. These claws are so minute that the downy hairs of 

 the young fruit seem to afford even less foothold than is obtained on 

 the smooth surface. Repeatedly in our field observations a young, 

 freshly -hatched worm would suddenly lose its hold entirely and fall 

 from the tree. Doubtless a good many worms perish in this way. The 

 front legs are best able to hold onto the plant, so that usually the body 



