116 



CRANBERRY CULTURE. 



among the vines, just as the millers come out, might drive 

 them away, although I have not tried ti.e experiment. 



''The Fruit Worm" 



Is placed, by scientific men, in the same family, Tor- 

 tricidcTB, as the ^ ine worm, but it is a distinct species. 



It is probable that the most of us are familiar with the 

 habits of this insect in its larva state. About the first of 

 August, some of the small cranberries will turn prema- 

 turely red ; and, on opening them, we find a small yellow- 

 gi-een worm feeding upon the inside of the berry. Hav- 

 ing exhausted the interior of one, it enters another, and in 

 this way desti'oys several before reaching its full size. 



I took the first one this year upon the 21st of July, and 

 at this date, August 18th, they are full growm and some 

 have left the fruit. The above dates refer to bogs that 

 were not flowed in the winter. 



On such bogs, I have always found it hard to find the fruit 

 w^orm after the first of September. They travel at night, 

 from one cranberry to another. When full grown, they are 

 about one-half of an inch in length, and are of a light green 

 color, tinged with pink upon the back. The mouth is dark 

 brown. They now enter the ground, and just below the 

 surface, they spin a close cocoon, covered with grains of 

 sand, or other substance, and there change to chrysalides. 



This is as far as I have traced them, as all that I have 

 tried to raise for several seasons have died after spinning 

 their cocoons. They have to be ke))t over winter, to rear 

 the moth, and they do not do well in the house. 



This worm has been considered the same as the " apple 

 worm," but it is distinct from that insect. There can be 

 no doubt but that it is the larva of a moth, as I have high 

 scientific authority for the statement. 



Some have thought that it was similar to the curcu- 

 lio, and that the parent insect punctured the fruit and 



