262 Forty- second Report on the State Museum, [120] 



tions has been given by Professor J. H. Comstock, in the Proceedings 

 of the Western New York Horticultural Society, at its twenty-eighth 

 annual meeting in January, 1883 (pp. 20-23). 



Remedies. 



This injurious pest is the most vulnerable in either its caterpillar 

 stage or after the cocoons have been made. In large orchards the 

 cocoons may be best attacked by means of a mixture of kerosene and 

 soap sprayed upon them with a force-pump. This emulsion which is 

 quite as effectual as, and easier to make than, the milk emulsion 

 formerly recommended, may be made by dissolving two pounds of 

 common bar soap in a gallon of water, with heat, and then mixing in 

 a gallon of kerosene with the aid of a force-pump until emulsified. 

 This, upon cooling, will form a thick, gelatinous mass, containing fifty 

 per cent of kerosene, which will have to be reduced by the addition of 

 water before it can be applied with a force-pump. If diluted with 

 nine gallons of water, giving a mixture of about ten per cent of 

 kerosene, it should give a strength sufficient to destroy the pupae 

 within the cocoons, but the proper strength had better be first ascer- 

 tained by experiment upon a few of the cocoons. 



If the infested trees are not very numerous the emulsion might be 

 applied to the branches by means of a stiff bristle-brush, which would 

 remove the cocoons, and serve to show thereafter if there is a contin- 

 ance of the attack in the deposit of fresh cocoons. 



When the caterpillars are found in abundance feeding on the trees 

 in July or September, by suddenly jarring the branches, numbers 

 will drop and hang suspended by their threads, when they may be 

 swept down by brooms or branches and destroyed. Showering the 

 trees with Paris green and water would kill all the larvae eating the 

 poisoned foliage. 



The Clover-seed Midge. 

 Cecidomyia leguminicola Lintn. 

 A package of the larvae of the clover-seed midge was received 

 October twelfth, through Dr. E. L. Sturtevant, from Mr. D. M. Linsley, 

 of Orleans county, N. Y., with the statement that they were from a 

 second crop of clover, that had been cut for hay, and placed on a scaf- 

 folding above the barn floor. Four or five days thereafter the larvae 

 were observed in large numbers upon the floor beneath the clover. Mr. 

 Linsley was desirous of knowing if they would attack any other grain 

 or plants. Answer was made that the attack of the clover-seed 

 midge, so far as known, was confined to clover seed. From the 

 abundance of the larvae reported by him, it was quite important, as a 



