Ixxx 
EOTAL HOBTICULTTJllAL SOCIETY. 
The following observations were sent by Mr. Dean : — 
The accompanying branches were gathered from an orchard at Bed- 
ford, and are samples of the mischief and destruction that has been wrought 
upon hundreds of large Apple- and Pear-trees by the caterpillar of the 
Winter Moth {Cheimatobia brumata). The larger branch, and which has 
its foliage literally charred, is a sample of the present appearance of several 
acres of the trees in the orchard, line after line of trees looking as though 
consuming fire had passed through them. The other Apple-branch repre- 
sents the nature of the damage done to the major portion of the re- 
mainder of the orchard, scarcely a tree being found whereon the fohage 
has not been more or less eaten. The small branch of Currant-bush sent 
also shows how the caterpillars, after they had stripped the Apple-foliage, 
came down to the Currant- and Gooseberry-bushes beneath, and served 
them as they had the trees above. This sweeping damage has unfortu- 
nately not been confined to the orchard in question, but has extended 
to many of the market-gardens in West Middlesex, and will of necessity 
entail upon their proprietors a very heavy loss ; as not only is the prospect 
of a crop on many hundreds of trees entirely annihilated for the present 
year, but the chances of a crop next year are put in great doubt also. It is 
worthy of notice that Pear-trees have not sufi'ered so largely as the Apple- 
trees have, and also that the trees of dwarfer growth have suffered more 
largely than the latter ones. Thus especially noticeable was the entire 
damage done to alternate lines of trees of the Yellow Ingestre, whilst the 
crowns of the stronger-growing Wellingtons were comparatively untouched. 
On the whole, it would be diflScult to conceive a sadder specimen of the 
mischief insects are capable of bringing to horticulturists than was pre- 
sented in this orchard. Inquiry elicited the somewhat obvious fact that 
entomological knowledge was not very widely distributed amongst the 
market-garden fraternity here. Little or'nothing seemed to be known of 
the character or habits of the moth, or fly, as usually termed here ; but 
because there were a considerable number of large flies seen hovering 
over the bloom of the trees in the month of April, it was generally assumed 
that the eggs from which the caterpillars germinated were then deposited. 
Not a little of the blame is laid to the drought of last summer, and not a 
little also to the prevalence of cold north-easterly winds during the bloom- 
ing-period, and which, by generating a very dry atmosphere, no doubt tended 
largely to assist the caterpillars in their work of destruction. The attempted 
remedy of dusting the trees with slaked lime was largely tried, but with 
little effect. Indeed, to perform this operation with any degree of success 
upon large trees of forty years' growth and upwards, is a matter reasonably 
to be doubted. The most effectual preservative that can be found is to 
make the stems of the trees an impossible means of ascent to the female 
moth, which, being without wings, has to crawl to the branches of the tree 
to deposit its eggs, and which operation is usually performed during the 
