THE APPLE. 



445 



(of Harris), the cankerworm, are the most for- 

 midable. 



The borer attacks the stems of the apple and 

 quince. It assumes the form of a white fleshy- 

 grub, entering the tree at the collar, just above 

 the surface of the ground, where the bark is 

 tender, and either girdles the tree or perforates 

 it through every part of the stem, finally causing 

 death. This grub is described by Downing as the 

 larva of a brown-and-white striped beetle, 4 inch 

 long, remaining in its grub state two or three 

 years, coming out of the tree in the perfect form 

 early in June — flying in the night only from tree 

 to tree, and finally depositing its eggs during June 

 and July in the collar of the tree. For its de- 

 struction, thrusting a flexible piece of wire as 

 far as possible into the perforation made by the 

 insect, washing the stems in May quite down to 

 the ground with a solution of 2 lb. of potash 

 in 8 quarts of water, plugging up the holes with 

 soft wood, after having placed a bit of camphor 

 in the aperture, have all been had recourse to. 

 But the most effectual of all wholesale remedies 

 for the suppression of nocturnal-flying moths, is, 

 placing a little fatty matter, refuse tallow, or 

 common whale-oil, in flats or earthenware pans, 

 such as are used for setting flower-pots in, and 

 placing in each about 1 inch of cotton wick. 

 These should be arranged along the tops of the 

 garden walls, or laid upon the walks or open 

 spaces in the orchard, and lighted in the twi- 

 light, and allowed to burn till towards daylight 

 in the morning. The moths are attracted by the 

 light, as other species are to the flare of a candle, 

 and are thus consumed by hundreds at little 

 trouble or expense. This is the most feasible 

 way of getting rid of all nocturnal-flying insects. 



A French entomologist has recently discovered 

 a simple mode of enticing nocturnal-flying moths, 

 by hanging festoons of string or rope, daubed 

 with honey water, from tree to tree. The moths 

 are attracted to the festoons, and may be cap- 

 tured in nets such as are used by entomologists. 

 And a still better plan was discovered by Victor 

 Adouin, of France, some years ago — namely, 

 placing a flat vessel on the ground, partially 

 filled with oil or tallow, in which a cotton wick 

 was placed, and set light to ; over this was placed 

 a bell glass, besmeared with oil or similar glu- 

 tinous matter. The moths, being attracted to 

 the light, fly towards it, and in attempting to get 

 at it are caught by the glutinous matter on the 

 surface of the glass, or fall into the oil beneath, 

 and in either case are certain to perish. 



The American caterpillar (Clisiocampa Ame- 

 ricana), in its moth state, is of a reddish-brown 

 colour, measuring about 1 ^ inch from tip to tip 

 of the expanded wings. They appear in greatest 

 abundance about midsummer, laying their eggs 

 chiefly on the apple and the cherry, in the forks, 

 and on the extremities of the branches. The 

 eggs are hatched about the middle of May, when 

 the young caterpillars come forth in thousands, 

 and often completely strip the trees of an 

 orchard of their foliage. They live for six or 

 seven weeks in their caterpillar state, feeding 

 most voraciously upon the leaves of the trees. 

 They spin their cocoons about the middle of 

 June, and towards the beginning of July the 

 VOL. II. 



moths come forth. They are also nocturnal fliers, 

 and may be kept under by the means recom- 

 mended above. 



The canker-worm (Anisopteryx pometaria of 

 Harris). This insect has already reached Bri- 

 tain, and has for several years been most de- 

 structive to apple trees in the Dalkeith gardens, 

 where it probably came along with a collection 

 of American trees. This season (1853) it has 

 been rarely detected ; indeed, so rarely, that 

 specimens could not be procured to admit of 

 their thorough examination. The account given 

 of them by Downing, in " Fruits and Fruit Trees 

 of America," is to the following effect : " The 

 male is a moth with pale ash-coloured wings, 

 with a black dot a little more than an inch 

 across. The female is wingless, oval, dark ash- 

 coloured above, and grey beneath. The insect 

 rises out of the ground early in spring, chiefly 

 in March. The females have no wings, climb 

 slowly up the trunks of the trees, while the 

 winged males hover about to pair with them. 

 Very soon after pairing they lay their eggs, to 

 the number of from 60 to 100 each, which they 

 arrange closely in rows in the forks of the 

 branches and on the young twigs. About the 

 20th of May the eggs are hatched, and the can- 

 ker-worms, dusky brown, or ash-coloured, with 

 a yellow stripe, make their appearance, and 

 commence preying on the foliage. After feed- 

 ing about four weeks they descend into the 

 ground 3 or 4 inches, where they remain in a 

 chrysalis form, to emerge again the next season." 

 This much being known of the economy of this 

 insect, the remedy at once suggests itself ; 

 namely, capturing the female in her ascent of 

 the trunk, or preventing her ascending alto- 

 gether. The American cultivators surround 

 the trunk of the tree with a bandage of canvass 

 4 or 5 inches wide, which is thickly smeared 

 with tar, and in order to prevent the tar from 

 becoming dry and hard, they mix a little coarse 

 train-oil with it. This belt catches and detains 

 all the females on their upward journey, pre- 

 venting them from ascending to lay their eggs, 

 and probably causes them to die of starvation, 

 seeing they cannot reach the trees to feed on 

 the leaves, their natural food. Various other 

 means have been employed to effect the same 

 end — such as a mixture of common tar and coal 

 tar, perhaps superior to the former from its 

 being so offensive in smell, and less liable to be- 

 come dry by exposure to the weather. A cir- 

 cular leaden trough filled with oil, and secured 

 to the trunk of the tree, has also been used, and 

 even patented in America. But it must be evi- 

 dent that, to prevent the female from creeping 

 up between the trough and the stem, the trough 

 should be fastened very tightly around the boll 

 of the tree, the pressure of which might prevent 

 the free ascent of the sap, and thus the remedy- 

 become worse than the disease. We have used a 

 collar of coarse flannel saturated with spirits of 

 tar, with which black pepper was incorporated, 

 and attribute greatly to this the absence of the 

 insect during the present season. We also, as a 

 preventative against this as well as other insects 

 which hybernate in the soil under the trees, 

 remove in autumn 4 or 5 inches of soil in a cir- 



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