14 



again, and there form an earthen cell in which to pass the pupa state. This lasts about 

 a month, and then they come forth as perfect beetles to do all the mischief they cart 

 during their short existence. Their whole life, in all its stages, thus lasts but a year — a- 

 period far too long, however, in the opinion of those who are so unfortunate as to be 

 afflicted by them, 



The only locality, where we have seen these creatures at work, is the garden at the 

 Parsonage, Oakville ; there they came in vast numbers and devoured everything — nothing 

 appeared to come amiss to them ; they were especially destructive, however, to the grape- 

 vines. As they seem to be proof against all the ordinary remedies for injurious insect s r 

 the only method is to set to work and catch and kill them. This is easily done, as their 

 habits are rather sluggish ; a few children could soon gather thousands and speedily di- 

 minish their numbers. Much might also be effected by jarring the trees that they are on r 

 in the cool of the morning or evening, when they are less active, and adopting the same 

 measures that are efficacious in the instance of the Plum Curculio. 



CATERPILLARS AFFECTING THE LEAVES. 



9. Cut- worms (Noctuadce.) — Fruit-growers have long observed that the buds of their 

 trees in early spring are oftentimes eaten off and destroyed by they know not what. The 

 mischief was attributed sometimes to birds, sometimes to winged insects or slugs, and 

 even to late frosts ; but it was not until a few years ago that the discovery was made that 

 it was all to be ascribed to the depredations of cut-worms. As Mr. Riley has demon- 

 strated, many species of cut-worms are very destructive to fruit trees, especially the 

 dwarf varieties. In the spring before the leaves are expanded, these worms climb the 

 trees at night and eat off the fruit buds, devouring the ordinary leaf buds when there are 

 no more of the others left. At break of day they drop from the trees, and conceal them- 

 selves in the earth till night comes round again. They are more injurious on sandy soil 

 than on clay, as the former is softer to drop upon, and more easily penetrated for conceal- 

 ment. 



In the Prairie Farmer (June, 1866), Mr. Oochran, on whose farm these facts were 

 first observed, gives the following interesting account of the proceedings of these cut- 

 worms : — 



" They destroy low branched fruit-trees of all kinds except the peach, feeding on the 

 fruit buds first, the wood buds as a second choice, and preferring them to all other things, 

 tender grape-buds and shoots (to which they are also partial) not excepted — the miller 

 always preferring to lay her eggs near the hill or mound over the roots of the trees in the 

 orchard j and, if, as is many times the case, the trees have a spring dressing of lime or 

 ashes with the view of preventing the May beetle's operations this will be selected with 

 unerring instinct by the miller, thus giving her larvse a fine warm bed to cover themselves 

 up in -during the day from the observation of their enemies. They will leave potatoeSj 

 peas, and all other young green things for the buds of the apple and the pear. The long, 

 naked young trees of the orchard are almost exempt from their voracious attacks, but I 

 have found them about midnight, of a dark and damp night well up in the limbs of these. 

 The habit of the dwarf apple and pear tree however just suits their nature, and much 

 of the complaint of those people who cannot make these trees thrive on a sandy soil has its 

 source and foundation here, though apparently utterly unknown to the orchardist, There 

 is no known remedy ; salt has no properties repulsive to them, they burrow in it equally 

 as quick as in lime or ashes. Tobacco, soap and other diluted washes do not even pro- 

 voke them : but a tin tube 6 inches in length opened on one side and closed around the 

 base of the tree, fitting close and entering at the lower end an inch into the earth, is what 

 the lawyers would term an effectual estopper to further proceedings. 



If the dwarf tree branches so low from the ground as not to leave 6 inches clear of 

 trunk between the limbs and ground, the limbs must be sacrificed to save the tree — as 

 in two nights four or five of these pests will fully and effectually strip a four or five year 

 old dwarf of every fruit and wood bud, and often when the tree is green utterly denude 

 it of its foliage. I look upon them as an enemy to the orchard more fatal than the 



