STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
419 
ning from his mouth a fine silken thread which he attaches to 
the bark, whereby his foothold and that of those who follow him 
is rendered more secure. On coming to a fork of the limb, they 
halt, and there erect a kind of tent for their subsequent resi¬ 
dence, by traveling around the spot, spinning their threads in 
every direction, hereby forming a web resembling that of a spider. 
This at first is quite slight, and wholly inadequate to shelter 
them. Hence if a rain comes on it penetrates the web every¬ 
where, and the young worms may be seen crowded together in a 
mass, in its driest part, upon the under side of the limb. But 
thousands of additional threads being added to it each fair day, 
it rapidly becomes more substantial and better adapted for then- 
pro tection. 
The caterpillars hatch earlier or later as the season is more 
forward or backward. Commonly the earliest clusters of eggs 
are hatched by the twenty-fifth of April, and the latest are a 
fortnight afterwards or even later in giving out their broods; 
but the worms are mostly out of their shells by the first of May. 
At this time the apple-trees are as naked as in winter, their buds 
being merely swollen, and showing the red and green awl-like 
points of the leaves beginning to protrude from their ends; and 
the leaves of the garden cherry are also still inclosed within 
their buds. The wild black cherry, however, is much earlier 
in putting forth its foliage, its young leaves at this date and also 
the stems which bear its flowers being half an inch in length. 
Hence the young caterpillars which find themselves upon the 
latter tree are most fortunate, having an ample supply of food to 
meet their wants, whilst those upon the apple and cultivated 
cherry are obliged to wander about, nibbling what little they 
can reach in the ends of the buds, and probably are often much 
pinched with hunger before the vegetation has advanced suf¬ 
ficiently to enable them to feed fully. 
When they first come from the eggs these worms are less than 
the tenth of an inch long, and about the thickness of an ordinary 
sized pin, their bodies broadest at the head, and slightly taper¬ 
ing, of a black color with pale feet and slightly clothed with 
fine whitish hairs. At first they merely nibble a small spot 
upon the surface of a leaf, or perforate a small hole through it, 
