436 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 
have spent more or less time in inserting sulphur in the trunks 
of trees infested with worms have hereby benefitted these vermin 
more than they have injured them. 
Soap being so efficacious a remedy against some insects in¬ 
duced me to test its effects upon these. A nest of late caterpil¬ 
lars, only half grown upon the last day in May, were upon the 
limb of a small garden cherry, when I placed a band of soft soap 
around the limb, slightly below the nest. Several worms started 
out of the nest to feed, but each on touching its nose to the 
soap retreated back hastily into the nest. Three worms coming 
in from feeding, on touching the soap, turned about and crawled 
away from it, whereupon I placed a second ring around the limb, 
below r them. On coming to this they again turned around, up 
the limb, and continued traveling backwards and forth from 
one barrier to the other, without attempting to pass either of 
them. My hopes were high that this substance would prove in¬ 
valuable in combating these insects. Other rings quarentining 
more worms, were placed around other limbs, and a quantity of 
the soap was put in the forks of all the larger limbs. But, two 
hour’s afterward, the surface of the soap having become dry so 
as to give the worms a foothold, they were found everywhere 
traveling over and scarcely noticing it. 
Next, to ascertain whether the alkaline matter of the soap 
would be absorbed and pass into the circulating juices of the 
tree and impregnate the leaves sufficiently to render them un¬ 
palatable to the caterpillars, the main trunk of the tree from 
near the ground to the limbs, a distance of five feet, w r as pro¬ 
fusely coated over with soap, and some of the larger limbs were 
also rubbed with it. A slight rain coming on aided in washing 
this substance into the small crevices of the bark. But I could 
not discover that it had any effect upon the worms. They con¬ 
tinued to feed and to thrive upon this tree. A fortnight after¬ 
wards, when the caterpillars had almost universally forsaken the 
trees, a ew were still remaining upon this tree. And I may 
add that the leaves of this tree after the soap was thus copiously 
applied to it, appeared as much infested with the black aphides 
or cherry plant lice described in my First Report, as were the 
leaves of other trees around it. It thus appears that this sub- 
