STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
437 
stance is not such a sovereign prophylactic against all insects 
upon fruit trees as the observations of some of our most success¬ 
ful fruit growers have led them to suppose. And there can be 
no doubt that in this as in the higher classes of animals, what is 
poison to one may be meat for another. 
There are two measures only which we can confidently recom¬ 
mend, whereby to subdue these insects and save the fruit trees 
from defoliation by them. And these universal experience con¬ 
curs in pronouncing the only efficient and reliable measures to 
which recourse can be had. 
The first of these is destroying the eggs. This must be at¬ 
tended to in the winter or early in the spring before the leaves 
begin to put forth. As this is a period of the year when other 
avocations leave us comparatively at leisure, it is economy to 
accomplish now whatever can be done which will diminish the 
demands upon our time during the busier parts of the year. And 
every cluster of these eggs which can be discovered can be much 
more easily and speedily destroyed than a nest of caterpillars 
can be exterminated at a later date. The orchard should there¬ 
fore be carefully passed through at this time and the ends at 
least of all the lower limbs should be examined. And for this 
work it is necessary to call into exercise the sharpest scrutiny 
which we are able to give, for despite of our utmost care some 
of these clusters will elude our search. A practised eye will 
detect the unevenness or swelled appearance of the twig where 
these eggs are placed, much more readily than that of a novice. 
They are sometimes at the very end of the twig, sometimes one 
or two feet from its extremity, and not unfrequently two belts 
of eggs occur upon the same twig. The eggs are to be gathered 
either by cutting off the twig to which they are attached or by 
breaking and tearing them from the twig. They should be car¬ 
ded to the house in a basket and thrown into the stove, for if 
merely dropped upon the ground the worms will afterwards 
hatch from them and many of these will be apt to find their way 
to some tree or shrub on which to subsist. There perhaps has 
never been more urgent necessity for a universal resort to the 
measure now specified than there will be the coming winter, the 
trees being stocked with eggs at the date when these pages aye 
