May 15, 189). 2 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
895 
lyrOT a very attractive theme, vill be the mental comment of 
1 1 some readers on first glancing at the above creepy-looking 
headline. It is certainly not pleasant to be crawled over by 
repulsive pests at any time, and it is distinctly the reverse of agree- 
-able to see the enemies of plants and trees carry out a campaign 
of devastation. Yet this is what caterpillars have done and are 
■doing in some fruit-growing districts, leaving behind them a scene 
•of desolation dismal enough to engender feelings of despair in 
respect to the ultimate issue. Gardeners and others who are 
identified with fruit culture in localities which the winter moth has 
not yet invaded, have no idea of the destructive power of its 
■larvae, the caterpillars. It is the most insidious, persistent, 
voracious, and difficult to subdue of all the enemies that attack 
frees and plants. American blight, red spider, scale. Gooseberry 
■caterpillars, and other familiar foes are troublesome enough where 
they abound, but the work of destroying them is considered as 
■child’s play in comparison with conquering the terrible pest under 
notice by persons who, day after day, and week after week, engage 
in the combat. 
This is an old enemy in some districts, but until within recent 
years was more frequently seen stripping Hawthorn hedges and 
trees of their leaves, and huge Oaks of their foliage at midsummer, 
than as a visitant of gardens and orchards, but where it becomes 
established in these, and the season is favourable for its increase, 
it is bound sooner or later to ruin the trees. It is simply impos¬ 
sible if a number of winter moths deposit eggs on fruit trees in 
the autumn for any fruit to follow if the caterpillars are not 
promptly destroyed as they hatch out in spring. Nothing has 
been discovered that will destroy the eggs in winter without, at 
the same time, destroying those parts of the trees on which they 
are deposited. This has been jjroved by Mr. Lee Campbell at 
Olewston Court, Herefordshire. In the early part of the year his 
gardener sent some “ prunings” from Pear trees to the Journal of 
ilurticulture for showing the eggs of the moth in situ as they had 
been deposited by the moths two or three months previously. The 
parts chosen for nests were at the ends of stems that had been left 
after late summer or early autumn pruning. The wood in drying 
had shrunk sufficiently to leave small circular interstices between 
it and the bark, and in these minute chinks, only apparent on close 
■examination, eggs were closely packed, and an example was shown 
(magnified) with some still much more enlarged on page 95, the 
issue of January 30th of the present year. This was something 
like a revelation, and at once accounted for the millions of cater¬ 
pillars that come like a scourge with the bursting of the buds of 
the trees. Mr. Campbell has told us on page 333 that though 
-sundry substances and liquids were tried for destroying the 
eggs, even vitriol, nothing was effectual. Since the publication 
of that article I have been to Glewston and seen there much 
that was admirable in fruit cultivation, much that was deplor¬ 
able in the ravages of the caterpillars, much that was in¬ 
structive in their methods of attack, and the measures that 
had been taken to destroy the eggs alluded to and the larvce on 
emerging. A number of egg-holding stems were inserted in moist 
sand in a propagating pan, and all applications that were likely to 
destroy the eggs were tried. An enumeration is unnecessary, 
because when vitriol was used and killed the wood yet some of the 
No. 516.— VoL. XX., Third Series. 
eggs hatched out, enough is said to show that they cannot be 
destroyed by anything that would not also injure the trees. Seal¬ 
ing the cut ends with lead paint answered the best, but as eggs are 
also deposited around the buds, and in slight depressions in the 
bark, the paint remedy is inapplicable, for to make sure of “ seal¬ 
ing” all the eggs the trees would have to be painted all over, and 
there would bo an end of them. The hatching process was 
expedited by placing the cuttings in heat, the experiments being 
immediately under the eye and conducted with the utmost possible 
care. They appear to have determined the fact that the eggs 
cannot be killed on the trees. 
But having found the trees laden with eggs they were not 
allowed to remain, for we were told in the article referred to three 
men were employed for six weeks in cutting off the ends of the 
branches in which the eggs were so closely packed. These were 
burned, and though Mr. Campbell refrained from indicating the 
estimated number so disposed of lest he should have been thought 
to be making a sensational announcement, I am quite ready to> 
believe, having seen examples, also inspected the re-pruned treesi 
that the eggs thus consumed must have amounted to severa 
millions—a great riddance undoubtedly—yet, notwithstanding, if 
the work of extirpating the pest had ended there the trees would 
have been deprived of every vestige of blossom and leaf this 
season by the all-devouring caterpillars. 
Fruit growers in localities from which this devastating pest is 
happily absent may almost be excused in suspecting, as some 
possibly do suspect, that its numbars, power of destruction, and 
the difficulty of mastering the nocturnal moth and larv®, are ex¬ 
aggerated. It is simply impossible to exaggerate when the attack is 
virulent. Let me give an instance, and in a few words describe a 
scene that cannot readily be forgotten. It was in a southern 
county, not Herefordshire, and the month was June. There were 
acres of grand Oaks, and a considerable extent of old and new 
orchards ; but neither on forest or fruit trees, or on Hawthorn 
hedges was a green leaf to be seen. The outlook was as dreary as 
at midwinter, and gates, fences, and road beneath the trees were 
covered with a writhing repulsive mass of caterpillars. In some 
places they were an inch thick, and caution was necessary in passing 
along to get a firm foothold amongst them. Exaggeration in such a 
case is out of the question, and I am fully convinced that fruit 
growers will err in lightly regarding the first mild attack of the 
enemy on their trees. 
At Glewston Court some of the finest and best managed young 
trees in the kingdom were defoliated last year, and had not the 
autumn been fine, permitting a good second growth, something 
more than this year’s crop would have been lost, for the trees must 
have been permanently weakened. The plantation consists of 
upwards of GOOD bush trees of Apples, Pears, and Plums, most of 
them planted six years ago. They have been admirably managed 
in every respect, and but for the caterpillars would now give a 
good return on the outlay that has been invested. This is proved 
by results, especially in an acre of Victoria Plums—G80 trees at 
8 feet apart. They are about G feet high, and there is only just 
room for passing between them. The ground is as clean as a garden, 
in fact the plantation represents first class garden culture. Planted 
in 1884 the Plum trees yielded in 1885 fruit to the value of £13 ; 
in 188G, £2G ; in 1887, £40 ; in 1888, £50. The last increase of 
£10 only was the result of the caterpillar seizure, and its effect on the 
trees was no fruit in 1889, while the leaves weie devoured, conse¬ 
quently there will be little, if any, fruit to gather this year. Thus 
allowing for no progressive increase of crop since 1888 we find a 
loss by the scourge of £100 from this acre of Plums. To this has 
to be added the cost of spraying twice or thrice a week with 
Paris green. A Boulton and Paul barrel with pump and hese 
attached is used, and two men are always at work in the planta¬ 
tion, for though the caterpillars can be killed others are constantly 
hatching, and this has been the case since the last week in March 
No. 2172.—VoL. LXXXII., Old Series. 
