The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
191 
The Fall Canker Worm 
While looking for brown-tail egg clus¬ 
ters I found the enclosed insects and egg 
clusters. Not having seen any like these 
before. I am sending to ask what they 
are and if they injure the fruit trees. 
They are on most fruit trees and fence 
posts ; the eggs were all on the posts. 
Leominster. Mass. j. o. 
In the book of Joel. Chapter I. verse 
4. it is said “That which the palmerworm 
hath left hath the locust eaten: and that 
which the locust hath left the canker- 
worm eaten.■’ Thus we have evidence that 
cankerworms are among the very early ^ 
recognized insect pests of man. and that 
they have been of old very serious pests. 
Whether the cankerworms referred to in 
the Bible were of the same general type 
as the insects we call cankerworms to¬ 
day we are not sure, for the term “canker- 
worm’’ used in the first authorized Eng 
lish version of the Bible was applied to 
several different insects. At any rate we 
have in this country two species of canker- 
worms, the Fall cankerworm. and the l 
Spring cankerworm, that have been seri¬ 
ous pests in our orchards for 200 years. 
The specimens enclosed in the foregoing 
letter were those of the former species. 
Interestingly enough, the female moths j 
of both species are wingless, and there- i 
fore cannot fly. hence they must depend 
wholly upon their weak legs for their 
means of locomotion. Yet these tenacious 
insects have spread over practically the 
whole United States, for they are found 
from Massachusetts to Kansas, and even 
occur in California on the Pacific coast. 
The majority of the gray, wingless, 
female moths of the Fall cankerworm 
come out of the ground in November and 
sometimes in December if the weather 
is moderate. They laboriously climb up 
the trunks of trees and sometimes other 
upright objects, as indicated in the letter, 
where they lay their dark grayish eggs 
in masses of from 50 to 400 or more. Here 
the eggs remain unhatched until the fol¬ 
lowing April or May. The caterpillars 
that hatch from the eggs in Spring are 
ravenous eaters, and they may completely 
defoliate shade, forest, and orchard trees 
over considerable areas if they happen to 
occur in large numbers, as they are apt to 
do. The caterpillars are known as loop- j 
ing. or measuring worms, because of their 
peculiar looping gait when moving about 
on the twigs and branches. They also 
have the habit of spinning out a silken 
thread and dropping downward through 
the air, especially when disturbed. When 
the cankerworms have become full-grown, 
usually during early .Tune, each one will I 
spin out a thread and drop down to the 
ground, enter the soil to the depth of 
from one to four inches, and spin a tough 
silken cocoon ; in which it will remain 
through the Summer until the following 
November, or sometimes until the next 
Spring. As we said earlier, most of the 
moths appear in the Fall but sometimes 
a few will not emerge from the ground 
until the following Spring. Flying about 
among the trees where the wingless female 
moths occur will bo seen many handsome, 
brownish-gray moths. These are the male 
moths. 
Thorough cultivation of infested or¬ 
chards during late June will destroy many 
of the insects while they are resting in 
their silken cocoons in the soil. 
Bands of tanglefoot put around the 
trees in October will catch many of the 
wingless female moths as they climb up 
the trees to deposit their eggs. It is 
best to spread the tanglefoot on a strip 
of tarred paper tied around the tree, and 
with the crevices beneath stopped with 
cotton to prevent the moths working up 
behind it. The most effective method of 
controlling cankerworms. however, is to 
spray infested trees as soon as the young 
•aterpillars are seen with arsenate of 
lead, 5 lbs. to 100 gallons of water. 
GLENN W. HERRICK. 
A Contaminated Well 
A Kansas man says he has a good well 
and n cesspool. Finally the entire family 
became sick. After an investigation the 
doctor told them to fill up the cesspool. 
They did that, and the report is that the 
well went dry; in other words, that 
family had been taking its supply of 
drinking water out of the cesspool. There 
are others. Water may be pure and 
sparkling and yet comp.'etely filled with 
disease germs. 
Above: Cover removed from i 
housing to show Case Tractor 
Bull Gear and Pinion . 
Below: Special Imachinss ac¬ 
curate It/ cut Case Bull dear 
Teeth. 
i 
lift 
Why Case Tractor Bull Gears 
Resist Wear and Breakage 
C ASE Tractor Bull Gears are made from high 
carbon steel billets, forged into one-piece, 
weldless rings. The method of manufac¬ 
ture— Case patented — is such that only steel 
absolutely free from flaws and defects can with¬ 
stand, successfully, this process. If there is going 
‘to be any breakage, it occurs in the factory, be¬ 
fore the gear is completed —not after it is on the 
tractor and the machine working in the field. 
Hydraulic forging, annealing, heat treating, 
tempering in an oil bath, machining and cutting 
teeth to the accuracy of less than the thickness 
of a human hair — each of these important steps 
in the process of manufacturing Case Tractor 
Bull Gears contributes materially to the true- 
running qualities, smooth operation, and long 
life of Case Kerosene Tractors. 
The wear-resisting hardness, breakage-defying 
toughness, and permanently perfect mesh of 
Case Bull Gears, are features characteristic of 
Case manufacturing thoroughness in all details. 
J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company 
Dept. B 27 Racine, Wisconsin 
taaoc marks aco. u. s pat orr 
KEROSENE 
AND IN FOPC'GN COUKTRieS. 
TRACTORS 
if dm . 
f: h 
III 
The J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company 
extends to till farmers an invitation to at¬ 
tend the ; Sixth National Tractor Show and 
Educational Exposition at Columbus , Ohio . 
Feb. 7th to 12th. Address Tractor Show 
Manager, Columbus, Ohio, or write to us 
for registration card that will entitle you 
to free admission. 
See Caso exhibits in Coliseum Buildinz 
Space 3, U ana 5. 
WILSON FEED MILL 
For grinding corn in the ear and 
small grain. 
Has special crusher attachment 
which first breaks the ears of 
corn, which can be shoveled right 
into the hopper. Also Bone and 
Shell Mills and Bone Cutters. 
Send for Catalog 
WILSON BROS., Box, 15 Easton, 
9 CORDS IN 10 HOURS 
BY ONE MAN. It’s KING OF THE WOODS. s aTes mnneJ a „a 
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wonderful outfit EREE. -- 
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J895 Oakland Ave.. Kansas City. Mo. 
^1895 Empire Bldg., Pitsburgh. Pa. 
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for catalog, price TODAY on “ELU 
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COLLINS PLOW COi 
2044 Hampshire St ..Quincyi I1U 
Keep Your Garden 
Free From Weeds 
There’s an easy way to get rid of. 
them. It saves the moisture—Makes 
your vegetables GROW. 
RARKFR Weeder, Mulcher and Cultivator 
imn.nE.ii 3 Garden Xools in t 
Kills the weeds and breaks the hardest crust 
into a level, porous, moisture-retaining mulch 
—all in one operation. Eight reel blades re¬ 
volve against a stationary underground 
knife—like a lawn mower. “Best Weed 
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the soil. Works right up to plants. 
Has leaf guards, also shovels for deeper 
cultivation A boy can run it—do more 
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Write TODAY for free illus- 
.-trafed book and special 
Factory-to-User offer 
BARKER MFG. CO., 
Dept. 16 
David City. Neb. 
