8 
APPLE AND ORCHARD ATTACKS. 
accompanying caterpillars are specimens of what has this season taken 
the form of a very serious blight on our Plum-trees. Many of the 
trees are entirely stripped of their leaves by these voracious pests, and 
the trees thus denuded either wither away and die, or else the fruit all 
drops off. I have forwarded these specimens for your inspection, as 
you might be able to determine their nature, and give the numerous 
fruit-growers in this Yale of Evesham (where the culture of the Plum 
affords a livelihood to many gardeners and labourers) a few hints for 
the prevention of these pests in the future.” On June 15th, Mr. 
Hudson wrote further :— “ The ravages of these insects in this 
neighbourhood are very partial; a Plum-orchard may be attacked, and 
all the trees left leafless, and the next one to it will appear to be quite 
free.” This observation is important, as it points to the attack of 
some of the kinds of insects being demonstrably so local that it may 
be presumed that local applications would be useful as preventives. 
The same points, namely, very severe injury in some cases to 
several orchards (or even to one single tree) occurring whilst there was 
perfect freedom from blight on the trees around, and likewise the trees 
themselves being destroyed, even to the amount of several acres, by the 
“blight,” are reported in the following observations, placed in my 
hands by Mr. Thos. Hyiatt, of Mickleton, Chipping Campden, 
Gloucestershire. These refer to insect-blight on thirteen orchards, 
respectively at Mickleton, and the neighbouring parishes at Aston 
Subedge, and Quinton. The attack was of green “ looper” caterpillar, 
corresponding, both in appearance and colour, and in habits, with 
that of the Winter Moth. Of three orchards at Aston Subedge, 
planted with Cherries, Greengage, Plums, Apples, Pears, Walnuts, 
&c., Mr. Hyiatt reported that the blossom was a perfect picture, and 
the Cherries and plums were set before the attack (or “ blight,” as it 
is termed) began. The green caterpillar then appeared by thousands, 
and, after hanging by webs and floating from tree to tree, they made 
twenty acres as bare as in winter, neither fruit nor leaves remaining, 
and destroyed three-quarters of the trees in one of the orchards of 
7i acres. 
In another orchard, a quarter of a mile from the above, about half 
the sale was realised of what it ought to have been for the Cherries, 
and no second sale on account of the “Blenheim Orange” being 
blighted and fallen off. Two orchards adjacent, that is, about ten 
yards from the above, were free from blight. At Mickleton (of two 
orchards) one is noted as appearing burnt up by attack, whilst in the 
other, one tree only was attacked, and thus defoliated. At Quinton 
five orchards were reported as more or less blighted, one being, as it 
were, burnt up. 
On June 16tli, Mr. James Craig, writing from Weston-under* 
