16 
APPLE AND ORCHARD ATTACKS. 
In regard to shaking the trees as a means of getting rid of cater¬ 
pillars, Capt. Corbett wrote me from Toddington :—“ The only useful 
plan seems to be to shake the caterpillars into a sheet ; one man 
collected two gallons in this way.” Prof. T. J. Elliott, of the Weald 
of Kent College of Agriculture, wrote me that on a large fruit-farm 
five bushels a day could be gathered of small green caterpillars : and, 
taking the above as samples of amounts which can be collected 
respectively by one man, or by as many as may be needed for the 
whole required work per diem, it shows that much good may thus be 
done. A difference is reported as to the extent to which different 
kinds of trees will bear the shaking. Mr. T. Buss wrote me, from 
near Horsmonden, Kent:—“ The caterpillars are easily shaken off 
Cherry-trees; then a band of gas-tar smeared round the stem prevents 
their reascending. Apple-tree buds break off more by shaking, and 
the caterpillars, being more enclosed in the leaves, do not shake out 
so well.” 
With regard to the very important matter of it being necessary to 
prevent the caterpillars, if inclined, going up the tree again, Mr. Buss 
wrote more in detail. The Cherry-trees were shaken early in June; 
no sooner were the caterpillars on the ground than they at once headed 
for the tree (a distance of three or four feet), and ascended the tree in 
great numbers, until a band of tar was put round it. 
In the exhaustive paper on “ Canker-worms,” by Professor Biley, 
Entomologist to the U. S. A. Department of Agriculture, published in 
1883, every point appears to be fully entered on which can be of 
service for prevention of attack similar to that of our Winter Moth, 
and various sticky mixtures are mentioned and methods of applying 
them, but the principle is the same as that of our own treatment. 
Anything that is sticky enough to keep the moths from going up the 
tree will answer, whether it is tar, tar and oil, resin and oil, bird-lime, 
printer’s ink, slow-drying varnishes, or anything else. Only, what is 
at hand, cheap, and has been proved to be effective, is best; and when 
the need for it has passed, if it has been smeared in thick bands on 
the bark, it is desirable to scrape it off] lest it should presently be 
damaged by melting in hot sunshine. To avoid this difficulty, the tar, 
&c., may be applied by means of twisted hay-ropes laid on the ground 
round the trees, or on rings of clay-mortar, old sacking, or anything 
convenient. There are special kinds of metal rings or tin bands made 
which, when dressed with some preventive mixture, stop the ascent of 
the moths; and little troughs, made to surround the tree, and filled 
with oil, or some oily substance, are also noted as useful; but all this 
apparatus costs money, and the simpler plan seems preferable. 
The great point appears to be to make the applications early 
enough and often enough, and thus be sure not to let attack begin, 
