o 
LATE PRUNING. 
G7 
trees in the evening or after sunset, or by banding a few experimentally, 
and, if necessary, grease-banding again. This operation would also 
prevent ascent of the so-called March Moth (for fuller account of which 
see reference in Index). The other point of very great practical 
importance, on which I think much Looper Caterpillar presence even 
on the best protected trees may turn, is the transportation of the 
wingless females, in the act of pairing, by the winged males. That 
this takes place does not seem to me to be open to doubt. The 
belief of the orchard-workers in one badly-infested district (very likely 
in more) that, as it is expressed, the males carry the females to the 
tops of the trees on their backs, points to this being a common occur¬ 
rence, and I have myself observed the winged male and the wingless 
female moth lying drowned, still in connection, in a water-tub in my 
garden, where presumably they had fallen in flight round the Apple- 
trees close by. 
The only prevention for this appears to be the use of lamps and 
tarred boards (see p. 77), but the advice to prime as late in the winter 
as can well be managed , and to burn all the primings , would do some good 
as a remedy, because the Winter Moth is considered to lay her eggs 
by preference towards the ends of the shoots, and where it is 
possible to have these cut off and burnt, much infestation would be 
got rid of. 
I had a very good note on this subject, on February 6th, 1889, from 
Mr. C. Lee Campbell, of Glewstone Court, Ross. In this, after some 
observations on attempted measures for checking infestation, he 
remarked:—“May I suggest that there is a more effectual remedy, 
consisting in cutting off the ends of the branches on which the eggs 
have been deposited, and burning them. I have found that an 
enormous proportion of the eggs are deposited at the end of every 
branch pruned in the autumn, as much as fifty eggs being found on 
one branch. At a moderate calculation, my men have thus destroyed 
some 6,000,000 eggs on 5000 to 6000 Pyramid Fruit-trees within the 
past months, in addition to a very large number caught through 
greasing the stems.”—C. L. C. 
So far as prevention of “Looper” Caterpillars goes, it does not 
seem possible in the present method of fruit-farming to suggest any 
treatment better than the above (or at least on the same principles) 
for keeping the trees clear of eggs, or destroying these eggs before 
hatching. 
Various other measures may be suggested, especially such as 
stirring or dressing the surface of the ground, but these appear to be 
very difficult to carry out practically, and, as we stand at present, 
banding in some way or other seems to be the only preventive measure 
we can trust to for stopping ascent of wingless pests, and also one 
f 2 
