68 
ORCHARD INSECTS. 
without which (though it is not a perfect plan) the trees would be 
likely to be ruined. 
But withal it is a matter for very serious consideration of fruit¬ 
growers what course it will be necessary to adopt to keep down orchard 
infestation. With orchard-insects, as well as with other kinds of crop- 
insects, it may be almost surely laid down that where the same crop is 
constantly grown, the insect-feeders on that crop may be expected to 
be there also in great numbers, and at present the matter of prevention 
of infestation is on a very costly and unsatisfactory footing. 
There are (say) three or four kinds of wingless moths giving rise to 
various kinds of Looper Caterpillar-attacks, two or more kinds of web- 
nest-making caterpillars, and various others, as the Figure of 8 Moth, 
&c., and, excepting the Winter and the Mottled Umber Moth, these 
mostly come out at different times of the year, or (in some way) each 
differs from the others so far in its habits, that different measures of 
prevention are needed, or the same measures have to be applied at 
different times of year. 
But (however different in history) for the most part these cater¬ 
pillars are alike in destroying leafage in the early part of the summer, 
one might say May and somewhat before, and after, and what is 
wanted is a sort of “wholesale” treatment which will act on all alike. 
Jarring , that is, shaking the boughs so smartly that the caterpillars 
fell down, answered well in such cases as I had report of last season. 
Prof. T. Elliott, of the Weald of Kent College of Agriculture, wrote 
me that in this way five bushels of small green caterpillars could be 
collected in a day on a large fruit-farm. 
Capt. Corbett wrote from Toddington:—“The only useful way 
seems to be to shake the caterpillars into a sheet; in this way one man 
collected two gallons.” 
The difficulty in this plan is from the chance of some of the 
dislodged vermin creeping away and going up the stem of the tree, or 
returning up their threads to the boughs. These points are met fairly 
well in the following method advised by the Entomological Commission 
of the United States of America, 1880-82 :—“ Jarring and burning .— 
The worms should not be allowed to reach the leaves, but, where this 
has been allowed, it is best to strew the ground lightly with straw on a 
calm day, give the tree a good jarring, which will suspend all the 
worms in mid-air, cut loose the suspended worms by swinging a pole 
above them, which breaks their silken threads and causes them to fall 
to the ground, and then set fire to the straw. A Canker-worm holocaust 
will be the result, and if this is done on a calm, clear day with a little 
care, the tree need not be injured.”* The caterpillars may be prevented 
* ‘Report of Entomological Commission, U.S.A., Department of Agriculture,’ 
1880—82, p. 191. 
