THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
5^ 
and borne the next day far from the scene of their early 
“ wormhood but the}' were not at a loss what to do, nor 
bashful about doing it, in their new quarters in cages here 
at the insectary and bn trees outside, for the hungr}' chaps 
were at work on the buds at the first opportunity. 
Friday was mostly spent in visiting neighboring peach 
growers and getting their experience with the pests. From 
one I learned how the culprits were first discovered. Many 
growers had noticed that the buds did not start on many 
trees and the trees soon died, as they supposed, from hav¬ 
ing been frost bitten, or from other unknown causes. One 
extensive grower, however, happened to be passing through 
his orchard at night and soon heard a nipping or biting 
sound proceeding from the trees. Investigation showed 
that the noise was caused by the coming together of hun¬ 
dreds of minute boring jaws on his opening peach buds. 
The chewing of a few worms or of many during the noisy 
daytime would not have been heard, but in the dead still¬ 
ness of the night the combined noise of hundreds of the 
worms could be distinctly heard. This grower had effect¬ 
ually kept the worms in check by digging them out during 
the day from the soil about the base of the trees. The 
worms lie just beneath the surface of the soil and near the 
tree, so it is a short job to dig them. This followed up 
for two or three days soon practically exterminated them in 
this orchard. Another man had put tar on his trees, with 
fatal results to man}" of the smaller trees. One man was 
found who had removed the cotton that he had put around 
the trees a few da}'s before. Upon being asked why, he 
showed me several trees where the worms had eaten off the 
bark in quite large patches beneath the cotton. They would 
have soon girdled some of the smaller trees. Some growers 
had used flour and Paris Green mixed up dry and a little 
spread on the surface of the soil at the base of tree ; good 
results were reported with this mixture. In a preliminaiy 
experiment here at the insectary, it was found that the 
worms ate readily of a mash made of bran 25 lbs., 
arsenic or Paris Green 5 lbs., sugar 5 lbs. or molasses i 
pint, and water sufficient to make a mash. A table¬ 
spoonful or two of the mash was placed about the base 
of a tree and twenty out of twenty-five worms were 
found dead after the second night. Chemical analysis 
of the contents of their stomach showed decided traces 
of arsenic, thus proving beyond a doubt that the poi¬ 
soned mash was the cause of death. These poisoned 
baits need to be further experimented with in the field. 
There is no doubt that the cotton batting band, properly 
applied, is the most practicable, cheapest and effectual 
thing that has been used to keep the worms from the 
buds. But the worms must then be killed in some way 
or they may girdle the trees beneath the batting or be 
forced to attack other crops ; for they do not stop at 
peach 'buds, but attack and are very destructive to 
young grape vines, bushes, and, in fact, work among all 
the garden vegetables the same as do the ordinary gar¬ 
den cut-worms. Thus with the batting to keep the 
worms from the buds, must be combined either hand¬ 
picking or crushing at night as they are climbing the 
trunk below the batting, or perhaps it will be practicable 
to poison them with the mash or flour. Our experi¬ 
ments are yet incomplete, so I can only suggest these 
things. 
From the cut-worms examined this year we learn 
that there is more than one species or kind at work. 
Four distinct kinds have thus far been distinguished, one 
kind, however, in much greater numbers than the other 
three. The worms do their greatest damage on newly 
set and one or two-year-old trees, and grape vines. 
They also climb and attack the larger trees, but the loss 
of a few buds on these is not noticed. Cut-worms 
thrive best in loose sandy soils, such as are found about 
Forest Lawn and other places along the lake shore. It 
has been noticed that where a heavier loam crops out in 
these regions, the cut-worms are not near so numerous 
and do but little damage to peach orchards set in such 
soils. M. V. Slingerland. 
Cornell Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 
PEACHES AND GRAPES OF 1894 
Horace W. Day, of Sgobel & Day, New York cit}% 
fruit commission merchants, says the New Jersey peach 
crop, barring June drop, will amount to about 600,000 
baskets ; the crop of Delaware and Maryland combined 
about 200,000 baskets. This gives a total of 800,000 
baskets of peaches which is considerably less than the 
crop of New Jersey last year. This entire output, if 
realized, will no more than supply their local home 
markets, and there will be no peaches for shipment, 
very few for canning, and none for drying. 
The grape crop of New York and Ohio promises to be 
the largest ever grown in those states, and indeed grapes 
promise to be plentiful throughout the country. This 
fruit then will be a good substitute for other fruits, the 
scarcity of which in many sections is certain. 
B. Presley & Co., St. Paul, fruit dealers, recently 
made a careful canvass of the condition of the fruit 
crop in the Eastern states. They say : “The damage 
has certainly been very great to fruit. In some locali¬ 
ties the destruction is almost complete, while in others 
it runs from 75 per cent, down to 25 per cent.—the 
latter almost any orchard can stand with benefit. We 
estimate the total average loss at about 60 per cent., 
except apples and grapes. The heaviest loss is on 
peaches, which is pretty general, followed by pears, 
cherries, plums and other small fruits. Apples and 
grapes are not hurt yet, except in a few unimportant 
localities.” 
It is probable that the greatest damage was confined 
to the southern states. 
