Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1872-09-13
How to Arrest tho Ravages Of the
CanLer Worm.

Believing, rs | do, that this sub.
jcct is of vast Importance to the
country, and that you will agree
with me in so believing l take the
liberty to address you this letter.
The canker or measuring worm
which made its appearance in this
part ofthe country but a few years
since, has been spreading rapidly.
and now may be seen in almos,
every township in the Northwest
some orchards at this time being
entirely stripped of foliage by them
and unless an effort is made to ex'
terminate them, in a few years more
there will not be an orchard left
"to tell the tale"
The female canker worm rises
out of the ground in the spring as
soon as the frost is out, and crawls
up the trunk of the tree las she is
wingless, and deposits her eggs
under old bark, or in rough places
which hatch in May into small loop
ing caterpillars, or so-called meas.
uring worms, which in a short time
destroy the foliage. Nov to keep
her "ladyship" from crawling up
the tree is the point to be gained.
Leaden oil troughs used about
the trunks of trees have been tried
with some success, but the oil run
ming over is apt to injure the tree.
The plan, however, that has
proved 4 perfect success, is by the
use of coal tar. l saw a man at
work last spring in the State of
New York, applying it to the trunk
Of the tree, forming ring six to
ten inches wide around it, which
dose he informed me he repeated
every day, and should continue to
repeat long as there was necessi-
ty.
That he was successful in keep
ing the worms down, was demons
trated by the fact that not one had
got above the ring of coal tar, and
that there were many thousands on
the ground at the foot of the trees,
lying motionless.
He had discovered that unless he
put on the coal tar every day, it
would dry and the worms would
crawl over dry shod.
Mr.. Smith, an extensive orchard
list Of Des Moines, Iowa, has dis
covered an improvement on this
plan, whereby two or three appli-
cations of the coal tar will answer
for the season, which is as follows:
Raise a slight mound of earth
around the trunk Of the tree;
wrap brown paper about eight
OF ten inches wide around
the tree, making it fast to the tree
with Irvine or wire close to the
mound; turn the paper down so as
to spread it over the mound, then
apply coal tar to the paper. Mois-
ture will gather from the mound
under the paper, and thus pre-.
vent the tar from drying, and not a
moth can get to the tree.
After the worms have fairly COM
menced at the foliage of the tree
comparatively little can be done to
arrest their ravages.
1t has been claimed, however,
that by throwing new Stacked lime
on the trees when the dew is on,
very many will be destroyed, and a
farmer living in Winnebago county,
this State, says he trained his hens
to follow him into his orchard, and
when he shook the trees and the
worms came down ON their silken
threads, the hens Toasted upon them
and that, while his large flock of
hens grew fat, the worms were very
materially checked in their opera
tons.
No person owning an orchard in
the vicinity of where these worms
+ working this season, should
neglect the use of the coal tar
next spring, and by one united
effort this pest of the orchard lover
shadowing in Importance all other
enemies Of the orchard combined)
can be exterminated.-E. F. CUR
IT'S, in Chicago Inter- Ocean.