The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1881-07-14
for the farmer.
The Annie Moth.


The MULTIPLICATION of insects, as our country
.rroXs older il one of the great difficulties Win
,rlicI the husbandmal has to contend. Livery
rxu-Iient which holds out a reasonable promise
of iessening their number should be tired Ahons
,b,s, ;sone for the destruction of the apple moth
ar annie woru invented by DIR Trimble, OF New
Jersey. described in his work ON the "lnseet LII
ENG, Of Fruit and Fruii Trees, from which pas
s,ges are copied in the HorfieaifHTisf for April
IA consists OF a rope Of hay wound moderately
tioht around the trunk of the tree and secured
M the end in such manner as to prevent 1t be-
Gaming loose aud falling of DIR. Trinlble says:
I.Tyo wears ago took from the crotch OF a
younr Bartlett pear tree an old boot leg that had
i.en doubled up and forced into that crotch. IL
hal become so hard, and the growing tree had
dressed il 50 closely, that il had TO be cut Ia
nieers 70 get il out. This in April. That
aId boot leg contained in its different folds six
teen of the worms OF the apple moth, IN their
laryR or eaterpiler condition, all snugly tied up
in their silken coeoons. When these eocoons
were opened tho WORMS would creep of, just rs
they wonld have done when taken from apples
or pears in the fall or summer before. Since
then have tried everything l could think OF
that would be likely TO suit the fancy of these
little caterpillars, having this instructive i'm
puIse TO seek out places for cOncealment. The re-
suit has been, that the rope band is not only the
cheaper and most easy of application, but the
best of all the cOntrivences that / have tried
thus far.
By means of this eontrivance the eocoons are
collected in one place. We quote further from
the HOrticaitHTisf:
The author says: ''TAesc bands should he put
on the trees as soon as the fruit shows signs of
the worms being at work, from the middle to
the last of June. They should be examined
every two weeks a. long the warm weather
Lasts, the earlier broOds of worms becoming
moths and producing second crop. If the or
charl is pasturcd the bands must of course he
mt out Of reach of the animals. Sometimes it
NAV be necessary to place them around the limbs;
in that case the scales of bark the bodies of
trees below them shOnld be scraped off,"
we had the pleasure, one line day in the fall
of last year, of witnessing, in company with sew
eral other gentlemen, the result of the Doctors
experiments with the hay rope, and can give
our unqualified testimony TO his success. 1t
is a very simple, inexpensive, and quickly ap-
piled method of fighting the enemy. in exam-
lining the traps all that is necessary is to slip it
up the body of the tree few inches, and all the
little cocoOns, with the worms inside of them,
are so perfectly exposed that nothing remains 10
he done but to crush them with the palm of the
hand, either with or without gloves; then push
the rope back again to the same place, or low
er it if necessary, TO make il rs tight rs it will
bear-without breaking Even if these bands
should be neglected and time wanting to kill the
cocoOns, by simply taking of the straw the birds
will come and make "a feast of them, and thank
the foresight of him who by so simple cOntri-
vance, gathered all the worms of the tree into
one little compass easily got at"