Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1899-03-31
MAPLE TREES NOT RUINED
BY the Forest Caterpillar Pest
Last Summer.

IIdSL
Only n small Per Cent OF the Trees In
the state Damaged and Maple sugar
Crop VIII be All Right n Weather
Conditions Are Favorable.
Flaming head lines in daily newspapers
all over the country told story Wednes-
day something like this: "a Dead FAIL
ure-Probably No Vermont Maple sugar
This Year-Caterpillar Wrought Havoc
with the Trees In '98-No Sap Running
and Trees May Be Lifeless." Under the
headings appeared the following Associated
Press despatch sent out from Chester;
1t is believed that this years maple sug-
ar harvest 10 Vermont will be total fail'
ure,and that the industry will be crippled
for many years to come.
Early last summer when the rock map'es
were putting forth their most generous
garb Of leaves, an army OF caterP1lil e1
spread rapidly over Bennington, Wind
ham and Windsor counties, and wrought
havoc with foliage, entire orchards being
stripped. No special effort was made to
fight the pest and the owners OF sugar
trees gave little thought to the ultimate
effect on the t, ees Now the sugar-mak.
ing season has begun and the makers find
the trees are sapless. They attribute this
fact to failure of the trees TO recover from
the ravages of the caterpillars Some OF
the largest sugar makers are doing moth
ing Some think the trees are dead but
this cannot be determined until later In
the season.
This story has little foundation in fact,
and the impression given is far from cor
rect. The worms destroyed the leaves of
the naples in a few localities, generally
not of great extent, in the counties named,
and also in other parts of the state. They
were very destructive in Woodstock, and
in many other towns of Windsor county,
but, probably, less than five per cent of all
the sugar trees in the state have been in
the least injured by them.
The forest caterpillar has made its ap-
pearance in large numbers in perhaps half
the towns of Windham county. In Graf
ton, Townshend and other towns in the
northern half of the county the naples by
the roadside and in some of the large sugar
lots bore only dead leaves and looked as
II scorched by fire. In the state as whole
the injury done by the worms has not
probably been sufficient to diminish the
sugar crop to any great extent, and there
is still fair prospect for, at least, an aver
age product.
The tent caterpillar made its appearance
in a number of towns in Vermont in 1897.
1t confined its ravages to the apple and
sugar maple trees, and often only the lat
ter. The pest was widely distributed, be-
ing reported from Rutland, Orwell, Spring
field, Starksboro, Sharon, Manchester,
Stowe, Waterbury and other towns. 1t
was destructive in most of the places named.
L. X. Osgood of Rutland wrote: Last year
there were some sugar orchards entirely
stripped of leaves. We did not notice the
work until the leaves were full grown, and
when the trees looked as though there had
been a fire which had burned the leaves
off. Some of the leaves had holes eaten
through them and some were eaten off at
the stem. 1t sounded in the woods as
though it was raining quite hard from the
falling leaves" f. Ochampaugh reported
from Orwell: From my factory can see
two large woods and one orchard that are
entirely stripped of leaves" In some of
the orchards the caterpllars are said to
have been so numerous as almost to cover
the trunks of trees.
In this connection it is of interest to re-
cord the fact that in 1887 trains were stop
ped for three days on the Carolina Central
railroad, by these worms which had crawled
over the track and completely covered it so
that the crushed bodies, acting like grease
on the rails, caused the wheels of the loco
motive to slip.
Bulletin No. g. by Prof. Perkins of the
Vermont experiment station, issued in Oc-
tober, 1897, gives a scientific history of the
worm and the best method for eXterminat-
ing the pest.
One of the most successful and progress.
sve farmers in the county, who makes a
fine quality of maple sugar, writes as fol-
lows in regard to the Chester despatch
1.-The story has little or no foundation in
fact. The United States government ag-
ricultural year books make no mention of
the tent caterpillar or any other caterpil-
lar as an enemy of the sugar maple.
Neither is any insect enemy of the maple
mentioned in the last Vermont agricultur-
al report. | attended the last meeting of
the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers asso-
citation held in st. Johnsbury, VT, Jan. 4.
and last, and heard not word relating
to caterpillars having troubled the sugar
naples. l have heard the maple sugar
prospect discussed at farmers institutes in
Windham and Caledonia counties and by
producers all over the state since Jan. 1,
last, and the journal clipping is the first
bhab loNc ldu 10 the erect
that the maple sugar crop of 1899 would
not be equal to the average. The simple
fact is that the sugar season is one of the
latest on record. We must have warmer
weather before sap will run. MANY sugar
makers havetapped part of their orchards,
but on account of the unusually cold
weather they have made but very little
sugar, and all that has been produced in
this state up to date has been made at a
loss. Sap has run freely when the wealth
er has been warm enough for it to do so.
The many SHOWS of the past winter have
drifted badly, and in the woods the snow
is very deep. l undertook to break ont
my sugar roads today, but was forced to
abandon my sled in the woods. and only
got my horses out by hard shoveling. The
maple trees of this section, at least, are all
right, and If the snow melts gradually we
shall make the usual amount of sugar
The present 'sapless' condition of the trees
Is due to the cold weather, and nothing
else"
A dealer in Wilmington who handles
thousands of pounds of sugar each wear
writes as follows: l have no knowledge of
any worm or caterpillar on the NAPLES
anywhere in Windham county. l heard
a little talk of some worm feeding on The
10 10 N.m