St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1900-02-21

martins and sparrows fed on the moths
as they had done on the pupae and larvae.
Chipping sparrows became expert
"lofty tumblers' in their zg-zag pursuit
of the flying moths, and even the English
sparrows had brief season of useful
ness, for they really ate some of these
moths, though they would not touch
either pupae or lavae.
The egg.rings were removed from the
twigs where they could beeasily reached,
and many were eaten by chickadees and
nuthatches in the winter, but in spite of
this the following May found the cater
pillars Matching in even greater numbers
than before. Each pair of moths pro-
duces at least 200 eggs, and often many
more.
This year many persons followed the
advice OF DR.. c. M. Weed, state entomol-
ogist of New Hampshire, and treated
their trees with the arsenate of lead
spray discovered by the gypsy moth
committee of Massachusetts,, and pre-
pared by their formula. This proved
very eficacious and killed thousands of
young larvae, without injury to the
trees.
The town preferred unscientifc advice,
and sprayed many trees with a mixture
OF kerosene, paris green and soapsuds,
which burned the leaves very badly, and
seemed to injure the trees. Pyrethrum,
or Persian powder, "Dalmatian pow
DER" or moth powder" as it is also
called, scattered thickly at the foot of
the trees was verv deadly i'll its effect,
but rain or heavy dew renders it useless.
Banding the trees and Manipulating of
the caterpillars were also used again
with good results.
Toads did good service, and the
parasitic flies had increased i'll far greater
proportion than the caterpilers and were
| fatal to immense numbers. Birds did far
more destruction than in the previous
season, and were never as abundant as
this year. Even persons who do not
generally notice birds spoke of their num-
bers and of their work on the caterpillars
and cocoons. To any one who watched
them carefully the birds fully proved
their claim to all the safety, help and en-
couragement which legislation, educa-
ton, or humanity can secure for them.
No one can realize the discomfort OF
such an invasion by caterpllars unless
he has experienced it. When no one sits
down without carefully examining the
chair, the floor and the ceiling in order to
remove any caterpillars which may crawl
up or drop down; when a bit of leaf,
thread, or paper moving in the wind
makes every one start; when the COM
mon greeting is. wait Let me TAX.
those worms off you!" When people
dream of crawling things night after
| night.-the nerves have had an unpleas.
| ant strain.
| But this is not the worst. The trees
are injured by defoliation. Last spring
the maple-sugar makers, in many places,
dared not tap their trees, weakened as
they were by the defoliation of the year
before. In other places where they did
make sugar from defoliated trees, the
sugar was scant in quantity and poor in
| quality. In many cases this means a
serious loss of income. 1t is uncertain
how much defoliation trees can bear.
am told of elms which have died after
two successive oscillations, and of NAPLES
whose upper branches have succumbed
to the same number-the upper branches
are usually the worst affected.
| Vermont is by no means the only state
infested by these caterpillars. They have
appeared in serious numbers in New
Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and
New York, as well as in Canada, and the
infested area is rapidly increasing. 1t is
time that every inhabitant of every city
town, and village should try to realize
the discomfort and injury caused by the
caterpillars, and should know how tic
exterminate them when they first appear
without waiting until they are las bad
as they can be-"
| All "tents," made by Clisiocampa
Americana, should be burned off with the
young larvae in them. c. disstria, the
forest tent caterpillar, makes no con
spicuous tent"
AS soon as the leaves are open the trees
should be sprayed with the arsenate O
lead spray, and their trunks should b.
banded with Raupenleim over bands o
paper. Raupenleim may be bought o
William Mcneil & Co., Ga Broad Street
New York, or the Bowker fertiliziug com
pany, Boston.
The spray may be prepared in thi.
way; In wooden pail dissolve clever
ounces of acetate of lead in four quart.
of water; in another wooden pail dissolv,
four ounces of arsenate of soda in two
quarts of water. When wholly dissolved
pour these two mixturesinto hogsheac
containing $50 gallons of water. mi,
well, and add two to four quarts O
glucose. Use pyrethrum around the trees
Ii necessary, use manipulating of the cat
erpillars and cocoons.
Instead of burning the cocoons pu
them in large box, on an inch or two
ofearth, and cover the box with nettin,
having quarter-inchmesh. This willie
the parasite flies escape, bat retain tn
moths, which will die without oyiposit
ing on the trees. The box must stan,
out OF sun and rain.
The most important thing is to begil
early enough 70 fight the caterpillars,-