The new enterprise. (Madison, Fla.) 1901-1908, 1902-08-07
|25,OOO,0O0 MOlH THIS
.Ars A. THIRD or THE APPLE
'ANp PEAR CROP YEARLY.

fc,arceIy one Farmer 10 Ten Has Ever
n Codling nIoth--rhat Ia Because
"a ,vorlte AZ Night and IL is Not At
,oted BY a Flame.
i nbough it costs the farmers OF
4 York State one-third Of their
M and pear crop every year" said
,.u,onologlst. In the New York Sun,
kIcb means la money at least So
ooo and that is less than one-tighth
!, hat It costs the farmers and fruit
kyers annually In the country at
4 scarcely one farmer or fruit
In IN ten ever saw a codling moth.
M insect during its breeding sea-
4 busy by tens Of thousands In
w orchard.
h'he reason why the cooling moth
I'm SO rarely is that 1t alone among
n many varieties of moths, has not
habit of being attracted at night by
Isht or fame, and 1t has the faculty
Eecretlng itself so completely during
dav that the most violent disturb
n of Its retreat does not cause it
Inc wing or move from Its lurking
H. in the orchard trees, the rough
kv bark Of which II so closely re-
lilies that even If one of the insects
y resting on the exterior Of the
IN 4 would defy the sharpest Of eyes
detect.
flaming torch placed at night
Ber every tree in an orchard would
TO draw single codling moth
M its work Of egg laying in the
Is although Its cousins Of all yari-
would be Fastening from all d.
hons to meet destruction in the
|tinating flame.
|rhe average lay person knows moth
about the codling moth In its rela-
4 10 the worm he finds so frequently
,ihe apple he bites into, and. as a
liter Of fact, 1t is only within recent
|rs that entomologists even hSye ac.
United themselves with the entire
history of the insect.
|rhe codling moth energies from its
bon about ten days after the apple
bsoms have fallen from the trees
the spring and the young fruit is
|wn to perhaps an inch In diameter.
cocoons lie beneath the scaly bark
hhe apple tree trunks.
HE moth is about half an inch long
has four wings. 1t comes from
cocoon at night and at once begins
|oatlng its eggs. A codling moths
Is nearly fat, and not larger than
|mall pinhead. So. small is it that,
Dough the moth has been known to
|urallsts for nearly three centuries.
6as only four or five years ago its
WAS discovered positively and de-
bed.
rhe egg is deposited and glued to
surface of the apple, only a single
pn an apple, If one cooling moth
Is that another one has already fas-
led an egg on an apple, 1t will not
Fe an egg Of its own there, but will
B unpreempted fruit.
Each moth lays from eighty to 100
IS The egg matches a tiny worm at
end Of perhaps ten days, always at
ht
The worm at once crawls to the
ssom end Of the apple, enters the
Tlty there and tunnels down to the
e, where 1t feasts and grows and
tens on the heart of the fruit, and
Ihe end of the month tunnels its way
\ TO the surface. emerging a plump,
kiSh caterpillar, three-quarters of an
D long, always coming out at night.
truth, this creature, at all stages
Its existence, seems 20 love dark
8 better than light.
y makes Its way without delay to
trunk of the tree, where it wraps
~ about with Its cocoon beneath n
'lterlng scale Of bark, aud remains
ne In hiding until 1t In turn develops
moth the next season, or, II the
VI In which 1t had its home be an
" variety, the same season, In which
z the caterpillar undergoes a double
tamorphosIs.
Ilny as the codHng moths egg is,
e is fly so small that 1t can de-
W as many as four Of its own eggs
: single egg Of the moth. This
eggs hatch worms that deyour
embryo Of the moth in the egg,
= mus hosts Of the moths ravenous
'geny are destroyed before they have
gun active life.
V'ner parasitic enemies OF the cater
'ar make away with untold numbers
'ue insects, and vast numbers Of
oocoons are uncovered and their
'uenls deyoured by woodpeckers and
y i9sectlvorous birds, but enough
~ lolnatunty to assess a bounty of
'wo'vOO year on the farmers Of
country to keep them in board and