Summary of results of fertilizer analyses for the years 1904, 1905, and 1906.

Swift's Lowell Superior Fertilizer with 10% Potash... 1905

1906

Per ct. Per ct. Per ct.

Potash.

INSECT NOTES FOR 1906.

EDITH M. PATCH.

BROWN-TAIL MOTH AND GYPSY MOTH.

Since 1903 the brown-tail moth has become established throughout the Southern and most of the coast counties of Maine. In December, 1906, egg clusters of the gypsy moth were found in Kittery and Elliot. The caterpillars of the brown-tail moth are capable of ruining orchard, shade, and many woodland trees. They are also a dreaded nuisance because their hairs break off and on coming in contact with the human skin, cause extreme irritation and often illness. The caterpillars of the gypsy moth attack nearly every kind of vegetation and their work is especially fatal to pine and other evergreens since these trees always die after being once defoliated.

BROWN-TAIL MOTH.

So serious a pest should be known by every one in the State, because although extermination of this insect may not be possible, much practical and effectual work can be done in holding it in check and reducing its numbers to such an extent that damage to orchard and shade trees may be very slight.

For the past two years the State Department of Agriculture, the State Pomological Society, the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station, the town and city officials, and the citizens of the infested localities have worked in unison against the brown-tail moth. As a result this insect has not yet done very serious damage in this State, and the cases of poisoning have been very few. This is cause both for congratulation and encouragement for it shows that even if the brown-tail moth cannot be exterminated, its ravages may be in a large measure controlled. But the same distressing conditions threaten the State this coming year, and over a much larger district, and to be met successfully these conditions must be met as vigorously and as earnestly as they have been previously.

A simple warning to any one who may not be alive to the importance of fighting this insect is given in this bulletin by the significant photograph kindly supplied by Mr. A. H. Kirkland, State Superintendent for Suppressing the Gypsy and Browntail Moths in Massachusetts. The photograph, Fig. 16, shows apple trees stripped by caterpillars of the brown-tail moth, June 9, 1905, Winchester, Mass.

DESCRIPTION AND HABITS.

The moths. The moths, expanding from one and one-fourth to one and three-fourths inches, are white except for the abdo-. men, which is tinged with brown and tipped with a tuft of brown hairs. This tuft is small and dark in the male, but the large golden-brown tuft in the female is conspicuous enough to be the most striking characteristic of the moth, and has won for this insect its descriptive name of "brown-tail." These moths are on the wing in July, and unlike some closely related pests, the brown-tail females as well as the males are strong fliers. They are active at night, and as lights have an attraction for them, they sometimes fly a long way toward a lighted district.

The eggs. The female usually selects a leaf near the tip of the branch on which to deposit from 150 to 300 eggs. Some of the brown hairs from the abdominal tuft adhere to the egg-mass and give it the appearance of a brown felt lump.

The caterpillars in the fall. By the middle of August most of the eggs are hatched and the young caterpillars spin a slight web over the leaf near the egg cluster. From this protection they advance side by side, sometimes 200 tiny caterpillars feeding in an unbroken line, though they huddle together beneath the web when disturbed in any way. When they have eaten all but the skeleton of the first leaf, they draw another into the web and repeat the process at intervals during the late summer. They feed slowly, however, and spend so much time spinning their web that they do comparatively little damage to the trees in the fall, and they are still very small, (about onefourth of an inch in length,) when cold weather comes on.

The Winter Nests. In the fall the young caterpillars weave additional layers of silk about their retreat, fastening it securely to the branch by the web, and pass the winter thus in colonies of 150 to 300. This is a very unusual yet most commendable habit in a caterpillar pest, for they can be killed, hundreds at a