A CODLIN MOTH TRAP.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2236, 6 November 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

A CODLIN MOTH TRAP.

In a recent issue of the San Francisco Chronicle wo saw the following account of a new Codlin moth trap, which will, wo have no doubt, be of interest to many of our readers : — The trap is made from common wire screen cloth cut in s-trips eight inches in width, and in length \aryinef with the different *\zp of the completed trap. About two third 5*5 * of the distmce from top to bottom of the wiie cloth is riveted a band of tin two inches wide, perforated with holes a little larger than the meshes of the wire screen. This is done in order that if the larva, or worm is too large to go through, or pastes over the screen he will get through the holes in the tin. Before putting the trap on tho tree the trunk is thoroughly cleaned and a strip of burlap (a coarse linen fabric) is tied securely round it. Then the trap is put on, the edges tacked to the trunk, and it is ready for business. When the apple that has been stung by the moth drops from the tree the worm leaves it, makes for the trunk, and ascends till it strikes the trap, which it crawls into through the meshes in the screen or the holes in the tin, secretes itself under the builap and proceeds to spin its web for the cocoon in which the pupa developes into the moth. When the moth ia hatched there id no possible e^enpe for it, as it is too larße to go out wh«>re it went in, and it consequently die^. When it is known thut a female moth will spoil from 150 to 200 npplos before it die-, it can readily be seen what a saving to the fruit this trap must be. It is described as having been tested by various large orcharding in and around San Francisco, and the State Inspector of Fruit Pests has reported favourably on it.

It is not often th.it such a curious recovery of lost property occurs as th'it reported from the East of England during 1 the past week. It appeals that some twenty years ago Mr J. Pitt, a New Zealand Colonist, on a vi^it to his brother-in-law, Mr H. Kni^hf, of Broonifield, Essex, lost a mafsive gold ring while gathering some fruit for the children in his host's garden, and returned to the Antipodes without any expectation of ever seeing the ring again. The other day, while digging potatoes on the samp piece of ground a lad named Sydney Cass, nephew of Mr Knight, mv something 1 glistening on the ground, which proved to be the iong lost ring, none the woise for it 3 long burial. There is only one thing lacking to make this story complete, and that is that the ring ought to have been discovered embodied in a baked potato, unwittingly placed on Mr Pitts plate while on a aeeond visit to the Old Country.