4 04 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



DR. EDWARD F. BIGELOW AND PROFESSOR CLIFTON F. HODGE DISPOSING OF OVER 

 SIXTEEN MILLION FLIES, AT WORCESTER, MASS. 



Friday that as the only good flies were 

 dead flies, these millions might be bene- 

 ficial as a fertilizer, and so they were 

 placed on the ground, and this spring, 

 they will be plowed in. When the 

 corn, beans and cucumbers come up in 

 the spring the doctor will make calcu- 

 lations. When the crop is gathered he 

 will report how much benefit there is 

 in dead flies for the purpose of fertili- 

 zation. 



Lace Under The Sycamore's Bark. 



New York City. 

 To the Editor: 



I often meet people in Stamford who 

 complain that living in the country is 

 dull and that they don't know how to 

 kill their time. They fail to under- 

 stand how I can possibly stay in the 

 country for so many of the winter 

 months, when there is nothing to do. 

 Personally I never have time enough 

 to do one tenth of what I want to do. 

 I cannot go for more than a few feet 

 from my doorsteps without finding 



wonderful things, that give me hours 

 of amusement, pleasure and instruc- 

 tion. 



A few weeks ago I was leaning 

 against an old sycamore tree that 

 stands not more than fifty feet from 

 my house. Incidentally I scraped off 

 some of the loose bark and found be- 

 neath it great quantities of tiny, insig- 

 nificant-looking insects. I gathered a 

 few and put them under the micro- 

 scope. What a revelation ! The little 

 things looked as if they were clad in 

 the finest Irish lace. Not only did 

 their wings present the finest lace de- 

 sign, but a magnificent little boudoir 

 cap of daintiest lace adorned their 

 heads, and a downy, filmy mesh work 

 ornamented their legs. A very com- 

 mon little insect, the lace bug it was! 

 I scraped more bark from the tree after 

 my microscopical examination of these 

 pretty little creatures, and I found 

 great colonies of them but not all the 

 members were alive. Many of them 

 had served as meals for other in- 

 sects which were feeding upon them. 



