374 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



cause it is in most instances discriminating. As far as is known, the little 

 parasite referred to attacks only the larva of the cabbage butterfly, and in like 

 manner many other parasitic species are restricted in their operations to a 

 single species, while in other instances they are confined to a genus or a group of 

 similar species. This is not so with some insectivorous birds; they in most in- 

 stances devour alike the useful and the injurious species, and the question may 

 well be raised in many instances whether the good they do is not more than 

 counterbalanced by the number of useful insects they devour. Recent obser- 

 vations on the family of thrushes by Mr. S. A. Forbes, of Illinois, seem to 

 show that their insect food consists largely of beetles belonging to the Carabiclce, 

 a family every member of which is useful, since they feed, both in the larval 

 and beetle states exclusively on other insects. 



The field here open is a wide and inviting one, on which I trust some of you 

 will enter. I have but touched upon it; as the results of more extended obser- 

 vations are recorded the opinions here expressed may need modifying. I desire 

 to do justice to the birds. 



MOLES. 



A correspondent of the New York Tribune, from Van Buren county in this 

 State, speaks of his method of trapping moles. He says : 



I have been bothered considerably by moles in corn-fields and garden until 

 the last year or so. I tramp their tunnels down and watch for them — not 

 generally longer than two hours. As soon as one makes his appearance, rais- 

 ing the dirt, I cut him in two with an ax, and leave the dead mole in his hole, 

 which drives the others away. In my garden of two acres, last spring, I 

 believed there were several. I thought they were going to completely destroy 

 it, but after cutting one, as above, I did not see any more of their depredations. 



A writer in the Rural New Yorker takes the following sensible view of this 

 animal: "A recent correspondent of the Rural has entered a plea for the 

 mole, and perhaps as good a one as can be made ; but I think he has failed to 

 comprehend the mole unless he has him under a subdued character. The mole 

 is an unmitigated nuisance where he abounds in numbers, destroying peas, 

 corn, potatoes, strawberries, the lawn, and everything that comes in his way. 

 Of all the pests that trouble the field, the garden and the lawn, there are few 

 that are made up of so much pure 'cussedness' as the mole. To employ him 

 to destroy larvae and worms is to use a remedy worse than the disease. It will 

 take a year or two at least to repair the damage he has already done in my 

 experimental garden. There is this, however, to be said in his favor, that he 

 is a fine example of perseverance." 



INSECTS AND DISEASES. 



ENTOMOLOGY FOR THE FRUIT GROWER. 



The subject of insects and diseases is daily attracting more attention, for 

 their depredations are daily becoming a greater evil, and the importance of 

 entomological investigation is every day more plainly seen. It is less than fifty 



