SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 377 



quassia chips and boil for ten minutes in a gallon of soft water. Take out the 

 chips and add four ounces of soft soap, which should be dissolved in it as it 

 cools. Stir well before using, and apply with a moderate sized paint brush, 

 brushing upward. Ten minutes after syringe the tree with clean water to 

 wash off the dead insects and the preparation, which would otherwise disfigure 

 the rose trees. — New York Weekly Herald. 



CHLORIDE OF LIME. 



Le Cultivateur, a French journal, says that if chloride of lime be spread on 

 the soil or near plants, insects and vermin will not be found near there, and 

 add: " By its means plants will easily be protected from insect plagues by 

 simply brushing over their stems with a solution of it. It has often been 

 noticed that a patch of land which has been treated in this way remains 

 religiously respected by grubs, while the unprotected beds around are literally 

 devastated. Fruit trees may be guarded from the attacks of grubs by attach- 

 ing to their trunks pieces of tow, smeared with a mixture of chloride of lime 

 and hog's lard, and antsi nd grubs already in possession will rapidly vacate 

 their position. Butterflies, again, will avoid all plants whose leaves have been 

 sprinkled over with lime water." 



THE WEAVIL. 



A correspondent writes : " I have observed of late numerous complaints of 

 the difficulty of guarding pea and bean seed from the weavil. Your subscriber 

 has found an effectual remedy, and gives it for the benefit of those seeking 

 such. After harvesting dry thoroughly in the sun, and afterward place in jars, 

 cans, or barrels, that have been thoroughly heated before the fire, placing in 

 each vessel a bottle of turpentine, not corking the bottle, but simply tying a 

 piece of cloth over its mouth. Cover the vessels as air-tight as possible, and 

 afterward expose to the sun occasionally. The fumes of the turpentine engen- 

 dered by the heat kill the egg of the weavil deposited in the seed when it is 

 green. This is an effectual remedy, and should be known to all seed-growers 

 north or south. — New York Weekly Herald. 



EFFECTS OF SEVERE COLD ON INSECTS. 



A very general impression prevails that severe winters are prejudicial to 

 insect life. It is, however, a quite erroneous impression, for nothing has struck 

 us so forcibly in our experience with injurious insects, as the fact that in most 

 cases they pass more safely through a steady, even if severe winter, than through 

 a mild or changeable one. We have repeatedly called attention to this fact in 

 our own writings, and Miss E. A. Onierod, in her "Notes of Observations on 

 Injurious Insects" for 1879, has some pointed remarks on the subject, in con- 

 nection with the severity of the past winter in England. 



Severe and steady cold is not only favorable to insect hibernation, by causing 

 .a continued state of torpor, but indirectly in preserving them from the attacks 



