380 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



worms died in from 10 to 20 minutes; larger worms soon became uneasy and 

 fell to the ground, when they invariably died in from five to twenty-four hours. 



BUCKWHEAT AND INSECTS. 



The London Farmer has the following, that may be suggestive of experi- 

 ments in our country: Many years' practical experience has convinced M. 

 Lagarde that sowing buckwheat in soils infested with white worms, grubs, ants, 

 etc., etc., allowing it to grow until it flowers, and then plowing it in as a green 

 manure, effectually frees them from all their subterranean parasites. The 

 crop, especially the variety known as Tartary buckwheat, springs up rapidly, 

 chokes all the weeds, and abstracts but little nitrogen from the 6oil, as it draws 

 its principal nutriment from the air. It decomposes very quickly in a good 

 soil, doubtless owing to the spongy nature of the leaves. This decomposition 

 is immediate, and the large amount of gas liberated asphyxiates the larvae of 

 various insects in the ground. M. Lagarde suggests this as a possible remedy 

 for phylloxera by sowing among the vines and digging in about the roots. 



PHYLLOXERA. 



The phylloxera has up to the close of last year extended over more than 

 1,600,000 acres in France, and utterly ruined the vines in 700,000 of them. 

 The appearance of the insect is even reported in the Modoc, the most famous 

 vine-growing section of France, and Chateau Lafitte for which Baron Roths- 

 child paid $830,000 two years ago, is nearly ruined. At this rate it is expected 

 that the whole district will be infected before the end of next year. Sulphuret 

 of carbon is the most favored remedy, though deep trenching and manuring, 

 with an application of turpentine and powdered rosin on the roots, is said to be 

 a cheaper and equally effective remedy. Some vine-growers are planting 

 American stocks, thinking them less liable to attack. — Land and Home. 



PEACH BORER IN ALMONDS. 



Mr. A. S. Fuller gives a little experience under the above caption in the 

 American Entomologist: During the past few years the flowering almond 

 shrubs in my garden have shown signs of disease. Investigation proved that 

 the roots and stems just below the surface contained large numbers of the 

 larvse of the common peach borer {/Egena exitiosa). Peach trees being very 

 little grown in my vicinity, the borers took to the almonds. Having plenty of 

 the shrubs, I concluded to watch the insects and their development. At various 

 times during the season I dug up plants and invariably found larvse of all 

 sizes, but no pupae were found under the bark or in the earth immediately 

 about the shrubs, a fact which leads me to believe that the grubs go a much 

 greater distance to pupate than is generally supposed. Pupae that are so often 

 found in the gum of peach trees are probably imprisoned there and can not get 

 away, or they would be in a more congenial place for their final transformation. 

 Harris says that the pupa? are found in the gum of peach trees, also under the 

 bark and in the ground, but so far as my observations extend they always seek 

 the last. 



