56 BOARD (5f AGRICUI.TURE. 



Question. Will you tell us what to do with the black 

 bug? 



Mv. Philbrick. We put a shingle under every hill at 

 night, and the bugs go under the shingle ; and early in the 

 morning we go round, and kill them with our fingers. 



Mr. FiLLEBROWN. I have had some experience in rais- 

 ing squashes ; and the difficulty I have found with squashes 

 is, first the yellow bug; and soon after that we find the 

 black bug; and, when the weather becomes wet, we find 

 green lice ; and at the root, after that, we find the borers. 

 They eat into and destroy the vine. Some years ago I dis- 

 covered a fly that seemed to be pretty busy among the 

 squashes ; and I followed it until I saw it light, and saw it 

 lay an egg at the root of the plant ; and I soon found that 

 the egg hatched out a maggot, or borer, which commenced 

 to work at the root. These borers have increased very 

 much in the last few years. Last year, if I had not attended 

 to them, I should have had a very small crop. I went over 

 the field, and cut them out with a knife. I think I cut out 

 as many as twenty from one vine, large and small. Some 

 would not be more than a quarter of an inch long, and some 

 of them were an inch long. My boy, who worked with me, 

 said that he cut twenty borers out of one root. You will 

 find the eggs from the root of the vine, where it comes out 

 of the ground, for three or four feet all the way along ; and, 

 as soon as they hatch, they commence to eat, just the same 

 as a caterpillar, and, if you take them when they are very 

 small, 3'ou can kill them easily. 



Mr. Pierce. I think I know what the borer is ; but I 

 would like to ask the gentleman if he does not know some 

 disease that affects squash-vines. Sometimes, when my 

 squashes have grown so that they will weigh six, eight, or 

 ten pounds, the leaf will wilt one day, come up again at 

 night when the dew comes ; wilt again the next day, and in 

 a few days it is quite dead ; and, if the ground is covered 

 with squash-vines, two-thirds of them will die, and there 

 will be only a very small crop. I am very often troubled in 

 that way. I don't know what it is. It is very easy to lay 

 it to the borer ; but that is not the thing which has troubled 

 me. 



Mr. FiLLEBROWN. I have seen another insect which 



