70 



STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 



Figure 7. 



also be employed to collect aud destroy the eggs. This, of course, from the 

 size of the eggs, would require great care. Paris green and wliitc hellebore 



\x\\[ kill the caterpillars, as they will also 

 any one who eats the cabbage ; so as 

 they — especially the Paris green — could 

 not be so washed off as to remove the 

 danger, their use is not to be recom- 

 mended. Cresylic soap solutions and 

 copperas water are also said to destroy the 

 worms ; and as those are not poisonous, 

 free use m ay be made of them. The most 

 ^ convenient method to destroy is to make 

 use of tiie habit wiiich the insect has of 

 pupating under some projection of build- 

 ing, fence or tree. We have only to keep 

 the garden free from rubbish, and then 

 place boards horizontally three or four 

 inchesfrorn the ground, between the cab- 

 bage-rows. These uiay be sustained by 

 mounds of earth at either end, or by nail- 

 ing to short pieces of boards, after the 

 fashion of the seats in our old-time school 

 houses. As the insects suspend beneath 

 these, they may be collected and crushed. 

 But if I were the boy thus employed, I 

 should rest prone on the earth, even at the risk of untidy clothing and a reputation 

 of indolence, till I saw how they put themselves up. These boards, during the 

 first period of pupation, must be examined every six days, as the chrysalis re- 

 mains only a week. Mrs. Strong, as already stated, speaks of pupation on 

 the cabbage leaves. Very likely these are attacked by the parasites soon to 

 be mentioned, aud are too feeble to migrate. 



NATURAL ENEMY. 



To any one who rightly understands the conflicts in the insect world, either 

 with birds or other insects, the first question that occurs when a new insect ap- 

 pears is: has it any natural enemies? for without beneficial birds and insects 

 successful farming would be at an end. But with this pest, wliicii has held its 

 own so long and so well among the keener scented and sharper eyed foes of the 

 old world, what could we hope from the less aggressive natural enemies of our 

 own land? As yet, uone of our long list of native predaccous and i)arasitic in- 

 sects have joined in the battle to stay the j^rogress of this ruthless invader. 

 Well might we hope that, as witli tlie Hessian fly, some of its old enemies — in- 

 sects which have bravely fought side by side with man in the work of subjuga- 

 tion in its luitive home — might come with it to join in the battle liere ; nor iiave 

 we hoped in vain, for a minute ichneumon fly, scarcely an eighth of an inch 

 long, has crossed the Atlantic and come to our aid. This tiny friend, a sec- 

 ond La Fayette, was first discovered by the young son of my old entomological 

 friend, the late Mr. P. 8. Sprague, of Boston, Massachusetts. Can it be that 

 he made this discovery by practicing what I have advised while gathering these 

 insects? If so, I knew his father too well to thinly that he wouUl be other than 

 ])raised for the scrutiny that led to tliis welcome tliscovei'v. This wee ichneu- 

 mon fly — rteroniahcs puparu7)i — Linn. — is of a bright gold color. The female 



