180 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



bogs graded without deviation from a perfect level. I have 

 one bog of about ten acres, where there is a difference of 

 level of only four inches. That is for the purpose of having 

 the water dry off of those eggs, and give them all a fair 

 chance to be hatched by the sun and come to the surface, to 

 be swept away when the water is warmed up. 



Another mode of attacking them, which has been briefly 

 referred to in the latter part of the report which has been 

 kindly presented to us, is by the use of tobacco. We are 

 using more and more of that, and I think if our friend pur- 

 sues kindly, and for the public advantage, this investiga- 

 tion upon which he has entered, and for which he seems so 

 well qualified, he will discover more and more of the efforts, 

 and the successful efforts, that are being made for the de- 

 struction of these worms, particularly the two sets of " vine 

 fire-worms," as we call them, by means of tobacco. We 

 buy tobacco stumps by the bale — a bale costing seven or 

 eight dollars, and weighing about five hundred pounds. 

 Some have vats, in which they soak these stumps ; some 

 soak them in hogsheads ; some boil them in copper kettles, 

 putting, perhaps, a pound of these stumps into a gallon of 

 water, and then sprinkle it on, either by means of an ordi- 

 nary pot, with perforated openings, or else by means of 

 hand force-pumps, such as are employed to wash windows. 

 The stronger the solution, and the wetter the vines are left, 

 of course, the better. The idea seems to be that the tobacco 

 itself does not kill them, but that when the eo^as hatch and 

 the new insect begins to eat the leaf covered with tobacco, 

 that is what does the business, the tobacco acting internally, 

 rather than upon the surface of the insect. . So that, if you 

 happen to have a shower directly after the free use of to- 

 bacco, the chances are that the leaves will be washed clean, 

 and you must try it over again. But the great point is, to 

 be very observant. Those men are very observant and 

 watchful, and the moment they find two of those little leaves 

 at the top of the plant stuck together by some glutinous or 

 adhesive substance that the worm seems to have the power 

 of depositing, if they do not find but that one case, on goes 

 the water ; or, if they use tobacco, on goes the tobacco ; and 

 then, as the insects hatch, succeeding this one pioneer, of 



