254 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



years. When they come in small numl3ers, you may expect 

 them to increase. There is no remedy that I know of that 

 has been applied. 



Capt. Moore. I have seen, ever since I was a boy, the 

 effects of the larva of the May beetle. Harris describes it — 

 and I presume other entomologists have done the same — in 

 this way : That the May beetle deposits its eggs near the sur- 

 face ground, on the roots of grass and plants ; that those 

 eggs in a little while hatch and the insects enter the ground 

 as small grubs ; that the first year they eat in a small way, 

 and when winter approaches they go down, usually below 

 frost, where they lie dormant in the soil during the winter. 

 In the spring they come nearer the surfjice of the ground 

 to get their food. They eat that year ; they eat the next 

 year; and if you have been in the habit of carefully watching 

 them, you have found that the third year they are going into 

 the chrvsalis state in the j^round. I have seen them with the 

 rudiments of wings. During the next year they come out 

 of the ground and fly through your trees. You may see 

 them flying in the early part of the evening, and then they 

 go through that operation again. That is, they remain in 

 the ground two full years and part of another. 



Now, how shall we get rid of them? You cannot get rid 

 of them by undertaking to kill them, because there are so 

 many of them. I have seen the sod of a lawn or piece of 

 grass so infested by them that the roots of the grasses were 

 eaten off within about an inch of the surface, so that you 

 could take it and roll it up just as easily as you could a piece 

 of carpet that was not nailed down at the ends. I have 

 found the ground covered with these worms. I have seen a 

 flock of ducks, quite a large number, go on to this ground 

 where it had been ploughed. Those ducks when they started 

 in were standing up on their legs and held their heads up. 

 They would continue to cat (I never saw a duck full yet), 

 and after they had been there for three-quarters of an hour 

 they would begin to squat down, and by and by they would 

 begin to draw their breasts on the ground, and finally they 

 would lie down ; but they would still eat the grubs. There 

 is no end to their capacity to eat grubs. I don't think, how- 

 ever, that you could keep ducks enough to destroy the 



