EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 255 



grubs. The only way is to learn something of the habits of 

 the female and how she deposits her eggs. 



There is one way in which you can destroy many of the 

 beetles with very little trouble. It will not destroy all of 

 them, because some will go away to your neighbors ; but it 

 will prevent a great many from depositing any eggs. That 

 is, by simply going under your trees where they are flying, 

 getting some tubs full of water, and hanging a kerosene lan- 

 tern or something of that kind over those tubs, a little way 

 from the ground. The beetles butt their heads against these 

 lanterns and fall into the water. I have found a peck of 

 them in the water the next morning. That is the only way 

 I have found to reduce the number of grubs, and I have 

 been a pretty careful observer in that line, I may say, dur- 

 ing my life, because they are the fellows that annoy Mr. 

 Slade and myself in our strawberry beds. They do not get 

 through eating a strawberry bed in one year. I have a 

 strawberry bed which has been picked three years ; they 

 have eaten more or less in that strawberry bed every year, 

 and they have been doing it this last fall. I cannot hope 

 that I have got rid of them. They have started, and they 

 have got to go through their regular course of transforma- 

 tion, which takes three years. You have probably observed 

 the old, mature worm just ready to go into the chrysalis state. 

 Being small, you do not see the effects of their ravages in 

 your grass land ; but when they get into the last years of 

 their growth, then they are enormous feeders and you will 

 notice them quicker. 



There is another grub that is very similar to this grub, 

 but does not do any great amount of injury. You will find 

 it in piles of manure. Even manure that has not lain more 

 than three or four months you will find full of a white grub 

 which looks very much like this, but it is not the same grub, 

 and does not eat in the same way. 



Mr. Slade. Our greatest trouble in raising strawberries 

 is from the depredations of these worms. You have no way 

 of telling that they are there, until their presence is an- 

 nounced by the wilting of the leaf and the death of the 

 plant. So, if you dig them out, it is like closing the door of 

 the stable after the horse is stolen. About eight years ago, 



