PROCEEDINGS OF THE WINTER MEETING. 21 



MANAGING THE INSECTS. 



Bisulphide of carbon is coming into use for the destruction of insects, aud it 

 "Trill kill all kinds, but it is not yet known how much can be used with safety 

 to the plants. To fumigate with sulphur for the green fly, place the pot con- 

 taining the plant in a close box. Lady beetle placed in a conservatory will 

 destroy large numbers of insects. The larva of one species of this beetle did 

 more than any other insect to rid the State of the maple cotton scale louse. 



Pyrethrum is not successful in the open air. For its use on house flies, give 

 a few puffs from the bellows into the room, when the flies will all seek the 

 windows, where a few more puffs will cause them to drop to the floor, where 

 they may be swept up aud burned before they recover. 



C. W. Garfield: We use pyrethrum for the green fly. In our little con- 

 servatory it easily kills over half of them at one application, and a second 

 application kills many of the remainder. The next best remedy is tobacco 

 water. It is not so offensive in the house as the smoke. 



W. W. Farnsworth, in reply to a question, said that in growing cabbage on 

 a large scale he was not troubled with the worm. 



E. W. Allis said that in a small garden the worms could be kept hi check by 

 introducing its parasites. 



ORCHARD DRAINAGE. 



This subject was opened with the following note, read b} r the Secretary, from 

 J. J. Harrison, of Painesville, Ohio : 



" I have had no experience in orchard draining, but from the 200 or 300 

 acres that we have underdrained and planted to nursery trees, frequently let- 

 ting elm, maples, poplars, etc., get four inches through and twenty to twenty- 

 five feet tall, and never having been troubled with the roots choking the tile, I 

 think tile can be profitably used in orchard drainage. I would place the tile at 

 good depth, say four feet, and have the drains between the rows of trees and tile of 

 good size, say four inches ; should plant the trees on the ridge aud place drains 

 in the dead-furrow, planting the rows, if apple, about 40 feet apart and 32 feet 

 in rows : and if the trees were planted on the ridge that one plowing would 

 make, there would be but little danger of water remaining on the surface long 

 enough to do any iujury to soil or trees, and the rootlets of the trees would be 

 a long time making the 20 feet to the drain and filling a four inch tile. 



"As to the cost of our tiling and the success achieved by it in our operations, 

 the former is more easily answered than the latter. We commenced under- 

 draining 16 years ago when labor was $2 a day and tile very dear, and had to 

 go a long way to get sufficient fall for outlets, making it very expensive, with 

 drains two rods apart. The first 100 acres we estimated the cost at $75 per 

 acre. We are now doing it for £10 per acre, usiug '2\ and 3 inch tile for the 

 laterals. Of course if the mains are tiled, using large sizes, it adds greatly to 

 the aggregate expense. We have one of Rennie's elevator ditchers, which 

 opens up the ditches nicely where the land is of even texture, but is not as sat- 

 isfactory where there are hard, stony ridges or spots. 



" Now as to the value underdraining has been to us, I would estimate it as the 

 difference between success and failure; and think had we planted the same 

 amount of nursery stock on the same land without underdrainin°; we should 



