DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



tie, if any effect, upon them. This would never 

 kill them, for I found they would live after be- 

 ing immersed five minutes in the juice. Even 

 very strong brandy would not kill them for ne- 

 veral miimtes, 



I herewith send you some eight or ten of 

 tliese insects, a part of what I took from one 

 apple, that you may see them, and give me any 

 further information you may i)Osse98 as to their 

 nature, habits, &.C., and the bust mode of des- 

 troying them. If they are unknown to you, 

 perhaps a brief notice in the " Horticulturist" 

 would elicit the desired information, or attract 

 direct attention to the insect, if it should be 

 found in x»ther sections of the country. I be- 

 lieve it prevails to a greater or less extent in all 

 the orchards in my neighborhood— how much 

 further I have not learned. It is my intention 

 to watch the insect closely, and learn more of 

 its nature and habits. 



The insects I send you were killed by being 

 inuuersed in strong brandy. I will put them 

 up in cotton, so that they may carry safely in 

 my letter. 



My ground is on the bank of the Ohio river, 

 commonly called " bottom land," — and is a 

 deep, rich, sandy loam ; but the trees on the 

 river hill were also attacked. 



Any information on this subject you can give 

 mo in a private letter, or in the Horticulturist, 

 will be thankfully received. Yours, &.c. J. N. 

 F. W. Pittsburgh, Pa., June 19. 



The insect sent us with the above is the rose- 

 bug or rose-chafer, well known in some parts 

 of the middle states, where the soil is light and 

 sandy. It is the most difficult insect to destroy 

 where it appears in abundance. In some vine- 

 yards on the lower part of the Hudson, infect- 

 ed with it, the only successful remedy yet found 

 is to pick them by hand, and put them in boil- 

 ing water — an obviously hopeless task, when so 

 abundant on trees as described by our corres- 

 pondent. If any of our readers have fuund a 

 more easy and speedy death for them, we shall 

 be glad to hear from them. Ed. 



Roses — Birds and Insects. — I am very much 

 obliged to you for the information you gave me 

 last autumn, as to the winter disposition of my 

 roses; it kept them as nicely as possible, and this 

 summer they have made me quite famous, and 

 peojile sometimes come from quite a distance to 



see them . But what shall I do to my Chroma 

 tella? It grows and branches out until it looks 

 like — a centipede ; it isn't a pretty comparison 

 I know, and if my rose would behave itself pro- 

 perly, I should not think of it, much less speak 

 of it. In the first place it is si.\teen feet high, 

 and every two or three inches along the whole 

 length, there is a branch from two to three feet 

 long ; and it will not blossom — and when it does 

 blossom it is not what it should be. Two years 

 ago it was yellow— a true Chromatella, as I 

 suppose ; last year it would not spend time to 

 blossom ; this spring it had eight blossoms, but 

 they were white, with pink edges and just a 

 faint shade of yellow in the centre. Is there no 

 way to bring them back to their original color? 

 Is this change in consequence of being near 

 other roses? The great thing has nearly killed 

 my poor little white moss rose, by fairly starv- 

 ing it out. 



I do not like your correspondent J. C. H. (I 

 haA'e just read his article on " birds, insects, and 

 other matters" in the July number.) I am 

 very angry with him. I think that if I had an 

 opportunity I should feel strangely tempted to 

 pull his hair! Probably if he knew it, his an- 

 swer Avould be something like that of Napoleon's 

 ambassador to the old lady: '• Madam, the Em- 

 peror would be very sorry to learn that you 

 have so poor an opinion of him." Or some- 

 thing like it. But I am angry nevertheless. 

 " Boys do not shoot birds," do they? Then I 

 am laboring under a delusion in thinking that 

 my own pet robins, and blue-birds too, became 

 food for — fishes, once upon a time! There are 

 a few boys in these United States, who do not 

 live in the city, and who are not such very poor 

 marksmen either, as / know to my cost. But 

 I find that writing about it is by no means a 

 soothing process, so I will stop, lest I say some- 

 thing to be sorry for, or ashamed of. 



But do tell me what to do for my rose, Mr. 

 Downing, for I very much fear it is a hopeless 

 case. Very respectfully yours, A Subscriber 

 AT THE "West. July 15, 1852. 



Our " Subscriber at the "West" must not 

 lose her patience with her Chromatella rose, 

 and she will have abundant reason to be satis- 

 fied with it next season. At present — as is al- 

 ways the case with this rose, when it has fair 

 play, it is vindicating its nature as a climber. 



