M 



iu:sTitrcTioN of insects. 



The success of ray conflicts with the flies in my house has been more encouraginjr. 

 Bv destroying all which first arrived I have been able to keep them, not entirely extinct 

 it is true, but yet somewhat like angels' visits. Since the experiments I am about to 

 detail scarce a fly can be found in my house. 



This season I determined not only to destroy all creeping things Avhich should infest 

 my plants and flowers, but also to carry the war of extermination directly into the 

 homes and families of my adversaries. For this purpose I procured twenty-four wide 

 mouthed bottles. They hold nearly a quart each — are hung perpendicularly on the 

 fence around my garden, and are about three-fourths filled with two parts of molasses 

 and one of vinegar. Each evening they are all emptied into a wire seive (the liquor 

 unconsumed being preserved for further use) and then refilled. All this takes time, 

 as any operation must which has to be repeated twenty-four times ; but it is 

 all accomplished by one person, and the flies measured and buried in about twenty 

 minutes — less time than would be required in finger-j^icking the off"spring of any dozen 

 of the millers destroyed. 



One fact in reference to this matter is deserving especial notice. If the bottles are 

 emptied and refilled at evening a large number of millers of all sizes and kinds will be 

 caught. One morning I counted over fifty caught the previous night, some of them 

 very large, in one bottle. That number as an average, and for aught I know a fair 

 one, would give an aggregate of twelve hundred caught in a single night. 



The result thus far has exceeded my expectations. The largest quantity caught in 

 any one day was eight and a half quarts. The average for the last seven days is six 

 quarts — that is, I have actually caught during the last week forty-two solid quarts of 

 millers, beetles, and flics. This result has been attained in my small garden, where 

 constant and thorough measures have been persevered in for years to destroy all 

 insects. How much more might be accomplished iu localities where they have been 

 permitted to increase to their full capacity. 



Can any one calculate the vast array of depredators, which would liave been propa- 

 gated from these more than five pecks of moths, millers, beetles, and flies. We have 

 in New Haven three thousand and seven hundred dwelling houses with yards and gar- 

 dens attached, beside our three hundred and sixty stores and one hundred and eighty 

 manufactories. Six quarts from each of these houses would give a daily aggregate of 

 over six hundred and ninety-three bushels, or four thousand eight hundred and fifty-six 

 bushels of solid beetles, millers, and flics, caught in one week. 



How much of annoyance and misery to men and animals, and injury to plants and 

 fruit might thus be prevented, and how comparatively slight the labor. Probably 

 more time and labor is now actually expended in this locality in the destruction of 

 the ofispring than would in this way be necessary to exterminate the race. 



Sometime since you remarked, in answer to a correspondent, that manure buried 

 eight inches deep in the soil was of no value.* That must depend upon the nature and 

 condition of the soil. Where it is light and friable and well worked, the roots, accord 



do not remember having made such a statement, and certainly should not wish to be so understood, for we 

 know very well that manure buried eighteen inches instead of eight would be valuable under certain circumstances. 



