154 DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS OF VICTORIA. 



without having been heated. With this machine go 

 through amongst your growing crops, also amongst pits, 

 bagged potatoes. If this canvas frame be judiciously used 

 a vast number of moths can be destroyed. This plan has 

 been found to answer well in the case of the cabbage 

 moth, but in treating for the latter, the plants should first 

 be struck with a bunch of twigs to cause the moths to 

 rise. One trial of this plan will be sufficient to convince 

 any reasonable person of its efficacy. 



Before closing these remarks on this pest, it is advised, 

 where at all practicable — and there really seems to be no 

 insuperable obstacle to this being carried out — that the 

 lands on which the potatoes are planted be so arranged 

 that a machine, such as the Strawsonizer or the one 

 invented by Mr. Pearson, could be used for the purpose 

 of distributing tar or other cheap insecticides in a liquid 

 form, such as before described. It is well known that tar 

 in any form is particularly obnoxious to insects of most 

 kinds, and by a timely application of such the moths may 

 be prevented from depositing their eggs. 



Any of the introduced Solanoe^ such as the " Sodom 

 apple," nightshade and others, should be rooted up and 

 destroyed by burning, these being not only breeding 

 plants for many of the smaller moths, but, when the fruits 

 are eaten, are most injurious to children, also to stock, and 

 should never be allowed to grow within miles of either 

 farms, orchards, vineyards, or gardens of any sort. 



If tobacco plants should be attacked, a light spraying 

 of White Hellebore, mixed in the proportion as given 

 elsewhere in this part of the book, would be effectual in 

 destroying the grubs on any infested plants. 



The introduction of noxious and often poisonous weeds 

 into these colonies has been a real calamity, as in several 

 cases the advent of destructive insects into Victoria may 

 be traced to their agency. 



