56 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



The pea-weevil is supposed t© be a native of the United 

 States. It seems to have been first noticed in Pennsylvania, 

 many years ago; and has gradually spread from thence to 

 New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Mas- 

 sachusetts. It is yet rare in New Hampshu'e, and 1 believe 

 has not appeared in the eastern parts of Maine. It is unknown 

 in the North of Europe, as we learn from the interesting ac- 

 count given of it by Kalm, the Swedish traveller, who tells us 

 of the fear with which he was filled, on finding some of these 

 weevils in a parcel of pease which he had carried home from 

 America, having in view the whole damage which his beloved 

 countiy would have suffered, if only two or three of these 

 noxious insects had escaped him. They are now common in 

 the South of Europe and in England, whither they may have 

 been carried from this country. As the cultivated pea was 

 not originally a native of America, it would be interesting to 

 ascertain what plants the pea-weevil formerly inhabited. That 

 it should have preferred the prolific exotic pea to any of oiu* 

 indigenous and less productive pulse, is not a matter of sur- 

 prise, analogous facts being of common occurrence; but that, 

 for so many years, a rational method for checking its ravages 

 should not have been practised, is somewhat remarkable. An 

 exceedingly simple one is recommended by Deane, but to be 

 successful it should be universally adopted. It consists merely 

 in keeping seed-pease in tight vessels over one year before 

 planting them. LatreiUe and others recommend putting them, 

 just before they are to be planted, into hot water for a minute 

 or two, by which means the weevils will be killed, and the 

 sprouting of the pease will be quickened. The insect is 

 limited to a certain period for depositing its eggs ; late sown 

 pease therefore escape its attacks. The late Colonel Pickering 

 observed that those sown in Pennsylvania as late as the twen- 

 tieth of May, were entirely free from weevils; and Colonel 

 Worthington, of Rensselaer county. New York, ^vho sowed 

 his pease on the tenth of June, six years in succession, never 

 found an insect in them during that period. 



The crow black-bird is said to devour great numbers of the 

 beetles in the spring; and the Baltimore oriole or hang-bird 



