February, '12] WEISS: OLDER ECONOMIC METHODS 89 



out going into details, I may mention the present day use of poisoned 

 baits — fall and spring ploughing and heavy applications of kainit or 

 nitrate of soda, all of which have their uses in controlling injurious 

 insects. 



For aphids on beans, the plants were topped as soon as the lice 

 appeared and the cut-off portions either burned or buried and against 

 the hop plant louse, women and children mounted on step-ladders 

 were emploj^ed to rub the infested leaves between the thumb and 

 forefinger, hard enough to kill the lice but not enough to injure the 

 tissue. Concerning an insect like the cockchafer, I found a note to 

 the effect, that in 1785 a French farmer employed a number of children 

 to collect these insects at two liards a hundred, with the result, that 

 fourteen hundred were turned in at the end of several days. As we 

 all know, hand collecting is still resorted to, but we have evolved 

 better methods for controlling aphids, than that of the thumb and 

 forefinger. 



Against cattle flies, the herdsman kindled fires, the smoke of which 

 drove them away and it is said that the cattle, when badly infested, 

 would run towards the smoke. Now, of course, the market is full of 

 fly mixtures, but we are still using smoke and various preparations 

 as deterrents. I recall being at a small park along Lake Erie, one 

 night several years ago and the place was covered with a pall of smoke, 

 originating from piles of burning leaves. It was either that or mos- 

 quitoes. It is needless to state that modern mosquito extermination 

 methods hadn't reached there at that time. 



Coming to household pests, particularly the bed bug, the following 

 formula must certainly have been effective. 



"Reduce one ounce of corrosive sublimate and one ounce of white 

 arsenic to a fine powder; mix with one ounce of muriate of ammonia,, 

 two ounces each of oil of turpentine and yellow wax and eight ounces 

 of olive oil. Put all these into a pipkin placed in a pan of boiling 

 water and when the wax is melted, stir the whole in a mortar till cold." 

 I suppose this combination was to be used as are insect powders of 

 today. For fleas, the old English preventive is quoted: 



"When wormwood hath seed, get a handful of twaine 

 To save against March to make flea refrain; 

 Where chamber is swept and wormwood is strown, 

 No flea for his life dare abide to be known." 



Probably this was a household rhyme, memorized during childhood. 



For killing house flies, solutions of the following were placed in 



saucers; corrosive sublimate. King's yellow (a sulphide of arsenic), 



and Quassia. Going back to traps again, when earwigs became 



