264 



PINE. 



commend sm'face bm'iiing when successive planting is com- 

 templated. This is the safest method of destroying the Fir 

 Weevil in its various stages. If for special reasons the surface 

 cannot be burned, it is well to delay planting for a few years 

 until the weevils are exterminated." — (D. S. S.) 



With regard to remedies that are applicable when weevil- 

 attack is present in young plantations of limited extent, hand- 

 picking is a sure but a tedious and expensive cure. The beetles 

 may be gathered into wide-mouthed bottles (J. M'L.), or they 

 might be shaken down on to tarred boards (see " Otio- 

 rhynchus "). 



Quick-lime has been found to answer well, when thrown on 

 the ground round the trees, and, from the observations of the 

 beetle-attack commencing at the ground level and gradually 

 stripping the trees upward of their bark, it would appear that 

 any deterrent thrown round the stem would be useful. Ashes 

 or sand sprinkled with diluted paraffin, or gas-lime scattered 

 round the trees, would probably do much good, but, though 

 the beetles occur to a certain extent on the ground, their low 

 and short flights exactly suit them for attack to the young 

 trees, to which they are mainly hurtful ; and mere isolation 

 at the roots can only be looked upon as a partial remedy. 



The plan of painting over the stem of the young trees with 

 a mixture of paraffin and red-lead has proved fairly successful 

 (up to the date of the note of observation), but was not con- 

 sidered by the experimenter to have then been tried long 

 enough to be certain of its success or its effects on the tree. — 

 (W. W. R.) It has been found that young trees dressed with 

 a mixture known as Messrs. Davidson's composition, used to 

 keep off rabbits, have been free from weevil-attack.* 



From these notes it is plain that direct applications to the 

 stems of the young trees are serviceable, and it would be well 

 worth trying whether applications of soft-soap and sulphur, or 

 of gas-water, soft-soap, and sulphur, well laid on with a brush, 

 would not answer (for recipes, see references in Index). Pro- 

 bably smearing the stems with a mixture of cow- dung and 

 lime would do good, or in this case, as the application is not 

 to a food-crop, there would be no objection to using some of 

 the regular insect poisons. 



One important point yet remains ; it appears that the young 

 plants are most attacked after transplanting, and probably in 

 this case, as in many others, the temporarily altered state of 



* I refer here to Davidson's composition, made according to the original 

 recipe, which, as far as I am aware, is only procurable from Messrs. Dickson & 

 Sons, Newton Nurseries, Chester. Since the 1st edition of my Manual was 

 published, I have been given to understand that a slightly altered form of 

 composition has been issued, which very possibly may answer as well as the 

 above, but I am not myself acquainted with it. — Ed. 



