KEMEDIES FOR INSECT DEPREDATIONS. 61 



Emploj'ing swine to root for grubs in grass lands, for the wiiite-grub 

 {Lachuosierna fusca), and in orchards for the spring canker-worm 

 {Anisopteryx veniata). 



Employing a flock of fowls to feed upon the asparagus beetle {Crio- 

 ceris asparagi).* 



Placing coops of young chickens in gardens to feed upon the numer- 

 ous small beetles, such as the flea-beetles, and other insects infesting 

 garden vegetation. • 



Protecting and encouraging such insectivorous birds as are found by 

 the recent studies of Prof. Forbes, and others, to feed principally upon 

 injurious insects. 



Levying a war of extermination upon that unmitigated nuisance, 

 the English sparrow {Passer domestictis), to which we owe, in the city 

 of Albany and many of our other cities, a great increase of the cater- 

 pillars of the white-marked tussock-moth {Orgyia lencosiigina) which 

 defoliate our shade trees, and of other injurious hairy caterpillars. 



Protecting the skunk for the service it renders the hop-grower in 

 discovering and destroying the " grub" attacking the root of the hop- 

 vine; and for the many other injurious insects which it feeds upon.f 



Domesticating toads in gardens (the large common species, Brifo 

 Amcricanus), where they are such successful nocturnal collectors of 

 beetles, that entomologists have pressed them into the service of collect- 

 ing for their cabinets. The stomach of one examined was found to be 

 nearly filled with flea-beetles of a species abounding on cabbages and 

 turnips in a garden. 



Colonizing lady-bugs (the CoccinelUdce), on house plants and 

 other vegetation infested with plant-lice. 



Collection of parasitized insects and carrying them to localities where 

 the parasite has not occurred. J 



*Fitch : Wi to 2th JicpoHs on tlie Insects of the State of Aeiv York, p. Is6. 



^Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, for 1863, p. 268; Country Gentleman, xlii, 

 1877, p. 52. 



JThisis quite practicable, and was accomplished by Dr. Le Baron, while State Entomolo- 

 gist of Illinois, who collected at his home in Geneva, in the southern portion of the State, 

 a package of apple-tree twigs infested with the bark-louse {.lt//tilas/>isj>omicorticis), which 

 were largely parasitized with the eggs of its parasite {Aphelinns mi/tilaspides) — a minute 

 Chalcis fly. The twigs were sent into the extreme northern portion of the State, to Galena, 

 where the same bark-louse abounded, but was entirely free from parasitic attack. Here 

 they were tied to the branches of infested trees. On the second year thereafter, the pres- 

 ence of the parasites was discovered in many of the scales of the bark-louse examined at 

 Galena, leaving scarcely room for doubt that the experiment had proved successful, and 

 that the parasites had been introduced by means of the twigs sent for the purpose. The 

 experiment, in view of the incalculable importance of parasitic aid in controlling insect dep- 

 redations, may justly be regarded as "one of the most admirable instances on record of 

 the triumph of science in its application to economic entomology.'' See Le Baron's 'Third 

 Ann Rep. Ins. III., 1873, pp. 200-202. 



