SUBSTANCES SERVICEABLE FOR COUNTERODOUANTS. 75 



ter quality contributing to economy of material and labor of applica- 

 tion. A degree of strength not wholly overpowering would be propor- 

 tionately protective in lessening the distance at which the plants 

 would attract. If the above properties were embodied in a fertilizer, 

 the resultant benefit would be enhanced by enabling the plant better 

 to resist, through vigorous growth, any form of insect attack. Among 

 manures, the drainage from pig-styes has been found to act with great 

 efficiency in preventing the egg-deposit of the Anthomyia flies upon 

 onions, radishes, turnips and similar crops. The dry manure from 

 piggeries has a remarkably pungent and strong odor, when distributed 

 upon lands, and we can all recall the offensive, almost insupportable, 

 odor escaping from a passing freight-train laden with swine, from some 

 remote point in the West. It is very probable that upon our seaboard, 

 where the mossbunker {Brevooi'tia menliadeii) and other fish can be 

 obtained in quantities to permit of their use as manure, they will 

 prove of great value in protecting from egg-deposit. The gas- 

 works of our cities and the farther distillation of coal-tar, in the va- 

 rious uses to which it is applied, should afford us several valuable 

 materials for this purpose. 



Can not chemistry come to the aid of the economic entomologist, in 

 furnishing at a moderate cost the odorous substances needed ? Is the 

 imitation of some of the more powerful animal secretions impractic- 

 able ? It lias been thought possible, and a distinguished perfumer 

 has long been experimenting at a cost of thousands of dollars, in the 

 production of a substance having the properties of the peculiar secre- 

 tion of the Mephitis mephitica^ (the skunk), to serve as the basis of a 

 perfume which would, he is confident, enrich the discoverer. Can 

 there be any doubt of the conservative action and the value of this 

 substance as a counterodorant, could it be obtained in sufficient quan- 

 tity; and what an additional charm would its general employment 

 impart to horticultural and agricultural 2:)ursuits, when the alembic of 

 the chemist shall have converted it into a delightful perfume, as pro- 

 posed, surpassing in agreeability even that of musk — a similar animal 

 secretion. 



What would be the result, it may be asked, should this method of 

 plant protection from insect oviposition prove effectual and be gene- 

 rally adopted ? Might it not i^roduce serious disturbance in the 



*If, in our zoological nomenclature, we were permitted to go beyond the names given in 

 the tenth or twelfth edition of Linne's Systema Naturce, in 1758 and 1766, this animal, in 

 strict compliance with the law of priority, might now be known by the name under which 

 it was originally described in 1744, by the French Naturalist, Charlevoix, viz.: I'Enfant du 

 Diable — the devil's own. child. Certain'v the designation would be quite as expressive as 

 the scientific one which it now bears. 



