270 FIRST AN^NUAL REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Hand-inching. — That the collectiou of the bugs for destruction, 

 either by the method above given, or by the more tedious one of hand- 

 picking is practicable and successful, is shown by the statement of Dr. 

 Lincecum, of Texas {loc. cit.). " By the first of April I discovered 

 that the insects had commenced on my radishes and cabbages, and I 

 began picking them off by hand and tramping them under foot. By 

 that means I have preserved my four hundred and thirty-four cab- 

 bages, but I have visited every one of them daily for four months, find- 

 ing on them from thirty-five to sixty full-grown insects every day. Al- 

 though many have hatched in my garden the present season, I have 

 suffered none to come to maturity, and the daily supplies of grown in- 

 sects that I have been blessed with are emigrants from other gardens." 

 Another gentleman from the same State, in the latter part of February, 

 1870, gathered and destroyed, within a few days, forty-seven thousand 

 of the bugs. 



Miss Ormerod's Suggestions. 



From a statement in the Fourth Missouri Entomological Report, p. 

 38, that " the cabbage-grower in Europe is pestered with a bug 

 {Strachia omnia Linn.), which bears a general resemblance to our in- 

 sect in color and ornamentation," I endeavored to obtain some infor- 

 mation of the nature of its injuries, and the means used abroad for its 

 destruction. In a letter from Miss Ormerod, in reply to my inquiries, 

 she expresses regret at not being able to find any notice of its injuries 

 except a brief note of Dr. Taschenburg (merely stating that it feeds on 

 cabbage, has an extensive distribution, but is found in too small num- 

 bers to be regarded as injurious), or any published suggestion of 

 remedies. In the absence of such publication she has very kindly com- 

 municated to me her ideas of what would prove serviceable in similar 

 cases, in England, as follows : — 



Noting that " the individuals which have survived the winter hidden 

 under rubbish piles and other retreats," are the originators of the first 

 attack of the year, I would advise as far as possible clearing all un- 

 necessary rubbisli away. I do not know how you manage in America, 

 but here there is often a great deal of needless rubbish left about 

 in gardens, and on the ground around wood-stacks, hay-stacks and the 

 like, and the remains are left of such stacks to afford shelter to 

 every kind of insect vermin. I would gather these up and burn them 

 on the spots where they are, if possible. 



When cabbage ground has been infested during summer I would 

 trench, — I mean dig, turning the top portion of the ground to the 

 bottom, so that the " bugs" may be buried so deeply that they cannot 

 come up again : I should think that one spade deep would be enough, 

 but two spades or as gardeners here call it, two " spits" deep, is a very 

 thorough application. 



Gras-lime applied fresh from the works is a most excellent means of 

 killing everv thing it touches, insect or plant, and I look on a 



