STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 95 



berry leaf roller we have an insect as hard to catch with poisons as 

 are our educated prairie wolves and wild cats. 



My only hope of saving my crop next summer is in the services 

 of numerous broods of chickens that I intend to scatter in coops 

 set here and there about the fields, and I indulge in this hope con- 

 fidently for the reason that a neighbor of mine across the road 

 from my place had quite a large home-use patch entirely free from 

 the insects last summer, although his vines were grown from 

 plants taken the previous year from my infested field. The only 

 difference between his patch and my field was that he had a hun- 

 dred or so of young chickens amona: his vines all the spring, while 

 I had no feathered protection except from a few birds that had 

 escaped "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" at the hands 

 of our village boys. And this reminds me to remark that in 

 wooded districts where birds are plenty perhaps this insect may be 

 kept in check by them if the birds are permitted to pick an occa- 

 sional berry to take the bad taste out of their mouths. 



I have looked for descriptions of devices to capture the moths of 

 the leaf roller and other night-flying insects by the use of fire 

 lights to attract them; but have not found any. If anyone knows 

 of a cheap and practical contrivance combining a light that can be 

 left in the field safely and not go out and a vessel of water to 

 drown the insects as they come to the light, I would be willing he 

 should take out a patent on it. 



QUESTION BOX. 



Has catalpa speciosa been tried in Minnesota, and, if so, with 

 what success? 



Mr. Pearce. I have not found any healthy trees. 



Mr. Elliot. I have known them to come to blossom, but they 

 become diseased. 



Mr. McHenry. I know of none over three years old. All my 

 yearlings winter-killed. 



Mr. Sias. I am afraid of them. Have tried them several years 

 and failed. 



What is the best way and time to plant;|beech nuts, and will 

 they grow in Dakota? 



