210 MINNEAPOLIS STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



water. Mix it to a sort of a paste in a saucer with a little water and 

 then add the water. If you use it dry mix one pint with twenty-five 

 parts of flour and put it on with a blow gun, I never make more 

 than two applications. 



Mr. EUergodt: How much will it take to spray an acre? It would 

 be rather expensive. 



Prof. Lugger: It should not take more that 25 cents worth to 

 spray an acre. 



Mr. Crooker: Is there not a parasite that destroys the currant 

 lice? 



Prof. Lugger: Last summer we had a great number Of parasites 

 that destroyed these lice. When you find on the body of a louse a 

 sort of a grayish sack, and you watch it carefully, and put it under 

 glass a couple of days, you will find there is a little round ball in- 

 side, and out of the inside of each egg comes a beautiful black wasp. 

 These black wasps lay about 600 eggs, and the progeny will lay 

 eggs in 600 other lice, and the lice will all be killed off by the parasite. 

 If you ever see such a thing, and you frequently will have opportu- 

 nity to do so, do not destroy the lice. We had the same thing this 

 year with cabbage lice, and in four or five days the cabbage lice 

 were all gone. 



Mr. Hartwell: Did you give the life history of the saw fly? How 

 long does it take the egg to hatch? 



Prof. Lugger: It depends upon the weather. They remain dur- 

 ing a cold spell ten or more days, but if we have normal conditions, 

 sunshine and warm weather, they will hatch in five. 



Mr. Hartwell: How many forms do they take? 



Prof. Lugger: As soon as the worm is full grown it drops to the 

 ground. It enters to a certain depth and spins a silken cocoon. It 

 is perfectly safe there. On the inside of that it changes to a pupa» 

 which soon after changes to a saw fly. The second brood of larvae 

 goes into the ground, but they do not hatch until the next year. 

 Some years ago I went to the expense of nearly a hundred dollars 

 to buy living parasites to kill the large saw fly that is so common 

 in our windbreaks, that eats the willows and bushes. We discovered 

 in Dakota some parasites that would kill this fly, and I planted them 

 in a windbreak. On going down there some fourteen days later I 

 found that the ground about the roots of the willows looked as 

 though it had been plowed. It was all dug open, and I found the 

 hogs had got to work and eaten the worms. But we have a still 

 better friend in the skunks, if we can have them in our gardens. They 

 are our best friends, and you should take proper pains to protect 

 your chickens, and the skunks ought to be permitted to live. If the 

 chickens are in the open where the skunks can get at them, they 

 will, of course, prove a temptation. The whole value of chickens in 

 the United States is not oue-half as great as the benefit we derive 

 from the skunk. That seems to be a rather tough statement, but it 

 is based on facts. Then, too, we have a great number of peculiar 

 mice. They simply have the shape of mice, but they are not mice. 

 They have very little noses, and the eyes are so small that they can- 

 not be seen unless the skin is held up against the light. If you see 

 such mice, keep the cats away from them and protect them as much 



