223 



ground. Fall plowing will turn up and expose these insects to the 

 inclemency of the winter. Manuring the field with sea-mud is said to 

 be useful. p^ ^ 



Searching for the worms when they 

 come out to feed, or digging them from 

 their holes near the plant, and killing 

 them, is doubtless the most effectual 

 remedy we can employ. Curtis says 

 one-quarter ounce of salt dissolved in 

 a quart of water will drive the grub 

 away, and preserve the plant till washed 



off by rain. " Tobacco-water will kill them if it comes in contact 

 with them. Quicklime will also destroy them if put on the plants 

 when wet, and dry soot dug into the ground is very offensive to the 

 grub."' Suds made of one pound of soap to ten gallons of water, 

 and applied warm, will cause them to dart out, when they can be imme- 

 diately killed. Four ounces of aloes dissolved in a gallon of water 

 and applied to the plants, is said to preserve them from the cut-worm 

 Smooth holes made with a rake or hoe-handle near the plants will serve 

 as traps into which the worms fall, and may there be destroyed. Coal- 

 tar and water, a spoonful of the former to a gallon of the latter, will, it 

 is said, drive the worm away without in- p.^ g 



juriug the plant. Where a few choice 

 plants are to be protected, this may be 

 done by wrapping stiff" paper or walnut- 

 leaves around the stem when setting them 

 out, leaving the i^aper a little above 

 ground, and an inch or two below. Cow- ' \ i s'^ ^ 



dung stirred in water, and poured around "^ 4r t |f~V--jl>^ 



the plant so that the solid part will re- " J'V""" 



main and form a hard surface, through ^^ 



wHich the worm cannot penetrate, has been recommended. For a similar 

 insect in Europe, Kollar advises lime-ashes applied to the land, or lime- 

 water in damp weather. If the female moths are attracted by sweet 

 liquids, many of them may be killed, and as they are also lured by lights 

 in the evening they may be destroyed in this manner to some extent. 



Philloxera vastateix in Austria. — The following account of the 

 ax)pearance of the Phylloxera rastatrix in Austria is condensed from a 

 late official publication of the Austrian minister of agriculture : 



In France, in 1865, at Pujaut, near Eoquemaure, department du Gard, 

 for the first time an insect was observed injuring the roots of grape- 

 vines so that they died. The occurrence excited chiefly the interest of 

 scientists, and it w as believed to be the same insect found in galls on 

 grape-leaves by A. Fitch in North America, and by him called PempM- 

 giis vitifolia. The newly-discovered insect, first scientifically described 

 by Planchon, evidently belonged to the Phylloxera * family, and on 

 account of the extraordinary damage its increasing numbers inflicted 

 on the vineyards, it was called vastatrix. 



In 1868 France awoke to the necessity of adopting energetic measures 

 for the suppression of this scourge, which almost unnoticed had assumed 

 fearful dimensions. The question was asked, (and it is not yet an- 



* The name Phylloxera comes horn phy lion, a leaf, aM<f xerainein, to dry, a name given by 

 Fouscolombe in ld34 to the species found on oak trees. Four species of Phylloxera are now- 

 known; viz: P. guercus on summer oak, Quercits robur, L.\ P. quercus, on white oak, Q, 

 alba; P. Lichtensteinii on Q. coccifera ; P. vastatrix on L. ritis. The first three are probably 

 harmless. 



