STATE HOETICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 183 



motionless, feigning death for a time, when possibly, they might 

 also be discovered and eaten. 



Prof. Stiirtevant, of the State Experimental Farm at Geneva, 

 New York, placed a dozen hens in an inclosnre of fifty trees. 

 Only three per cent of plums were stung, while all outside were 

 ruined. Pea weevils proceed in a similar way with half-grown 

 pods. In a row of j)eas, where I had discovered these pests, 

 not one could be found after some hens had investigated them, 

 and a fine crop resulted. It is generally admitted that crow, 

 blackbirds and Baltimore orioles devour great numbers of these 

 weevils. So many have actually seen poultry eat potato bugs, 

 especially young bugs, their names would make too long a list, 

 though among them may be mentioned J. C. Plumb, of the West- 

 ern Farmer. Cut worms remain under ground by day, and their 

 only effectual preventive is frequently to dig about infested 

 plants and kill what worms are found, surely a suitable work for 

 chickens; and Secretary Gibbs, of this society, testifies he has 

 had several hundred strawberry plants thus cleared of worms. 

 He also mentioned a neighbor who bought five hundred or more 

 plants from him, and gave his chickens full range among them. 

 They were free from the leaf-roller's ravages, while Mr. Gibbs' 

 own plants, not so cultivated, were injured. Wire worms are 

 often hurtful to wheat and garden crops, including strawberries 

 and p(jtatoes. I cannot please my hens better than by disclosing 

 a haunt of these insects, unless indeed, I gather the worms my- 

 self and feed them out in a mass. If the biddies cannot, like 

 Oliver Twist, call for more, they look their appreciation. Snails 

 and slugs are less common here than in European gardens, 

 where, on the authority of Appleton's Cyclopoedia, they are often 

 too numerous, and the matter is remedied by fowls. Angle 

 worms, in great numbers, sour or poison soil, and no one of any 

 experience in gardening can deny hens' fondness for them, nor 

 for that famous corn and grass destroyer, the white grub, as well 

 as for grasshoppers, which also become formidable through 

 numbers. Biddy will trudge behind a plow half a day at a time, 

 devouring grubs thus brought to the surface. President J. M. 

 Smith, of the Wisconsin Horticultural Society, is as noted for his 

 fine currants as for his leniency to hens. The late Mrs. Lewis 

 told of a friend in Mazomamie, Wis., whose roses, free from 

 slugs, are a perpetual wonder. Their owner, however, divides 

 all compliments with the feathered helpers. I have seen poultry 

 eat bee, wheat, and cabbage millers, and in fact various others, 



