566 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



we have seen it mounted high on grass, apparently eating the seeds from the 

 head, uo other insect being visible to the naked eye. The question, therefore, 

 is open to dii^cussion as to whether it actually departs from the habits of the 

 rest of the family, which almost all live upon other insects. 



The true wire-worm (which must not be confounded with the julus or centi- 

 pede) is the larva of a species of clater, or click-beetle, commonly known by 

 the trivial name of snappiug-bug, from its habit of being able to throw itself 

 Bome distance in the air with a sudden click when laid upon its back ; it is said 

 to pass five years in the larva or feeding state, and resembles the common 

 meal worm, the body being cylindrical, very tough, of a yellowish brown 

 color, and furnished with a distinct head, and only six legs ; centipedes, on the 

 contrary, have an indefinite number. 



Wire-worms feed upon the roots of plants, and are thus frequently very destruc- 

 tive to vegetation. Curtis states that " soot and lime," " chloride of lime 

 water," or " nitrate of soda, wull destroy them." He likewise says that " spirits 

 of tar and sand," or " refuse lime from the gas-works," will have the same 

 effect, and that " salt on light lands is highly efficacious." , 



A writer in the American Agriculturist observes, however, that salt, two to 

 three bushels per acre, will have no efi'ect ; fifty to one hundred bushels per acre 

 might have some effect ; and that two bushels per rod (one hundred and fifty 

 bushels jDer acre) did not stop their ravages. Another waiter recommends corn- 

 cobs, with the idea that the worms will burrow into the cob and leave the crop 

 unmolested. This, however, is not very probable. Some farmers recommend 

 fall ploughing as destroying the grubs by turning over the sod, and thus 

 bringing the grubs to the surface, where they will be quickly found and killed 

 by birds and small animals. 



Harris and some English authors recommend " sliced potatoes or turaips to 

 be strewed in rows in the field or garden as a bait for the wire-worm;" the 

 pieces to be examined every morning, and the insects which burrow into them 

 to be collected and destroyed ; this, however, would be practicable ouly on a 

 very small scale. A writer in the Scottish Farmer states that the late. Mr. 

 Pusey found rape cake had the effect of destroying numbers of the wire- 

 worms, and when grass land is very much overrun Avith them it is also said to 

 be advisable to pare and burn the sod. Moles, crows, and other birds, eat im- 

 mense numbers of these larvae. 



The perfect insect of the Buprestis, or borer, we find in the cherry, &c., is 

 somewhat similar in shape to the elater or click-beetle above mentioned, but is 

 much broader and generally of metallic lustre ; it is also unable to spring up- 

 wards when placed upon its back. The larvaj, which have long, narrow, 

 flattened bodies suddenly widening towards the head, have no legs, and live in 

 the wood of the apple, cherry, hickory, peach, oak, and pine. The same 

 remedies, cutting out the worms, &c., are recommended, as are practiced for 

 the a})i)le-borer. Harris says*" that when trees are very much infested by the 

 larvaj it will be better to cut them down and burn immediately, rather than 

 suffer them to stand until the borers have completed their transformations and 

 mr.de their escape ; also that woodpeckers are much more successful in dis- 

 covering their retreats and in digging out the defenceless culprits than the most 

 skilful gardener or nurseryman." 



The LnmeUirornia, or beetles having the end of the antenna} terminating in 

 a number of laminae or plates, is a very numerous f imily ; the larvae are fat, 

 greasy-looking grubs, whitish, without eyes, and having six pretty long lege. 

 The common white grub, which is so plentiful in dung heaps, is a good exam- 

 ple. Some of them feed upon manure, others are found in rotten wood, or feed 

 upon the roots of plants. The common tumble-bug is a good example of the 

 species infesting manure. There are some, however, which pass the Larva 

 state in rotten wood and decaying stumps, and are comparatively innoxioua. 



