358 



Ithasbeeu suggested that the stumps of split Cabbage Palm besprinkled 

 with a Paris greeu solution, but no experiments have been tried to as- 

 certain whether the application of the poison will vitiate the attract- 

 iveness of the bait. It seems to us, however, that this will probably 

 prove a fairly satisfactory remedy. Mangoes and other fruit, crushed 

 and allowed to ferment, will also prove suitable bait, and the cutting- 

 down of wild palms in the neighborhood in order to catch the beetles 

 visiting the stumps is also recommended. The latter plan, however, is 

 a little dangerous, since these stumps and logs will become breeding 

 places and will require constant watching. Mr. Blaudford in his bib- 

 liography has overlooked our short notes on the subject in Insect Life. 

 (See vol. I, p. 14, and vol. iv, pp. 136-137.) Five years ago we rec- 

 ommended the plan of cutting off' a palmetto plant, say one foot from 

 the ground, and capturing the beetles on the stump. In Vol. iv we 

 elaborated this plan to some extent in the following words: 



There is, however, a preventive method, and this consists in cutting down or 

 wounding several young trees of any wild species of palm growing in the vicinity 

 of the cocoanut trees. The fermenting sap of the trunks of such trees, as you have 

 yourself seen, attracts the beetles strongly, and a multitude of them can thus easily 

 be captured and killed before they have oviposited. The trunks of the felled trees 

 Avill soon be filled with the larvte, and the infested portion should be sawed off and 

 burned before the larva? have matured. If concerted action on the part of owners 

 of cocoanut trees could be obtained, this method would no doubt materially contrib- 

 ute toward a diminution in the muuiber of the beetles and a consequent lessening 

 of the damage to the cocoanut trees. 



ALUM FOR ROSE CHAFERS. 



There occasionally appears in the columns of the agricultural press 

 an account of the successful use of an alum solution against the Rose 

 Cliafer. We notice, for instance, an article in the Massachusetts 

 Flonghman of December 17, 1802, by James W. Gage, of Lowell, Mass., 

 who sprayed his vineyard the previous spring with a solution of alum 

 at the rate of one pound to four gallons of water. The application was 

 made in the evening and the next morning the insects had disappeared. 

 He is not of the opinion that the solution kills them, but that it is dis- 

 tasteful and drives them off". Such articles as these are liable to induce 

 a considerable expense in experimentation on the part of other grape 

 and rose growers and the remedy will be undoubtedly ineffectual 

 where the insects are numerous. Accurate experiments have been 

 made by Prof. J. B. Smith, of New Brunswick, N. J., which are recorded 

 upon page 31 of his bulletin on the Eose Chafer. He found that at a 

 strength of one pound to two gallons of water the mixture was per- 

 fectly ineffectual. It was so strong that a white deposit lasting several 

 days was produced upon the plants, but the beetles were not kept oft". 

 Specimens of the insects dipped in the mixture were not in the least 

 ^incommoded. 



