30 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FARM 



from the egg finds there a ready-made passage down to 

 its food. The larvae have done their destructive work when 

 the nuts fall. They are full-grown and are ready to leave the 

 nuts and enter the ground, there to complete their trans- 

 formations. An easy way to get the larvae, and at the same 

 time to learn the extent of their infestation, would be to 

 gather a few quarts of chestnuts or acorns freshly fallen from 

 the trees, and put them in glass jars to stand awhile. The 

 larvae 'eaving the nuts (emerging through remarkably 

 small holes which they gnaw through the shell) will descend 

 to the bottoms of the jars and remain there, where readily 

 seen. They will ' begin to emerge at once, and in less than a 

 fortnight all will be out, and may be counted. These, and 

 twig-pruners and bark-beetles, etc., all have to be reckoned 

 with in the orchard where nuts are cultivated. In this study 

 we will give our attention to the nuts, noting the infesting 

 animals only incidentally. 



Study 3. The Nuts of the Farm 



There is but a short period of a week to ten days about the 

 time of the first hard frost, when the work here outlined can 

 best be done. Take advantage of it, shifting the date of 

 other studies, if need be. The tools needed will be hammers 

 for cracking the shells, and pocket knives for cutting the soft 

 parts of the nuts; also, containers for taking specimens 

 home. The use of lineman's climbers and of beating-sticks in 

 the tree-tops is permissible to a careful and experienced per- 

 son; but the use of hooks on light poles for drawing down 

 horizontal boughs within reach from the ground is safer, 

 and has the advantage that all members of the class can see 

 what is going on. 



The program of the work will include a visit to the nut- 

 bearing trees and an examination of their crop, first on the 



