THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



175 



Amber. Israella, Northern Muscadine, 

 Union Village. — Altered from Country 

 Gentleman. 



A NEW PRINCIPLE IN PROTECTION 

 FROM INSECT ATTACK. 



BY J. A- LINTNEH. 



{Read htfore the Western New York Horticultural 

 Society.) 



Our more accurate writers in Econ- 

 omic Entomology, in the recommenda- 

 tions which they present for the arrest 

 of insect depredations, have, of late, 

 made a very proper distinction between 

 j/reventive and remedial measures. If 

 we construe an " insect attack " in its 

 broadest sense, as a habit pertaining to 

 a epecies of insect, of regularly attack- 

 ing a plant or an animal, then its arrest 

 at any time or in any manner, may 

 properly be regarded as a remedy of 

 the evil, and remedial measures would 

 thus comprise preventive ones. But if 

 we limit the " attack " to each separate 

 periodical recurrence of the same, then 

 it is possible by the interposition of 

 preventives to preclude the attack and 

 to render remedies unnecessary, and, 

 indeed, impossible. In this latter sense, 

 " remedies " imply that an attack has 

 commenced : " preventives " that means 

 are resorted to prior to the commence- 

 ment of attack. 



Of the latter, are such measures as 

 change in crops, early or late planting, 

 that may preclude the period of egg 

 deposit, vigorous cultivation, selection 

 of varieties which may be nearly or 

 wholly exempt from attack, washes and 

 coatings or other coverings, or the 

 application of highly odorous substances 

 to the object to be protected, or to the 

 soil afljacent if it be a vegetable growth, 

 to prevent the deposit of eggs. 



While the preventives that have 

 been i»roposed are comparatively few, 

 the remedies could be enumerated by 

 hundreds. Merely to specify a few, 



we have the popular applications of 

 Paris Green, London purple, hellebore 

 and pyrethrum, in powder or in liquid 

 form; carbolic acid, kerosene and other 

 oils ; soft soap and otheralkaline washes, 

 lime, ashes, soot, dust, salt, hot water, 

 hand-picking, tree-jarring, burning in- 

 fested twigs, attracting to tires, to lights, 

 or to adhesive sweets — all tending to 

 the destruction of insect life in one or 

 more of its several stages. 



It will readily be conceded that the 

 use of preventives, wherever practicable, 

 is more economical, more effective, and 

 often more convenient than a resort to 

 remedies. 



We propose, at this time, to limit 

 our attention to those means now in 

 great favor, which consist of such appli- 

 cations to the soil or to the plant di- 

 rectly that promise a safeguard against 

 Hie deposit of insect eggs. 



The great benefit of commencing our 

 efforts at this point is so obvious as to 

 need no words to commend it. It 

 would not be " nipping in the bud " 

 or "crushing in the egg.'' It is prior to 

 and beyond these. If no egg be 

 deposited, we have no artfully concealed 

 e%g to search for, no larva, whose rapa- 

 city and destructiveness we must arrest ; 

 no pupa, whose retreat is to be discover- 

 ed, and no imago, whose egg-distended 

 abdomen is as fraught with evil as was 

 that of the Trojan horse of old, to be 

 cai)tured or entraj)ped — in short, we 

 have dispensed with the four insect 

 stages that requii^ such unwearied and 

 unending investigation in order to 

 ascertain the most vulnerable point of 

 attack of insect life, and the best nif'nn^ 

 with which to assail it. 



Can the deposit of eggs be preveiited i 

 It can be, and has been done with 

 perfect success in many instances. 

 Please accept my simple assunmce of 

 this, instead of occupying your time by 

 citing instances in proof thereof. 



