Plant Diseases and Insects. 105 



pears to the well-informed entomologist I need not tell you, 

 but it may be well for the information of the public to say (as 

 I have not alluded to the matter elsewhere) that a number of 

 different species of ladybirds feed upon the woolly aphis and 

 that it is a rule with the insects of this family not to be selecSf 

 as to the particular aphid they prey upon. Hippodamia con- 

 vergens (the species referred to as the Sedan of the woolly 

 aphis) feeds over nearly the whole extent of the United States 

 upon this particular schizoneura, among others, and the fact 

 that both the species referred to feed upon various aphides is 

 well known. That one of the species is also common upon 

 the Pacific coast and that its being carried there from the east 

 is like "carrying coals to Newcastle" may not, however, be 

 so generally known. All such efforts as this carried on by 

 persons unfit, from want of any special knowledge, for the 

 mission, must invariably do harm, not only because of the ne- 

 gative results which follow but because of the lack of confi- 

 dence in such work which they will engender in the minds 

 of our legislators. 



'' Insecticide machinery. — A profitable hour might be de- 

 voted to the subject of insecticide machinery, but I must con- 

 tent myself with a few words. At a trial of such machinery 

 at the Mareil-Marly vineyards, during the late Paris Exposi- 

 tion, I had an excellent opportunity of witnessing the latest 

 advances made in France in this direction, and it was extreme- 

 ly gratif3'ing to note that, wath whatever modification of the 

 power employed (and many of the machines were very inge- 

 nious), all other forms of spraying tip had been abandoned 

 for vineyard purposes in favor of modifications of the Riley 

 or cyclone nozzle. The superiority for most practical pur- 

 poses of the portable knapsack pumps of V. Vermorel, of 

 Villefranche (Rhone), France, was sufficiently evident. M. 

 Vermorel has identififd himself with the regeneration and 

 improvement of French grape culture in many directions, and 

 is, withal, an enthusiastic student of insect life. I spent a 

 very profitable day with him last year, both at the factory and 

 at his home, where he has established a virtual experiment 

 station in the midst of a fine vineyard on American roots, 

 and with every facility for various fields of investigations, 

 none of which are deemed more important than the work in 



A. H.— 8 



