228 OPEN AIR GRAPE CULTURE. 



smaller than at present, I found the rose-bug a 

 formidable enemy. They appeared on the vines 

 when they were in blossom, or just as the blossoms 

 were falling off and the young grapes forming, and 

 devoured them with the greatest avidity. This feast 

 continued from eight to twelve days, or, until the 

 cherries on the trees in the vicinity began to ripen, 

 when they with one accord flew to them, for a 

 change of diet, I presume, or from some other cause. 

 I was quite familiar with the habits of the caterpil- 

 lar, and had been in the practice of clearing them 

 from my orchards in the spring, before they had 

 destroyed scarcely a leaf. This I did not consider a 

 great or difficult matter, for they were enveloped in a 

 web early in the morning, and one man in a few 

 days was able to clear many hundred trees, by twist- 

 Ing them off, web and all, with a basket, and care- 

 'fully placing them under his foot. The rose-bug, 

 'however, did not, like the caterpillar, make its 

 .appearance in clusters or webs, but in small numbers 

 -at first, and scattered through the vineyards, increas- 

 ing rapidly every day. Though taken from the vines 

 on the trellis every morning, they continued to mul- 

 tiply till the eighth or twelfth day, when they 

 suddenly left for the cherry-trees, as before stated. 

 I was at a loss at first to know where they came 

 from, till -at length I discovered the ground perfo- 



