78 Poultry as Insecticides. 



we can find and remote as possible in blood. In this way we 

 have secured fowls as like as peas, the hens averaging about 

 eight pounds and the cocks nearly 12. 



Ducks Fattening on Potato-Bugs. It has frequently been 

 asserted that ducks and geese will eat potato-beetles. We 

 have never been able to get them to do so, but it seems that 

 others have been smarter. E. H. Kern, Mankato, Kansas, 

 writes to Insect Life as follows : " Several seasons ago my po- 

 tato-field, was almost ruined because I could not use Paris 

 green, as my stock was in danger from it. A large pond of 

 water attracted about 20 of my neighbor's ducks to its shore. 

 I never did fancy ducks very much, and I told him so. He 

 said he would give them to me if I would care for them, as he 

 could not keep them at home. The next morning I went down 

 to the pond at sunrise to try to drive said ducks into a pen. I 

 saw a very curious sight. Headed by an old drake, the 20 

 ducks were waddling off in a bee-line for my potato-field. I 

 crawled into some bushes and awaited developments. As they 

 came to the end of the rows they seemed to deploy right and 

 left, and such a shoveling in of bugs I never beheld. They 

 meant business, and for fully one-half hour did they continue, 

 until every duck was filled up to its bill with bugs. Then 

 they went for that pond, and I went for their owner and paid 

 him $i for the entire bunch that being all he would accept. 

 When I returned, every duck seemed to be trying to outdo its 

 fellows in noise. This expedition was repeated about 4 p. M., 

 and kept up until every bug went under. I have tried these 

 ducks and others since, and find they all relish and seem 

 to get fat on potato bugs. " 



CHICKENS IN THE ONION-PATCH. 

 J. J. H. GREGORY. 



As is well known, the onion-maggot is hatched from eggs 

 laid in the young onion at the surface of the ground, by an in- 

 sect known among gardeners as the " onion-fly." This is one 



