

L 1 i> 



CALIFORNIA. 



PEEYEISTTIYES AED KEMEDIES. 



MANY and various have been the means resorted 

 to for protecting the cornfield against the innumera- 

 ble hosts of its insect foes. Some of these have 

 proved quite successful, and others sufficiently so to 

 encourage further efforts in the same direction. It is 

 by no means impossible that continued investigations 

 may yet teach us how to exclude from the maize crop 

 the most dangerous of its enemies. 



Steeping the seed corn before planting, as recom- 

 mended in the case of birds, though not an absolute 

 protection against insects, has a salutary tendency in 

 two ways. It is said to repel the wire-worm which 

 usually attacks the germinating seed, and by quicken- 

 ing the growth of the plant, places it sooner beyond 

 danger from the attacks of other enemies. 



Ploughing up sward-land in the fall is attended 

 with advantage, by throwing out many insects from 

 their hidden recesses in the soil, and exposing them 

 to be devoured by birds, or destroyed by the frosts of 

 winter. 



A protection against the cut-worm, sometimes 



