58 SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 



(the proper proportion of this had better be tested by experi- 

 ment), applying water in which hen manure or guano has 

 been dissolved, sprinkling the leaves with a mixture of 

 wheaten flour and red pepper, or snuff, or sulphur, etc., 

 etc., have been found efficacious by various persons. Dr. 

 Harris states that these insects fly by night as well as by 

 day, and are attracted by the light of burning splinters of 

 pine knots, or of staves of tar barrels. As insects breathe 

 through pores in their bodies, such strong ammoniacal odors 

 as are given off from a liquid in which hen manure, 

 guano, or kerosene have been mixed, must tend to suffo- 

 cate and so repel them. 



As new land is much less infested with bugs than old 

 land, in sections where these insects are very troublesome, 

 it will be better to break up sward. 



In fighting these pests, where but few hills are cultiva- 

 ted, pieces of board or shingle laid around the young 

 plants, just above the surface of the ground, will collect 

 many on their undersides over-night, and by examining 

 them early in the morning, many can be brushed off into hot 

 water. I don't think much of the plan of killing them 

 about the vines ; the old saying that " when one is killed 

 fifty will come to his funeral" appears to have a savor of 

 truth in it, for I have noted that where I have killed them 

 about the vines, there seems to be no end to the business ; 

 with constant attention, still the bugs appear to be about 

 as plenty as at first. I think that the odor from the dead 

 ones attracts others. 



The large black bug I consider rather a pumpkin than 

 a squash bug, as in this section, and in others, as far as my 

 knowledge extends, where the cultivation of the pump- 

 kin has been given up for a number of years, it has al- 

 most entirely disappeared. Occasionally a leaf of a vine 

 will be seen pretty well covered with the rascals late in the 

 season, but so scarce are they that for several years past 

 I have not seen, on an average, more than one a season 



