286 SUCCESS WITH SMALL FRUITS. 



boys are paid so much a pint. V/lien seeing a wilting plant, 

 it would scarcely be human nature not to dig out the pest 

 and grind it under our heel. Prevention of the evil is usu- 

 ally our best hope. Mr. Downing writes to me : " I believe 

 that if you would use refuse salt three or four years in suc- 

 cession, at the rate of five or six bushels to the acre, the 

 grubs would not trouble you much. Salt will not kill the 

 full-grown larvae, but those in a very young state." The 

 reader will remember a statement in Mr. Hale's letter on 

 commercial fertilizers confirmatory of this view. 



Experiments in this direction should be carefully made, 

 since, in one instance that I am aware of, a fruit grower re- 

 marked, '' I do not know whether the salt killed the grubs, 

 but I know it killed my plants." It is my purpose, how- 

 ever, to try this agent very thoroughly. There is danger of 

 our being misled in our estimate of the value of remedies, 

 from forgetfulness of the habits of the insect. We find our 

 ground full of larvae one year, and apply some cure or pre- 

 ventive. The following spring, the lan^ae become beetles 

 and fly away, and, even if they fill the same ground with 

 eggs again, the grubs are too small to be noticed that year ; 

 and therefore we may claim that our remedy is effectual, 

 when there may have been no effect from it whatever. 



One of the best preventives is to keep the soil under cul- 

 tivation, for this beetle rarely lays its eggs in loose soil, pre- 

 ferring old meadows and moist, loamy, sodded land ; the 

 lan^ae are equally fond of grass roots. This is one of the 

 reasons why a year or two of cultivation must often precede 

 the planting of strawberries. When this fruit is grown in 

 matted beds, they afford as attractive a place for the de- 

 posit of eggs as grass land ; and this is another fact in favor 

 of the narrow-row system and thorough cultivation. 



Mr. Caywood, a nurseryman, says that he has prevented 



