1879] REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 3 1 



of their foliage by the perfect insect ; while the roots of all 

 kinds of vegetables, flowers, plants, and even young trees are 

 devoured by the larvce. An individual rented several acres for 

 a market garden and nursery. In less than a month after the 

 buds of Roses were well set, the grub cleared all before him. 

 Of 7,000 briars (stocks for the Rose), scarcely as many hundred 

 were spared. 



It is to be feared that few realize the wide diffusion of this 

 insect in New England ; and that still fewer adequately esti- 

 mate the damage that he does. The foes that assail you are 

 neither drought nor a variable climate. They must be sought 

 beneath your feet, in the soil that you cultivate, — alike insatiate 

 of the roots of grasses or of the strawberry-plant. You will say 

 — search for and exterminate them ! Try it ! and then admit 

 that the word impossible should have place, in horticultural if 

 not in Napoleonic dictionaries. A portion of the Public Grounds 

 in this city, was ploughed deeply, during the Autumn of A. D. 

 1877. Exposed in the furrow to the frosts and snow of Winter, 

 it was ploughed anew in the following Spring, and again in 

 Fall, lying fallow the while and thereafter. Once more ploughed, 

 harrowed, and then carefully forked over, you think, do you not, 

 that all forms of insect-life were effectually destroyed .-' On the 

 contrary, the soil was literally crawling ; a single spadeful 

 would bring to light a dozen large larvix. After as thorough 

 destruction as possible, the land was finally sown. But, that 

 you may see how ineffectual was even such deliberate work, I 

 submit, for your inspection, a section from a stake that was 

 thrust into the earth for the support of a flowering spike of 

 Gladiolus. It is a sample of fifty (50) gnawed in like manner. 

 Where shall you search for this Lachnosterna fiisca, if he stays 

 in the ground for three continuous years } In what manner 

 shall you contrive to exhume him — if he descends, at some 

 period of his maturing life, — to a depth of five (5) feet ! Your 

 Secretary confesses himself puzzled ; and believes that it will 

 prove a tough stint even for the Turdus ! 



In his last Annual Report, referring to a then recent Horti 



