462 DISEASES AND INSECTS, 



mended through the " Genesee Farmer," by David Thomas, 

 forty years ago. At the West a machine or hand butting- 

 barrow has been introduced for jarring and catching the 

 curculio in large orchards, but it is said to injure the trees 

 by the severe blows consequently necessary with its use. 



From repeated observations, I am inclined to believe 

 that it is quite sensitive to cold, for it is well known that 

 in the cool of the morning it is always in a comparative 

 state of torpor ; and in the cold seasons of 1849-50, when 

 our peach trees and fruit were so greatly injured, the cur- 

 culio was driven off, and we had a most abundant crop 

 of plums. A cold day or two may not affect it ; but 

 when it continues for two weeks, as in the years referred 

 to, it seems to be rendered powerless for that season. 



Ants. These are not very destructive, yet they some- 

 times do considerable injury to beds of seedlings, by 

 making their hillocks among them, and they also infest 

 ripe fruits. 



Boiling water, oil, or spirits of turpentine, poured on 

 their hillocks, disperses them ; and if wide-mouthed bot- 

 tles, half-filled with sweetened water or syrup, be hung 

 among the branches of a tree when the fruit is attaining 

 maturity, ants, wasps, flies, and beetles of all sorts that 

 prey greedily upon sweets, will be attracted into them. 



Mr. Downing, who recommends this as a " general ex- 

 tirpator suited to all situations," says that " an acquaint- 

 ance caught in this way, in one season, more than three 

 bushels of insects of various kinds, and preserved his 

 garden almost entirely against them." 



A gentleman in Detroit, who was very careful of his 

 garden, informed me that he had pursued this method 

 of trapping insects with results that perfectly astonished 

 him. He had to empty the bottles every few days to 

 make room for more. A very good way of trapping and 

 killing ants is, to besmear the inside of flower-pots with 

 molasses, and turn them on their mouths near the hillock ; 



