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stages, are active, and live by suction. They are fur- 

 nished with a tubular mouth or proboscis, with which 

 they pierce the leaves, buds, and annual stems of 

 plants, injuring and even poisoning them by their nu- 

 merous punctures, and exhausting them by abstracting 

 the sap for their own nourishment. Different methods 

 of destroying plant-lice have been suggested, all of 

 which may undoubtedly be useful. The preference, 

 in my opinion, is to be given to strong soap-suds, or 

 to a mixture of that with tobacco-water, thrown warm 

 upon the infested plants, which afterwards should be 

 thoroughly drenched with pure water, if their leaves 

 are to be used as food. It is said that hot water may 

 be employed with perfect safety and success to de- 

 stroy these noxious insects, wherever they exist. 



An insect, called the cut-worm is the pest of the 

 cabbage yard. It is a naked caterpillar, the larva of a 

 moth or JVoctua, so named from its nocturnal habits. 

 It passes the first two states of its existence in the 

 earth, and in the last, or moth state, flies only by night. 

 In the night, also, the caterpillar issues from its retreat, 

 and attacks and eats off the young cabbage at its root. 

 In the morning the enemy may usually be discovered 

 an inch or two beneath the surface of the soil, im- 

 mediately about the roots of the cabbage. Rolling 

 the roots and stems of the plants in ashes or ground 

 plaster before transplanting, as well as surrounding 

 them with paper cylinders, has proved a preservative 

 against the cut-worm. 



Cucumbers in England enjoy an immunity from 

 insect assailants, but with us they are deprived of this 

 privilege. Besides the minute black Haltka or jumping 



