36 



increase. Air-rslacked lime, which is fatal to these 

 larvae, should be dusted upon them ; and the ground 

 beneath the vines should also be strewed with it or 

 with ashes, to ensure the destruction of those that fall. 

 A solution of one pound of common hard soap in five 

 or six gallons of soft water, is used by Enghsh garden- 

 ers to destroy the Tenthredo of the gooseberry, and 

 might perhaps be equally destructive to that of the 

 grape-vine. It is applied warm, by means of a garden 

 engine, early in the morning or in the evening. 



The slug-worm, which in some seasons does so 

 much injury to the cherry, pear, and plum trees, is a 

 species of Tenthredo, agreeing in its metamorphoses 

 with that just mentioned, but differing from it in some 

 of its habits and in its appearance. The excellent 

 and well-known history * of this insect, by Professor 

 Peck, has left for me nothing to say, excepting that 

 ashes or lime, sifted upon the trees by means of the 

 simple apparatus recommended by Mr. Lowell, is fully 

 adequate to the destruction of the slugs. 



The cherry-tree annually suffers to a greater or less 

 extent from the destruction of its fohage by the beetle 

 or dorr-bug.^ From the middle of May till the end of 

 June, myriads of these large brown beetles congregate 

 at night upon our fruit-trees ; the air is filled with 

 swarms of them rushing with headlong and booming 

 flight, and impinging against every obstacle ; while the 

 very grass beneath our feet seems ahve and rustling 

 with the new-born beetles issuing from the soil, and 

 essaying their untried wings. The metamorphoses of 



* Natural History of the Slug-worm. 8vo. Boston. 1799. 

 j- Melolontha (^uercina, Knoch. 



