176 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



six to twelve or tweaty-four hours, and you will destroy the 

 whole of theui. The trouble on the Cape is that they have 

 no rivers, and cannot flow their ground. In New Jersey 

 they have rivers, as they have in Middlesex County and 

 other parts of this State where the cranberry is grown, 

 and they are successful in raising it. I have studied this 

 matter on the Cape, in New Jersey, in Middlesex County, 

 and out in Franklin in Norfolk County. I knew that 

 there was a great deal of error in regard to the culti- 

 vation of the cranberry and in regard to these insects. 

 Although I have never resorted to Paris green, and have 

 always had an aversion to using it on fruit, yet I think that 

 its use on the Cape has been to some degree successful in 

 checking this insect. 



Professor Fernald. I simply want to say here, in reply 

 to the gentleman, that where the cranberry growers have 

 water, so that they can reflow their bogs at the time that the 

 fire worm is at work, they can kill the insect cheaper by that 

 means than by any other. It is not to that class of men 

 that I can be of assistance, — it is only to those who have no 

 means of reflowing their bogs. And then with regard to 



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the distribution of the fire worm. The egg is laid on the 

 under side of the leaves and remains there all winter, 

 hatches the next spring, and when people set out new vines 

 they very often send and get their vines from bogs which are 

 infested by the insect ; and they get them at the season of 

 the year when the eggs are already laid on the leaves, and 

 bring those vines and set them out, so that they bring not 

 only the vines but the eggs of the insect along with them. 



Mr. Edson. Before dismissing this cranberry question, I 

 would like to ask the professor if he has experimented with 

 tobacco ? 



Professor Fernald. I have never used tobacco. It has 

 been used to a greater or less extent by the Cape Cod grow- 

 ers, and also by the growers in New Jersey; but I did not 

 suppose I could add anything to the knowledge on that sub- 

 ject. Tobacco is very good, but it is more expensive than 

 Paris green. Why I recommend Paris green is because it 

 costs less, and, so far as danger is concerned, it seems to me 

 almost nothing. Of course it is a poison; you must not 

 eat it. 



