tlte best means of preventing Us ravages. 323 



that they can be removed during the greater part of the year, 

 and replaced at the dangerous seasons. 



The tar is apphed in the angle under the coving, and when 

 the wood is once saturated, a very little need be applied at 

 once. The advantages of this mode over the preceding, are, 

 first, the tar is more protected from the action of wind and 

 rain, and therefore is much less liable to be hardened; second- 

 ly, when renewed, it can be put on freely and rapidly, without 

 the slightest injury to the tree. 



I have said that the tar will not dry soon; but I still think it 

 worth while to tar daily, during the dangerous seasons, where 

 the worms attack in great force. If this be done, I am con- 

 fident no orchard, thus guarded, can be seriously injured. It 

 is true that there will be a little space between the box and 

 tree at the corners, and if the tree is a growing one, it may be 

 best to leave a little room all round. But these openings will 

 be taken advantage of only by those insects who happen to rise 

 from the earth, close to the body of the tree, under the vacant 

 space, and these have been ascertained by Kollar to be very 

 few. The grubs have no talent at undermining; their instinct 

 to mount is not discriminating, and they seem to have no other 

 mode of dealing with obstacles than to climb over them. 



Still I may be asked, whether the few that go up will not do 

 nearly as much harm as might have been done by the main 

 body, who are caught in the tar. I answer, if this were so, then 

 it would follow that all trees, which are attacked at all, would 

 be equally injured. Now if any one will visit the orchards in 

 our vicinity, he will find apple trees in every state of injury, 

 from those which have only a few leaves injured to those which 

 have not a leaf to show. 



If any, however, are indisposed to try this expedient, there 

 is another much cheaper, but less effectual, as it answers only 

 in dry weather, but may then be of great use as a practical 

 remedy. Let dry sand be heaped round the foot of the tree, 

 at as sharj) a pitch as it will lie. The grubs will strive to crawl 

 up these heaps, but will fall down time after time, and may be 

 found in one place, viz., wilhin an inch or two of the base. 

 As we know exactly where to look for them, we can gather 

 them up as rapidly as we could pick strawberries. The idea 

 of catching these insects by hand, may remind some of your 

 readers of the fable of the traveller who alighted from his 

 horse to kill the grasshoppers. I shall only state in reply one 



