300 Farmers' Miscellany. [Oct., 



not to abandon the usages of past experience. Many valuable 

 trails in husbandry have been handed down to us from our vene- 

 rable ancestry. That many valuable improvements in the busi- 

 ness of farming have of late been made, we all acknowledge 

 The causes of bad husbandry do not arise from want of capacity 

 or knowledge among men in that branch of industry. Most far- 

 mers have correct views of good farming, and it only wants an 

 enterprising spirit to prevail among them to render their lands 

 more productive. We now have two classes of farmers, the prac- 

 tical and the scientific; and farming will never be carried to its 

 highest state of perfection until these two branches of elementary 

 knowledge shall be possessed by the same individual. 



A. 0. 



THE AGRILUS RUFICOLLIS. ^ 



BY PROF. S. S. HALDEMAN. 



PL I, Jig' 1. This little insect, so hurtful to the raspberry, 

 is about three lines long; black, minutely punctured, thorax and 

 front brassy; front with a vertical impression; a wide shallow 

 impression across the thorax posteriorly, and another at the base 

 of the elytra. In this particular case, the knowledge of the ap- 

 pearance of the insect is not essential, as far as the means of pre- 

 venting its depredations are concerned, although it is ahvays in- 

 teresting to know whence an injury proceeds. 



In its larva state, Agrillus ruficollis lives at the expense of the 

 cultivated Rubus (raspberry), in the heart of which the pupa may 

 be found in the month of May, the imago appearing in June. 

 The larva bores between the wood and bark, injuring the plant, 

 and causing a wide, unsightly excrescence. ~ It next penetrates to 

 the pith, which it traverses for two or three feet, finally excavat- 

 ing a cavity in which it undergoes its transformations. 



It is probable that the larva feeds during summer and autumn, 

 and passes the winter in the pupa state. The diseased stems are 

 readily recognizable, and should be cut out and burnt in autumn, 



