No. 1. 



Insects Injurious to Fruit. 



31 



I suggest the making of fires, with proper 

 care, in orcliards, as soon as insects appear, 

 in evenings. An.l I add, plonoh the ground 

 well, laie in fall in cold weather: it will 

 turn out millions of larvaj to perish by cold. 

 Some say turn in hogs — that has done well; 

 they eat up the fallen fruit and insects in 

 them. There is a prodigious increase this 

 year of the insect which stings the leaves 

 of the apple, very sitnilar to the peach. 

 Apple trees should be well scraped in win- 

 ter; millions of eggs and larvae under the 

 rough bark will be killed by it. Leave ca- 

 terpillars unilisturbed and each produces a 

 miller or butterfly to lay more eggs. The 

 nests of these caterpillars are easily de- 

 stroyed, and by so doing you confer a bless- 

 ing on all your neighbours as well as on 

 yourself. When I see a man sitting down, 

 looking in despair at the worm nests in his 

 trees, I feel as if I should be glad to give 

 him a galvanic shock to arouse him to his 

 duty to his neighbour and himself. He 

 might just as properly sit still and see his 

 neighbours' cattle, or his own, breaking into 

 his corn-field, without making an etTort to 

 turn them out. Last year I destroyed some 

 twenty thousand of these worms'-nests in 

 my orchards. In my neighbourhood are 

 wdd cherry trees, which are full of these 

 nests, so that when I get a new supply on 

 my place, I owe it to this neighbour as well 

 as to negligent farmers. 



All our Agricultural Societies and Clubs 

 ought to take up this insect question. There 

 is a curious excrescence on our wild sweet 

 brier, made by some insect lodged within. 

 The English White Hawthorn is attacked; 

 here is a branch with the young haws upon 

 it, ruined, you see, probably by the same in- 

 sect which stings the quince tree. I believe 

 that I have discovered the larva; of this in- 

 sect, but am not yet positive of it. 



Mr. Meigs — Some plants are not liable 

 to the attacks of insects — the Ailanthus 

 seems to be one, and a very singular fact is 

 stated relative to the Lycopersicum — th ? 

 Tomato — that when legions of locusts de- 

 vour all plants, poisonous and all — night 

 shade, crows' foot, &c., there has always 

 been one solitary exception, and that is to- 

 mato. This fact was especially noticed in 

 Estremadura in Spain. I venture to hint 

 that such plants as are avoided by the in- 

 sects might possibly be planted around pieces 

 of ground, and afford protection to others. I 

 say this, because in seeking for an unknown 

 result, it is safe to try theories or conject- 

 ures. 



Col. Skinner — You are aware of the im- 

 portance of the article turpentine, a product 

 of our South, and perhaps also of the fact 



that the long-leafed pine which produces it, 

 is disappearing. That it seems like the Ab- 

 origines to dislike civilized neighbours. It 

 is disappearing, leaving no young growth to 

 supply its place. And this is also attributed 

 to an insect working at its root. Great 

 numbers of noble pines of three feet in di- 

 ameter and one hundred and fifty high, 

 stand, some of them stretching their naked 

 arms abroad, others prostrate on the ground, 

 and no successors of their kind. 



Man meets with vast power in insect life. 

 What ravages are those of the little ant. 

 In some countries it is probable that no 

 written document or records can long es- 

 cape their ravages. They devour all. Whole 

 forests have been killed by beetles! In some 

 forests of South Carolina ninety trees out of 

 one hundred have been killed by a small, 

 black winged bug ! 



The amiable and intelligent ornithologist, 

 Wilson, justly complains of the destruction 

 of birds, more particularly of the woodpeck- 

 ers, red-headed and ivory-billed, whose ser- 

 vices in destroying insects are of such great 

 importance. 



Chairman — Between Charleston and Au- 

 gusta, some few years ago, I noticed a very 

 fair growth of young long-leafed pines. 



Dr. Underhill — I must again urge the 

 exceeding usefulness of birds in destroying 

 noxious insects. A cat-bird will destroy for 

 herself and her young, hundreds in a day. 



In Carolina, it is true, they are compelled 

 to frighten away the rice birds from their 

 rice plantations. 



Our crows must be preserved. On my 

 place I have a rookery of many thousands ; 

 there are many of them in my orchard all 

 winter. In summer they follow my ploughs 

 all day long, feasting on grubs and worms 

 and beetles. I save one hundred dollars for 

 every one that I lose by my crows. Young 

 corn is easily protected from them. I stretch 

 cotton twine around and across my fields, 

 and the crows never put foot in them; they 

 suspect a trap! During very snowy win- 

 ters, when deprived of food, they trim my 

 cedar trees beautifully. They nip off with 

 perfect regularity three or four inches of the 

 tender extremities of the branches in their 

 efforts to get the ceilar-berry, leaving the_ 

 form of the tree very handsome, and the 

 trees all grow the better for their pruning! 

 If I liad the power, not a solitary crow 

 should ever be killed. 



Sa7nuel Allen — The observations of Dr. 

 Underhill are of great importance to our 

 farmers, in reference to the ravages of in- 

 sects. Some time since in Ohio I stopped 

 to inquire into the cause of the destruction 

 of a neighbouring forest. I was told that 



