304 BOAKD OF AGEICULTURE. 



years ago. They did not do much damage to me, but the 

 leaves looked unsightly. There were a great many of them, 

 and everybody supposed they were going to get into trouble ; 

 but I think not one made its appearance the next year. That 

 was the end of them. The rose-bugs sometimes come in large 

 numbers, so as to give considerable trouble. The damage 

 they do is in eating the clusters of grape-buds. The rose- 

 bugs will fly upon the vines during the heat of the day, and 

 the next morning they will make their breakfast off the blos- 

 soms, before they expand, and a single rose-bug will eat a 

 whole cluster, which is somewhat expensive. If you have to 

 feed a good many, you will not have any crop, because they 

 will eat the whole. The only remedy for them is a hand-to- 

 hand fight. I take a little tin cup, partly full of boiling-water, 

 into which I put a teaspoonful of soft-soap, and go through 

 the rows early in the morning and give the vines a touch, and 

 the rose-bugs will drop into the cup. That is the end of 

 them ; they will die easily. A little later in the morning they 

 will drop off if you look at them. Wait a little later, till the 

 heat of the day, and if you point your finger at them they will 

 fly. You must take them at the right time, in the cool of the 

 morning, or in cloudy weather. If you go over your vines 

 one morning you Avill find, perhaps, five thousand of them, 

 and the next morning you will find ten thousand ; and you 

 will say it did not do any good, but kill the ten thousand. 

 The next morning you may find twenty-five thousand ; but 

 keep at it and you will get rid of them in time. The number 

 always has a limit. One person can catch a great many of 

 them in a short time. The only other insect that troubles my 

 grapes is the two-legged one, and the fight with that, too, is 

 a hand-to-hand contest. 



Wm. C. Strong, of Brighton. I have been very much in- 

 terested in the simple, clear and instructive narrative of the 

 growth of the grape as given by Dr. Fisher. I do not know 

 that I have any comment to make on what he has said. I 

 agree, in the main, with his suggestions. I think I should 

 difier Avith him as to the length of time required for bringing 

 a vine to bearing. It seems to me that if a vine in proper 

 condition is obtained, two years is quite sufficient time to 

 bring it into bearing. It ought to bear the third year. I 



