MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 723 



A mode of destroying the chrysalis while in the ground, by 

 wholesale, has been suggested by Dr. Harris, and that is to 

 turn pigs into the orchard, who can detect the insect by their 

 remarkably keen scent, and will devour him greedily. The 

 trees, if young, must be protected from the swine by some 

 cheap barrier. This expedient seems likely to be quite an ef- 

 fective, and not expensive one, and well deserves a careful 

 trial. The benefit in other ways to the soil, by the stirring 

 and nourishment which it must thus receive, cannot be incon- 

 siderable. 



The caterpillar is an insect less voracious, perhaps, than the 

 canker-worm, and at any rate far more within our control. 

 So completely, indeed, is this the case, that a caterpillar's web 

 in an apple-tree is a sure signal of negligence in the proprietor. 

 Various ways of destroying these insects are in use. The first 

 is to destroy the eggs in the autumn and winter. The eggs of 

 this insect are laid round the small branches in masses of 

 about the size of a date stone, and covered with a shining var- 

 nish, which protects them from the cold, but at the same time 

 renders them more conspicuous. No one who has once seen 

 these curious collections can ever mistake them. In the spring 

 the heat of the sun at once melts the varnish, and hatches the 

 egg, and the caterpillars begin to spin their webs, and to go 

 forth and prey on the leaves. They always, however, keep up 

 a connection with their nests, and return to them at night, and 

 do not sally forth again till the dew is dried in the morning. 

 There are various ways of checking their ravages. The little 

 collections of eggs may be picked off" in autumn and winter. 

 On young trees this method is often very effectual, as many of 

 these little packages may be detected by their glittering sur- 

 face. Two dozen of them have been collected in the course of 

 an hour, and this is by far the neatest and most agreeable 

 mode of getting rid of the evil. But as many eggs may escape 

 notice, and many more be out of reach, it will be necessary to 

 examine the tree after the insects have formed their nests in 

 the spring. As the insects are always at home early in the 

 morning, the nests may be pulled off" and crushed by the hand. 

 This is a disagreeable operation even to the sturdiest farmer, 

 but where the nests can be reached it is thoroughly effectual. 

 Where the nests are out of the reach of the farmer's hand, 



