DAMAGE CAUSED BY ANIMALS. 163 



i a pole with a hook at the end, when the beetles can be picked up 

 off the ground by children. They can best be killed by pouring 

 boiling water over them, or by dipping into hot water the sacks 

 in which they have been put when collected. 



As measures for exterminating the grubs have for the most 



part hitherto proved unavailing, more attention has of late years 



j been given to the collecting of the beetles, for each of the latter 



I killed represents, or is equivalent to, the practical destruction of a 



large number of grubs during any of the following three years. 



I But to be effective, it can only take place successfully in woods 



i where broad-leaved trees occur sparsely scattered throughout 



I a matrix of conifers, as then the chafers become attracted 



towards them and congregate there ; Oaks, Birches, &c., are 



! therefore often planted among conifers for the express purpose 



| of thus acting as decoy-trees in tracts with light friable soil, 



| where this insect is likely to swarm. Such exterminative 



measures should not be confined to the efforts of sylviculturists, 



as agriculturists are equally concerned in getting rid of the pest, 



and should therefore co-operate heartily in annihilating all chafers 



| that can be found on fruit-trees in their orchards, or on timber- 



! trees standing isolated along the fields or in hedgerows. 



The annihilation and extermination of the grubs is of course 

 j accompanied by many difficulties ; this can only successfully 

 i be carried out in nurseries, where the presence of the enemy 

 ! is soon betrayed by the drooping and sickening of the tender 

 i seedlings, and the grub itself can usually be collected with the 

 1 hand or with a spade on one of the immediately adjacent plants. 

 j Specially constructed grubbing-irons, and numerous other things re- 

 ! commended, have not shown themselves really effective in practice. 

 Where a certain amount of soil-preparation is requisite previous 

 to the carrying out of sowing or planting operations, the grubs 

 should be collected whilst the soil is being broken up, and they 

 can often be attracted together for easier collection by laying 

 down sods of turf on the ground with the grassy side down- 

 wards, as the grubs come and lie under them. Although swine 

 eagerly devour the grubs, the herding of pigs is hardly a practical 

 method of remedying the matter, for the grubs are too deep in the 

 soil to be got at without the swine breaking up the surface a good 

 deal with their snouts, and to allow this is out of the question in 

 young plantations. 



