318 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



poured over leafless plants. The effects of insects may also 

 be palliated on one species of plant by presenting to them 

 another which they prefer : thus wasps are said to prefer 

 carrots, the berries of the yew, and the honey of the hoya, 

 to grapes ; honey, or sugared water, to ripe fruit, and so on. 

 One insect or animal may also be set to eat another, as ducks 

 for slugs and worms, turkeys for the same purpose, and cater- 

 pillars and ants for aphides, and so on.' 



The Rev. Mr. Falconer, one of the correspondents of the 

 Bath Agricultural society, strongly recommends soap-suds, 

 both as a manure and antidote against insects. He observes, 

 that ' this mixture of an oil and an alkali has been more 

 generally known than adopted as a remedy against the in- 

 sects which infest wall fruit-trees. It will dislodge and de- 

 stroy the insects which have already formed their nests and 

 bred among the leaves. When used in the early part of the 

 year, it seems to prevent the insects from settling upon them.' 

 He prefers soap-suds to lime-water, because lime soon ' loses 

 its causticity, and with that its efficacy, by exposure to air, 

 and must, consequently, be frequently applied ; and to the 

 dredging of the leaves with the fine dust of wood ashes and 

 lime, because the same effect is produced by the mixture, 

 without the same labor, and is obtained without any ex- 

 pense.' He directs to make use of a common garden-pump 

 for sprinkling trees with soap-suds, and says, if the water of 

 a washing cannot be had, a quantity of potash dissolved in 

 water may be substituted ; and that the washing of the 

 trees with soap-suds twice a week, for three or four weeks 

 in the spring, will be sufficient to secure them from aphides, 

 &c. 



Other modes of counteracting the effects of insects are 

 pointed out in treating of the plants which are most liable 

 to be injured by them. We shall, however, make some re- 

 marks on a few of those which are most common and injuri- 

 ous to the interests of the cultivator. 



Canker-icorm. We shall not attempt to give either a de- 

 scription or the natural history of the canker-worm, but re- 

 fer to professor Peck's Memoir on the subject, (which was 

 originally published in the Massachusetts Agricultural Re- 

 pository, and republished in the New England Farmer, vol. 

 V. p. 393,) and direct our attention exclusively to the reme- 

 dies which have been used or suggested to preserve fruit- 

 trees from this formidable enemy. 



The female of this insect comes out of the ground late in 



