INSECT INJURIES. 393 



entirely hopeless, however severe the attack may be, pro- 

 vided the lateral fruit-bearing branches be not already 

 formed and destroyed by it; then there is no chance 

 of recovery. Several similar instances occurred the 

 same year in the East Kent district, where the planters 

 sold their crops on the poles as they stood for a few shillings 

 per acre; and yet these same grounds so far recovered 

 that many of them produced a crop worth from 30 

 to 50 per acre. In such cases, as soon as the bines are 

 free from the lice, whether by a change in the weather, or 

 the exterminating action of the lady-bird or other insects 

 that feed upon them, it is desirable to excite their growth 

 by the application of some readily soluble manure rich in 

 nitrogenous matter ; Peruvian guano, salts of ammonia, 

 combined with " superphosphate/' are those found to be 

 most efficacious. 



One mode of preventing their attack has already been 

 described, and prevention is always better than cure. The 

 remedy recommended to be used when they have appeared 

 and commenced their ravages is the application of tobacco, 

 administered either in the shape of an infusion, and syringed 

 over the infested parts, or burned in a suitable apparatus, 

 and the plants submitted to the fumes. The good effects 

 on the infested plants of burning weeds have been noticed, 

 and the poisonous influence of tobacco on insect life has 

 been rendered available for this useful purpose in the hop 

 ground. In years when the aphis makes its appearance 

 in large numbers it is usually followed by the " lady-bird" 

 (see p. 62), whose mission appears to be to seek out and 

 destroy these enemies to so many of our cultivated crops. 

 A multitude of other insects also feed upon their bodies, 

 and thus tend to check their undue increase. It has been 

 noticed that a hop ground which has been severely injured 

 by aphides one year is never visited by them the next ; 

 and on looking back over the returns of the hop duty, 



