Insects and Diseases. 



brush or feather. This protector is kept on the tree till the worms 

 disappear. 



The canker worm crawls up the tree till it reaches the lower or 

 inner side of the muslin, when it turns and passes down the muslin 

 till it touches the tin covered with oil, when it almost instantly falls 

 to the ground disabled. This protector is applied to the tree be- 

 fore the ground opens in spring, and is kept on till every indication 

 of the canker worm has gone. An important advantage in this 

 contrivance is the readiness with which it is applied to the tree, 

 with a variation of several inches in size, as well as its cheapness. 



Another good remedy is to place bands of sheathing-paper six 

 or eight inches wide, tacked around the trunks of the trees, and 

 then cover them with refuse printer's ink. The ink costs I2-J cents 

 per pound, requires from two to four applications each season, and 

 the whole cost is about ten cents for each tree annually. 



BARK LOUSE (p. 148). Dr. Le Baron, State entomologist of 

 Illinois, recommends, according to the Prairie Farmer, a wash of 

 soapsuds, of a strength varying with the age of the parts of the tree to 

 which the application is made. A whitewash brush is used, first with 

 strong suds, made of one part soap and three or four of water, and 

 then a wash of a weak solution, or many times diluted, applied 

 with a syringe. This must be done the last of May or early in 4 June, 

 when the young lice are just hatched. 



The best means to extirpate bark-lice, according to Dr. Fitch, 

 are those recommended by Mr. Kimball, of Kenosha. He boils 

 leaf tobacco in strong lye till it is reduced to an impalpable pulp, 

 and mixes it with soft soap, which has been made cold, to make 

 the mass about the consistence of thin paint, the object being to 

 obtain a preparation that will not be entirely washed from the tree 

 by the first rains. The application must be thorough to the body, 

 limbs, and twigs, or wherever a louse is detected. This should be 

 done with a paint-brush before the buds start in the spring, and if 

 the painting is faithfully performed the death of the lice will be as- 

 sured. 



There is one department of insect study, which we can only 

 briefly allude to, that possesses great importance, and which is very 

 little understood except by scientific men. This is the knowledge 

 of use/ill insects those which confer a great favor on the cultivator 

 by thinning the ranks of his foes. The work of birds has been 

 indiscriminately recommended as " destroying the insects," with- 

 out knowing whether those insects are useful or noxious. In one 



