INSECTS. 323 



peatedly turned over and disturbed that I presume the 

 maggot is not left long enough at rest to develop itself 

 in sufficient numbers to produce any great injury ; and 

 the luxurious growth resulting from the continued and 

 heavy manuring, seems to be less inviting to the butterfly 

 to deposit her eggs than the feebler growth of less fertile 

 soils. Or, it may be that the increase of English sparrows 

 is helping us in both these cases, by destroying the fly 

 that produces the maggot, or the small white butterfly 

 that produces the caterpillar, or it may be that they feed 

 on the caterpillar itself, as I know they do upon the 

 rose-slug. At all events, the farmer will gain by en- 

 couraging and caring for the sparrows. A few years ago 

 the street trees of New York, Brooklyn and Jersey City 

 were festooned by myriads of the "measuring worm ; *' 

 now, since the advent of the sparrows, they are scarcely 

 ever seen. The sparrows will live in any section of the 

 country if properly housed and fed in winter, and if such 

 care were general we should hear fewer complaints of 

 insect ravages. True, the birds might exact wages for 

 their services, in requiring a little grain, but of the two 

 evils, better submit to that done by the birds than by 

 the insects. 



I will relate an experiment to destroy the Cabbage 

 Caterpillar, which occurred during this month in my im- 

 mediate neighborhood. One of my neighbors found thnt 

 the pest was attacking his Cabbages ; he came to me and 

 asked what I thought of his using slaked lime to dust 

 over them. I told him I had but little faith in it. But 

 he was resolved to try it, and put it on at the rate of four 

 or five barrels to the acre, carefully dusting it on each 

 plant, This was about the 1st of June. On the l?th he 

 came to me in triumph, saying that the remedy had been 

 effectual, and that there was hardly a caterpillar to be 

 seen. Unfortunately for the experiment, but fortu- 

 nately for truth, another neighbor, whose Cabbage patch 



