64 INSECTS. 



some enemy of the orange tree, it is stated in the Gardener's 

 Chronicle^ has been destroyed by hanging plants of the common 

 chamomile among its branches. The odour of the coal tar of 

 gas works is exceedingly offensive to some insects injurious 

 to fruits, and it has been found to drive away the wire worm, 

 and other grubs that attack the roots of plants. The vapour of 

 oil of turpentine is fatal to wasps, and that of tobacco smoke to 

 the green fly. Little as yet is certainly known respecting the 

 exact power of the various smells in deterring insects from at- 

 tacking trees. What we do know, however, gives us reason to 

 believe that much may be hoped from experiments made with a 

 variety of powerful smelling substances. 



Tobacco water ^ and diluted whale oil soap, are the two most 

 eflScient remedies for all the small insects which feed upon the 

 young shoots and leaves of plants. Tobacco water is made by 

 boiling tobacco leaves, or the refuse stems and stalks of the to- 

 bacco shops. A large pot is crowded full of them, and then 

 filled up with water, which is boiled till a strong decoction is 

 made. This is applied to the young shoots and leaves with a 

 syringe, or, when the trees are growing in nursery rows, with a 

 common white-wash biTish ; dipping the latter in the liquid and 

 shaking it sharply over the extremities or the infested part of each 

 tree. This, or the whale oil soap-suds, or a mixture of both, will 

 kill every species of plant lice, and nearly all other small insects 

 to which young trees are subject. 



The wash of whale oil soap is made by mixing two pounds of 

 this soap, which is one of the cheapest and strongest kinds, with 

 fifteen gallons of water. This mixture is applied to the leaves 

 and stems of plants with a syringe, or in any other convenient 

 mode, and there are few of the smaller insects that are not de- 

 stroyed or driven away by it. The merit of this mixture be- 

 longs to Mr. David Haggerston, of Boston, who first applied it 

 with great success to the roses lug, and received the premium of 

 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society for its discovery. When 

 this soap cannot be obtained, a good substitute may be made by 

 turning into soap the lees of common oil casks, by the applica- 

 tion of potash and water in the usual way. 



Moths and other insects which jiy at night are destroyed in 

 large numbers by the following mode, first discovered by Victor 

 Adouin, of France. A flat saucer or vessel is set on the ground 

 in which is placed a light, partially covered with a common bell 

 glass besmeared with oil. All the small moths are directly at- 

 tracted by the light, fly towards it, and, in their attempts to get 

 at the light, are either caught by the glutinous sides of the bell 

 glass, or fall into the basin of oil beneath, and in either case 

 soon perish. M. Adouin applied this to the destruction of the 

 pyralis, a moth that is very troublesome in the French vine- 

 yards ; with two hundred of these lights in a vineyard of four 



