PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 156 



CATTERPILLARS A REMEDY. 



Solon Robinson. — Wm. G. Le Due, of Hastings, sends us a 

 remedy for caterpillars and other insects, easily applied. It is 

 kerosene oil. He says : Finding some large nests of caterpillars 

 on my plum trees, I took a can of illuminating oil, as it is called, 

 and applying a few drops, (sufficient to saturate the web of the 

 nest (found that it worked like a charm. It is instant death to 

 the vermin. Care should be taken not to apply it to the leaves 

 of the plant or tree, as they will be scalded at once. I have but 

 little doubt that in the hands of your careful experimentalists it 

 will prove of value. The coarser oils of coal will no doubt be 

 equally efficacious in many instances. I may as well mention 

 here also that I have found kerosene oil a most excellent diluent 

 of printers' ink, which I use in my flouring mill for stencil-plate 

 marking. It would be a thorough cleanser of type, though per- 

 haps not so cheap as potash. 



Andrew S. Fuller stated that the worms in Brooklyn were so 

 bad that the city councils were talking of cutting down all the 

 trees in that city, to get rid of the worms. 



Solon Robinson thought they had better cut doAvn the boys 

 who destroy the birds. 



Adrian Bergen made a statement of the terrible destruction of 

 the trees in Brooklyn. The linden appears to be the first kind 

 attacked, and they soon denude the tree of all the foliage, and 

 then attack other trees and strip them bare of every green leaf. 



Prof. Mapos. — We are very free of destructive tree insects this 

 year in New Jersey, but have a fair show of the other pests of 

 the farm and garden, and we are obliged to resort to some rem- 

 edy. We cannot grow early turnips without using something to 

 keep the insects off, and I am glad that the necessity stimulates 

 invention to assist farmers in the destruction of these pests. I 

 have lately tried one called "attenuated coal tar," and find it 

 efi"ectual. 



It is likely to be a very valuable aid to fruit growers and 

 gardeners. It is in the form of powder, and wherever sprinkled 

 upon insect infested plants, the insects leave at once. It is coal 

 tar mixed with some substance so as to retain all its odor, and 

 yet remain in the form of a dry powder. 



THE PERSIAN INSECT POWDER. 



Prof Mapes said that a powder called by the above name is 

 very effectual in destroying insects. 



