222 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



THE YELLOW HELMET BEETLE. 



Sir, — I send you a tin box of beetles which I have found for the first time on my 

 sweet potato plants. They eat numerous holes in the leaves. Are they new to this coun- 

 try, and what can I use to destroy them ? 



Thos. Boon, Bothwell, Oni. 



Since your specimens came to hand we have found the same beetle riddling 

 with holes the leaves of our Morning Glorys. It is not a new enemy. Mr. 

 Fletcher, Dominion Entomologist, says it is the Yellow Helmet Beetle, coptocyda 

 aurichalcea, a common pest of the sweet potato, and other members of the Con- 

 volvulus family ; and that a weak solution of Paris green is the best remedy. 



^ ®pei) Letters. ^ 



THE ZINC TRAYS. 



In reading the paper on this evaporating of fruit, in the last report, I observed what diffi- 

 culty the zinc from the use of galvanized wire was causing in Hamburg and other foreign parts, 

 prejudicing the trade in evaporated fruits. I have thought over the matter since and 

 have concluded that if tho wire netting for use in evaporators were treated to a glazing 

 process, instead of being galvanized it would overcome the difficulty completely. 1 fancy 

 it could be managed. I mean to make it like the iron utensils (pots, saucepans, etc.,) 

 called " granite ware," which you no doubt have seen. 



W. H. Wylie, Curleton Place, Ont. 



PRICKLY COMFREY. 



Sir, — With reference to Mr. N. J. Clinton's letter in this month's issue, I regret that his 

 horses and cows were so obdurate in their refusal to eat his prickly comfrey after the 

 trouble and expense he had incurred in growing it. Here we have now nearly got to the 

 end of our seco id cutting of it for this season. All our milch cows and young stock (20 

 head in all, and 7 of our 9 horses ate it readily, and the pigs avail themselves of any 

 opportuuity to get at it. The two horses which do not care for it are old animals and 

 probably too fixed in their habits to take to such a change from their accustomed diet. 

 The moie I see of it the more I am convinced that it is one of the most useful and best 

 p tying of forage crops ; and my sole object in advocating its cultivation is to induce others 

 to avail themselves of the benefit open to them. I have had the pleasure of distributing 

 a good many rot cuttings during the past spring, to enable applicants, unable to procure 

 them elsewhere, to make a start in its cultivation, but in all cases I declined to accept any 

 money payment. 



I state this simply for the purpose of showing that I am not seeking any gain to myself 

 in recommending others to try it, and I feel the more urged to take upon myself its 

 adi^ocacy as it is not a, crop the professional seedsmen are likely to push into prominence, and 

 as, being permanent when once planted, it supersedes to some extent other crops, to grow 

 which would require an annual application to the seedsmen for seed, with the consequent 

 payments of the bill for the same. Perhaps Mr. Clinton put his horses and cov/s in 

 pasture before feeding the comfrey to them, which is a course, he will see on referring 

 to my former letter. I advise should not be adopted. 



Arthur Gko. Heaven, Boyne, Ont., 

 June 13th, 1891. 



