TBE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



33 



appear to injure the fruit very materially; but 

 at some future day, it may perhaps swarm iu 

 sucli numbers as to become a great pest. 



Mrs. Earlc, whom I And to be a very good 

 entomological observer, and who has also paid 

 considerable attention to Botany, informs me 

 that honey-bees often gnaw holes, the size of 

 half a pea, into pcaclies and quinces; and that 

 she has seen them actually commence tlie holes. 

 The lione)'-bee, therefore, can not defend itself 

 before a jury of frait growers, on the plea that 

 it only works upon fruit already spoilt by other 

 insects, and that "a slice oft" a cut loaf is never 

 missed." 



Keiiciiig out the Curculio— Mccthig of the Soiitlu'rii 

 Fruit-Growers' AssochUion— Hot Water vs. Tlie 

 Applc-treo Koot-louse. 



JCXE L'ClTII. 



A joyous company of us, including some of 

 I lie Cobden ladies, drive over in friend Hol- 

 comb's treble-seated carriage, wliich lilce an om- 

 nibus can carry any assignable number of pei-- 

 sons, from six up to twenty, to the fruil I'aiiu of 

 II. C. Freeman, four miles west of Cobden. On 

 the road we pass a large peach orchard, and I 

 notice tliat every peach tree there has got a band 

 of wool carefully wrapped round the trunk. 

 "AVhat on earth are these bands of wool for?" 

 '• Well, the owner of this orchard has got a no- 

 tion into liis head that curculios can not fly ; and 

 so lie proposes to fence them out from Ids 

 peaches by means of the wool-bands. He claims 

 tliat, in consequence of tliis conUivance, liis 

 peaches are less infested by curculios thau those 

 of his neighbors, but Ms neighbors are entirely 

 of a different opinion." " I wonder that he does 

 not build a tight board-fence round his corn- 

 licld, to fence out the crows and the blackbirds ; 

 or wrap a band of cotton wool round liis stove 

 pipe to lieep the flies out of his house." 



On rcacliiug Mr. H. C. Freeman's, we sally 

 forth among liis fruit trees, where I sliould like to 

 wander all day ; but we are soon summoned to 

 iliimer, and after dinner we have to drive back 

 almost immediately to Cobden, to attend a meet- 

 ing of the Fruit Growers' Association. 



At the meeting Mr. C. T. Farrell informs me, 

 that he lias tried pouring hot water round the 

 roots of apple trees infested by the Koot plant- 

 louse, but the plan is a failure, as it only an- 

 swers for a short time. Upon further inquiry, 

 however, I ascertain that he merely used a sin- 

 gle teakettleful of hot water to a particular 

 tree, the butt of wliioh was about one inch in 

 diameter. As the roots of such a tree probably 



extend fourfeet in every ilirei'tinn from (he butt, 

 il ninst lie nKinil(-l lliiit. lo destmy all (he root- 

 liee upon the roots, u suflicieut quantity of hot 

 water should be applied to scald all the roots for 

 a circle eight feet in diameter. To effect this, 

 would probably require a whole barrelful of 

 hot water. Consequently, the experiment has 

 not been tried by IVIi-. Farrell upon a sulficientlj' 

 large scale. 



E. Lemhig"s siileiulid Peach Croii— Seven different 

 Cannibal Bugs proying upon the Grub of the Cur- 

 eulio— Pignres and Descriptions of them—" Pitch 

 into your Foes, but spare yonr Friends '"— Con- 

 clusion. 



June 27tii. 

 AVe have another pleasant drive in friend 

 Ilolconib's carry-all carriage to the splendid 

 fruit farm of E. Leming, a few miles west of 

 Cobden. Here we find the only full crop of 

 peaches that has been raised tliis year anywhere 

 in the neighborhood, and some of the earliest 

 varieties are already going to market. Mr. 

 Leming is an accurate obseiwer of the habits of 

 insects, and he shows me the larva of a Lace- 

 wing fly {Chrysopa), inside a peach wliich has 

 been badly bored up by the Curculio, actually 

 preying upon a Curculio larva, one half of wliich 

 it has already sucked dry. He has since, as he 

 writes me word, found over a hundred of these 

 Lacewing larvfe occupied in the same good 

 work. Tliis is entirely a new fact ; and that our 

 readers may recognize their benefactor when 

 they sec liim, and cherish him as the very apple 

 of their eye, we give herewith ligures, first of 



a Lacewing lai-va (Fig. 24 6), and second of the 

 Lacewing fly itself, with its left wings omitted 

 to save space (Fig. 2-1 d). Figure 24 c shows 

 the singularly small cocoon wliich is spun by the 

 larva wherein to pass into the pupa state, and 

 also the empty cocoon, witli the smootlily cut 

 lid, and the liole out of wliich this large fly 

 comes; although, to use Dr. Fitch's grapliic 

 illustration, tliis is just as if a full-sized 

 hen were to hatch out of a common-sized 

 hen's egg. In Figure 24 a may be seen 

 (he curious eggs, mounted upon long, slen- 

 der, thread-like stems, wliich are laid by the 



