198 Miscellanies. 



Among these desiderata are the means of removing from our fields, 

 gardens, and orchards, that multitude of destructive insects which 

 blast our hopes and the fruits of our labors. 



I do not find in the various processes which have been published 

 for banishing these hostile armies, the use of a substance which I 

 have found to be a strong poison to all sorts of insects. I have em- 

 ployed it in certain cases, — its use may perhaps be much extended. 

 The reasonableness of its price and the rapidity of its execution in 

 the several cases in which I have used it, seem to claim for it the at- 

 tention of Agriculturists. 



This substance is the spirit of turpentine. I was led to try it by 

 observing that certain plants which have naturally a strong odor, are 

 not infected with insects. Such plants however cannot always be 

 immediately obtained, nor is it common for them to emit so strong 

 and penetrating an odor as spirits of turpentine. 



Wishing some years ago to raise four young puppies, I perceived 

 them, when a few days old to be very languishing, and discovered 

 that they were full of insects or lice, which were preying upon them. 

 It was vain that they were combed, — new generations succeeded, or 

 were renewed from the mother, and the little animals were on the 

 point of perishing. I then took it into my head to sponge both the 

 mother and the pups with warm water impregnated with spirits of 

 turpentine, and soon found to my agreeable surprise that every turn 

 of the comb brought out numerous dead insects. The little animals 

 soon acquired vigor, and were saved by a single repetition of the 

 process during the course of the summer. 



I tried the spirit on various insects. Lice when touched with it 

 on the point of a pin, made a few rotary bounds and fell down dead. 

 Bed bugs, anointed with the same fluid, after a few steps, turned on 

 their backs and died. A green, gilded insect, as large as a bean, 

 which attacks pear trees, was touched and died immediately, although 

 another insect of the same kind, lived a long time in warm quick lime. 



Butterflies, flies, caterpillars, May-bugs, die more or less prompt- 

 ly when attacked with it. 



Having learnt these facts, I soon found occasion to try its effects 

 on some of my trees, which were attacked by a multitude of worms. 

 These I destroyed entirely by putting into a bowl a few handfuls of 

 earth on which I poured a small quantity of the spirit — then adding 

 water, and stirring the whole together until it had a proper consistence 

 to be rubbed or brushed over the ends of the branches. The in- 



