and on the Destruction of Insects. 123 



the house. I could not help expressing my surprise ; and, 

 having asked my conductor why they did not employ people to 

 destroy their nests, I was told that they did ; but that they did 

 not find many. I then enquired what they were paid for each 

 nest, and he told me three-pence. This at once accounted for 

 what I had seen and heard. If gentlemen wish their labourers 

 to toil all their dinner time, and all their leisure hours in the 

 evening, nay, perhaps half the night, in search of nests, and yet 

 not to destroy above half a dozen, arid to receive no higher a 

 reward than three-pence each, it is no wonder that very few are 

 found. One shilling each is the lowest that ought ever to be 

 given for a wasps' nest. But the best method to insure their 

 destruction is to pay sixpence each for every queen wasp that 

 can be caught in the spring, when the wasps are collecting 

 materials with which to build their nests. This not only 

 reduces the price by one half (as every queen has a nest), but 

 it also destroys the wasps before they have done any mischief: 

 whereas, by only paying for the nests, the men will often be 

 tempted to let the queens escape. Besides, the nest may, per- 

 haps, have acquired the size of a peck measure before it is 

 found, and several thousands of wasps from it may have been 

 destroying the fruit for months. So effectually have I known 

 wasps destroyed by killing the queens early in the season, that, 

 where it has been done, there has not been a single nest near 

 the premises, while other people have had them in abundance. 



I beg now to call your attention to another of the common 

 enemies of gardens, I mean the earthworms, which are often 

 so numerous in bark beds, that they get into the pots, and do 

 great injury to the pines and other plants plunged therein; and, 

 although they are to be kept down without using what I am 

 about to recommend, yet, as there are so many who seem not to 

 know an effectual means of destroying them, it may not be amiss 

 to inform such how it may be accomplished without danger or 

 difficulty. After turning the tan in the usual manner, take some 

 common salt, say about a quarter of a pound to a light ; let it be 

 dry and broken fine ; throw about half of it on the bed as regu- 

 larly as you can ; fork the surface over about the depth of the 

 pots ; then throw on the other half, and plunge the pots as 

 usual. This will destroy all the worms it touches, and will pre- 

 vent others from coming up from the bottom of the bed ; and 

 the quantity of salt used will not injure the plants, even if the 

 roots get out of the pots. 



Worms and stagnant water are also great enemies to plants 

 in large pots, especially when standing on the borders in green- 

 houses during the winter, or on the ground out of doors in 

 summer. A correspondent has recommended tubs for orange 

 trees standing hollow from the ground, on this account; but 



