THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



145 



BEST'S INVIGORATOR ONCE AGAIN. 



In No. ;J of the American Entomologist, 

 page 97, we offered some criticisms on the liigh- 

 flowu pretensions of Mr. Benj. Best's wonder- 

 ful panacea for all the ills of fruitdom, stating 

 that M'c had received from Mr. J. Cochrane, 

 nurseryman, of Havana, Ills., a copy of a circu- 

 lar strongly recommending this patent humbug. 

 We observe that some of our agricultural con- 

 temporaries have inferred, I'rom what we then 

 aud there said, that the luvigorator Avas recom- 

 mended and endorsed by the gentleniau who 

 sent us the circular. This is an entire mistake. 

 Mr. Cochrane, in a letter which accompanied 

 the circular, compared the iulluence of the lu- 

 vigorator upon the hundred and one noxious 

 insects, which it is warranted to destroy, to the 

 impotent atlempt of an angry bull to stop a 

 railroad traiu in full career; and otherwise 

 spoke of it in as disparaging a manner as we 

 ourselves have done. In justice to Mr. Cochrane 

 in particular, and in justice to the nurserymen 

 of the United States iu general, we feel bound 

 to make this correction. Men belonging to to 

 intelligent a profession cannot easily be fooled 

 by such transparent yuackeiy, as that with which 

 Mr. Benj. Best is now Hooding the whole coun- 

 try through the mail, I)y thousands of tons at a 

 single stroke, to the great discomfort of all the 

 I'ost-offlce clerks and the intense delight of all 

 the manufacturers of Railroad iron. 



"We are informed by Mr. Thos. Britainham, one 

 of the most respectable citizens of Rock Island, 

 Ills., that he was supplied gratis by a traveling 

 agent with a quantity of tha Inricfuraior in the 

 summer of 18(!S, on the condition that he should 

 try it upon his fruit trees, aud if he thought fa- 

 vorably of it, "blow" for it all he could at the 

 cusuing County Fair in the autumn. Having, 

 he says, two or three very choice grape-vines, 

 he poured a quantity of the hell-broth over the 

 buts of them, thinking to "invigorate"' them 

 thoroughly, and also over the buts of two or 

 three grape-vines that he set no great store by. 

 The former were killed dead b.\' the application ; 

 the latter still survive. Under the circumstan- 

 ces, he thought he was not justified in doing 

 any "blowing" at the Fair; although, if the 

 preparation had killed the worthless vines and 

 "invigorated"' the valuable ones, he nn'ght 

 perhaps have acted dift'crently. 

 • ♦ » ■ — 



ey '\Ye repeat once more that the symbol c? 

 means "' male,"' and the symbol ? "female.'" 

 By.the use of these symbols wo economize space ; 

 and there is no reason why they should not be- 

 come as familiar to the popular, as they already 

 are to the scientific eye. 



GS^ We recently disinterred from the columns 

 of ail old volume of the Prairie Farmer* the 

 following curious specimen of entomological 

 poetry: 



A cnu'l man a. licrtlc took, 



And to till' w;ill him piiiucd, oh ! 

 Then s.iid tlie beetle to tlic crowd, 

 " Thoiijcli I'm stiiclc tip, I am not proud ! ' ' 

 And iiis soul flew out of the wiiulow. 

 Whether or not M. Provancher has, within the 

 hist few weeks, been "stuck up" like this beetle 

 by some cruel assassin, we cannot say, but we 

 sincerely hope not. At all events he most cer- 

 tainly is not "proud;"' for he never thinks it 

 beneath the dignity, either of his cloth or of his 

 scientiflc standing, to enliven the monotony of 

 scientific details by an occasional touch of genial 

 humor, such as would have delighted the heart 

 of Addison, and thrown William Makepeace 

 Thackeray into convulsions of laughter. May 

 it be many, many years before his soul takes 

 flight out of the windows of that earthly tene- 

 ment, which it now inhabits with so much 

 credit to the writer himself and so much plea- 

 sure and benefit to the Caimdian public! 



♦ Vol. ffl-lSM, ]). ■-!)), 



t?" We present our readers, this month, with 

 an additional eight pages of reading matter, 

 which enables us to publish entire, the article 

 on "Wasps and their Habits.'" This article is 

 necessarily somewhat lengthy, as it covers a field 

 hitherto but little explored in America. The in- 

 crease of matter has necessitated a slight dolav 

 in the issuing of the nuinber. 



E "i" Several of our subscribers having lately 

 requested information about the Chinch-bug, 

 we shall shortly publish an article on this in- 

 sect. It last year proved very destructive in 

 many parts of the West, aud especially in South- 

 west Missouri. 



IjF We cheerfully acknowledge the receipt of 

 a package of choice seeds from Wm. 11. Lyman, 

 of Leverett, Mass., whose advertisement appears 

 in another column, and shall take great pleasure 

 in testing their merits in the vicinity of Saint 

 Loms during the coming summer. 



; >?"We also acknowledge the receipt of a 

 l)ackage of the "Farmers' Club Sweet Corn'' 

 from Jas. B. Olcutt of Buckland, ( 'onii. This 

 corn is very highly reconiniciided. and we sliall 

 likewise give it a fair trial. 



'/tf' We intended to have briefly noticed some 

 of those of our exchanges which we most highly 

 prize, but want of space obliges us to defer such 

 notices till the next issue. 



