22 Bulletin of the New York State Museum. 



Gas-lime. — Although not tested by experiment, I have great 

 faith in the efficacy of gas-lime, as a protection from the deposit of 

 the eggs of the beetle, or, if the protection be but partial, then, for 

 the destruction of such eggs as may have been deposited. Upon 

 ground to be seeded or planted, the lime, fresh from the works, 

 might be distributed and worked into the soil, but where the crop 

 to be protected is already upon the ground, the lime should first 

 undergo such atmospheric exposure as would permit of its use as 

 a top-dressing without harm to the vegetation. It should be 

 applied during the month of May or June, or as soon as the beetles 

 are seen upon the wing. For different methods of its application 

 I would refer to my First Annual Report, where I have treated at 

 some length of gas-lime as an insecticide. 



In referring to this preventive, Miss Ormerod has written : 

 " Gas-lime has been tried, sprinkled broadcast, without keeping off 

 the chafers, but if it was shoveled on in a thin layer, so that the 

 chafers could have no cognizance by any natural instinct of what 

 was beneath, and also could not penetrate into the soil without first 

 fairly scuffling their way through the gas-lime, one might hope for 

 good results. It would be well worth while to try whether shovel- 

 ing ashes or dry earth, well sprinkled with spirits of tar, or with 

 phenol, might not be of great service ; or again, mulching over the 

 roots with any suitable material that could be moistened from time 

 to time with soft (or whale oil) soap (Agricultural Students' 

 Gazette [Cirencester, England], April, 1883, i, p. 73). 



Air-slacked Lime. — There is good reason to believe, from the many 

 statements that have been made, tnat the foliage of trees threat- 

 ened by destruction from the beetle, may be saved by a thorough 

 dusting of air-slacked lime above and below, as far as possible, 

 while damp with the dew — better if done in the morning. The 

 pests dislike gritty food, which is apparently repulsive to them, 

 and while the greater part of the caustic quality of the lime thus 

 slacked is gone through the slacking, yet doubtless there is enough 

 remaining to make the taste of it obnoxious. 



According to the Livermore (Gal.) Herald, Mr. Julius Schrader, 

 who owns a fine vineyard and "orchard west of that town, saved 

 his crop of apricots from the attack of June bugs by the use of 

 air-slacked lime. His trees were swarming with the insects, which 

 had begun to destroy the fruit as fast as it ripened. He applied 

 the lime by dusting it through the trees, with the result of driving 



