83 AMERICAN GEAPE GROWING 



Juue, it stunts the vines for the next season. One of the 

 best remedies is to dig a trench 3 to 3 feet wide, at the 

 side of the vineyard from whicli they are expected, into 

 which they will tumble, and they should then be crushed 

 by dragging a log or roller along the ditch. If this is 

 done repeatedly they may be kept out. 



Wasps and bees are sometimes very troublesome when 

 the fruit ripens, wounding the berries and sucking the 

 juice. A great many can be caught by hanging up bottles 

 with a little molasses, into which they will readily crawl 

 and seal their fate. But while there are many injuri- 

 ous insects, we may also count some of them among our 

 best friends, which will greatly assist in destroying the 

 others, and which we should hold in grateful remeni- 

 brance. Among these is the little Lady Bug, the small 

 red or yellow and black beetle, which is always on the 

 lookout and very active in destroying the Aphis and 

 White Thrip. These should be fostered, and not de- 

 stroyed, as is done by many ignorant persons. The Man- 

 tis, the Eear Horse, or Devil's Horse, as it is often 

 called, but the correct name of which is Camel Cricket, 

 is the friend of the vine grower. It destroys countless 

 numbers of injurious insects, especially the native grass- 

 hoppers and katydids, which are so apt to cut o£E the 

 bunches just before ripening. They and their eggs, 

 which are often found on the vines glued together in a 

 mass, like a rather square cocoon, should be carefully 

 preserved, and even colonized. We place our common 

 toad among our friends, as it is a great destroyer of nox- 

 ious insects, and always on the hunt for bugs of all kinds. 

 The toads and our common active little lizards should 

 be treated with kindness by us, not killed, as they are 

 by many unthinking people who have a mistaken idea 

 that they are injurious and poisonous. 



