30 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FARM 
from the egg finds there a ready-made passage down to 
its food. The larve have done their destructive work when 
the nuts fall. They are full-grown and are ready to leave the 
nuts and enter the ground, there to complete their trans- 
formations. An easy way to get the larve, and at the same 
time to learn the extent of their infestation, would be to 
gather a few quarts of chestnuts or acorns freshly fallen from 
the trees, and put them in glass jars to stand awhile. The 
larvee ‘eaving the nuts (emerging through remarkably 
small holes which they gnaw through the shell) will descend 
to the bottoms of the jars and remain there, where readily 
seen. They will begin to emerge at once, and in less thana 
fortnight all will be out, and may be counted. These, and 
twig-pruners and bark-beetles, etc., all have to be reckoned 
with in the orchard where nuts are cultivated. In thisstudy 
we will give our attention to the nuts, noting the infesting 
animals only incidentally. 
Study 3. The Nuts of the Farm 
There is but a short period of a week to ten days about the 
time of the first hard frost, when the work here outlined can 
best be done. Take advantage of it, shifting the date of 
other studies, if need be. The tools needed will be hammers 
for cracking the shells, and pocket knives for cutting the soft 
parts of the nuts; also, containers for taking specimens 
home. The use of lineman’s climbers and of beating-sticks in 
the tree-tops is permissible to a careful and experienced per- 
son; but the use of hooks on light poles for drawing down 
horizontal boughs within reach from the ground 1s safer, 
and has the advantage that all members of the class can see 
what is going on. 
The program of the work will include a visit to the nut- 
bearing trees and an examination of their crop, first on the 
