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family of caterpillars. This should be done as soon as the webs are noticed, not only for 

 the sake of preventing further damage, but also because the worms, when nearly full- 

 grown desert the web and scatter over the surrounding foliage. It is well also to kill 

 the caterpillars as quickly as possible after cutting down, the web, for they are very lively 

 ■creatures and will make their escape in numbers if not speedily attended to. If the web 

 should be in such a position that it cannot be conveniently cut off, or should involve the 

 sacrifice of a limb that cannot be spared, it may be destroyed with its contents by burning. 

 This can easily be accomplished by means of rags soaked with coal oil or tar and fastened 

 to the end of a long pole. As a substitute for the rags, a piece of porous brick has been 

 strongly recommended. Professor Riley quotes the following mode of making a brick- 

 torch : " Take a piece of soft brick (one from the outside of a kiln would probably answer 

 best) trim it to an egg shape, then take two soft wires, cross them over this brick, wrap- 

 ing them together around the opposite side so as to firmly secure it, now tie this end to a 

 long stick such as the boys get at the planing-mills, by wrapping around it, then soak 

 the brick in coal oil, light it with a match, and you are armed with the best and cheapest 

 weapon known to science. Holding this brick torch under the nests of caterpillars will 

 precipitate to the ground all the worms on one or two trees at least from one soaking of 

 the brick, and it can be repeated as often as necessary. Then use a broom to roll them 

 under it, and the work will be done, the controversy ended and the trees saved." 



Other remedies may be resorted to, such as spraying the trees with Paris green, as 

 recommended for the codling moth and plum curculio, but this would not be satisfactory 

 unless the damage was very serious and the caterpillars had been left too long undisturbed 

 and had grown to maturity. Pruning or burning, or both, are the simplest, easiest, most 

 effective and least dangerous remedies. To these may be added the further precaution 

 of gathering up and burning all fallen leaves, weeds and rubbish that may be found around 

 the base of a tree that has been badly infested. This should be done late in the autumn 

 in order to destroy as many as possible of the chrysalids, that would otherwise remain over 

 winter and produce the moths for a fresh attack the following year. 



The list of common noxious insects has by no means been exhausted, there are many 

 more " first-class pests " which are only too well known to our farmers and gardeners. 

 These we must now reserve for a future occasion, but we believe that the many remedies 

 already given in the reports for last year and this will supply methods of treatment that 

 may be employed in numbers of other cases. The main point is to know enough of the 

 life-history and habits of the enemy to understand what remedy to select and especially 

 when to apply it. In most cases, success entirely depends upon attacking the insect foe 

 at the right moment ; a few days' delay may involve the loss of the crop, and render the 

 application of the remedy a mere waste of labour. Most people have not the time or the 

 inclination to study these creatures, and therefore it is that we, who are especially devoted 

 to this investigation, believe that we are doing good service to the farmers and gardeners 

 of our country, and therefore to the whole community, by spreading amongst them some 

 knowledge of the appearance and life and habits of these most pernicious and destructive 

 beings. 



A SKETCH OF CANADIAN ORTHOPTERA. 



BY P. B. CAULPIELD, MONTREAL, P. Q. 



The destructive insects commonly known as grasshoppers or locusts, with the crickets, 

 cockroaches, walking sticks and earwigs, belong to the order called Orthoptera or straight 

 winged insects. The insects composing this order, unlike the beetle or butterfly, pass 

 through their transformations by a series of simple moultings, moving about and eating 

 from the time they leave the egg until the close of their existence, the principal difference 

 between the larva and adult insect being that of size, and, in the greater number 



