584 INJURIOUS AND BENEFICIAL INSECTS. 
Regarding its ravages in strawberry beds, I cannot do better 
than quote from Dr. Lockwood’s excellent account in the AMERI- 
can Narurauist: “When on a visit in September last to the 
farm of a celebrated strawberry grower in Monmouth county, N. 
J., my attention was directed to certain large patches badly 
thinned out by, as the phrase went, ‘the worm.’ The plants were 
dead on the surface and easily pulled up, the roots being eaten off 
below. It was observable that the fields which presented the’ 
worst appearance were all of the same kind of plant,—that known 
as Wilson’s Albany Seedling. Besides this there were nine other 
varieties under culture,—Barnes’ Mammoth, Schenck’s Excelsior, 
cunda, Pine-apple, Early Scarlet and Brooklyn Scarlet. While 
the Wilson stood second to none of these as a prolific fruit-bearer, 
yet it fell behind them in vigorous plant-growth. Hence, while 
every kind was more or less affected, the other varieties seemed 
. saved by their own growth and energy from a destruction so thor- 
ough as was that of the Wilson. These patches were all planted 
in the spring, and all received the same treatment, the ground 
being kept open and free from weeds. The amount of the spring- 
planting was seven and a half acres. Of the Wilsons there were 
three different patches in places quite separated from each other, 
and on not less than five different kinds of soil. These patches 
were among and contiguous to those of the other varieties. While 
all suffered more or less, the chief injury befell the Wilsons, of 
which not less than two acres were irretrievably ruined. An ex- 
amination turned up the depredator, who was none other than the 
larva of the goldsmith beetle, now engaged in the first one of 
its allotted three-summer campaigns of mischief. These grubs — 
were from the eggs deposited in June in the well-tilled and clean 
soil, which, I have said elsewhere, I thought the Cotalpa- preferred 
to meadow or grass lands. Compared with others, the larva of 
this beetle is sluggish and easily captured. The black grub of the 
spring, which is such a pest, attacking almost indiscriminately the 
early tender plants, inflicts its injuries chiefly in the night, the ex- 
ception being that of dull and cloudy days. The night’s mischief 
_ done, it descends into concealment at early dawn. Knowing this, 
the wise farmer is in search of it at an early hour, ere the warmth 
of the sun gives it warning to retreat. But the goldsmith grub 
Can be taken at any hour of the day simply by scratching away 
