483 



scale. The accompauyiug sac is the scveuth layer of one wliich the same little animal 

 makes in order to winter and from wliich it issues in summer. I have witnessed with 

 the greatest admiration the intelligence and activ ity of this insect. In one case I 

 took them out of the sac and left them at the foot of the tree, and as soon as I left 

 them they began to work, and in 24 hours they had stretched more than 5,000 fibers 

 of silk thread as perfect as the silk of commerce. 



The laj er wliich we have received is very strong, although so thin 

 as to be transparent. We can hardly surmise as to the larva which 

 does this beautiful work, although it is undoubtedly Lepidopterous. 



TENT CATERPILLARS IN EASTERN CONNECTICUT. 



We learn from the American Cultivator of May 30 that the orchards 

 in the eastern part of Connecticut have been seriously attacked the 

 l)resent season by vast hordes of the Tent Caterpillar of the orchard 

 [Clisiocampa americana). They are said to have never been so numerous 

 before. In many orchards the apple trees are enveloped in webs and 

 have been killed outright. Almost every wild cherry tree has been killed. 

 The farmers have adopted the plan of going through the orchards and 

 firing blank cartridges into the webs, and it is said that aperson traveling 

 along the country lanes hears an almost constant fusilade of shots from 

 small arms. The caterpillars have greatly reduced the prospects of the 

 apple crop. The time will come when apple-growers will see the neces- 

 sity of cutting down nearly all the neighboring wild cherry trees, 

 which are practically useless, leaving only a few to act as traps upon 

 which the moths will lay their eggs by preference, and upon which 

 they can be carefully treated during the winter and early spring. 



PARIS GREEN FOR CABBAGE WORMS. 



The popular prejudice against the use of violent poison like Paris 

 green upon a culinarj^ vegetable like the cabbage may be allayed by 

 Prof. C. P. Gillette's statement to the eft'ect that where the green is 

 dusted from a bag in the proportion of one ounce of the poison to 100 

 ounces of flour and just enough applied to each head to make a slight 

 show of dust on the leaves, say for twenty-eight heads of cabbage one 

 ounce of mixture, the worms will all be killed in the course of two or three 

 days, while the average amount of poison on each head will be about 

 one-seventh of a grain. Fully one-half of the powder will fall on the 

 outside leaves and on the ground, and thus an individual will have to 

 eat about tvventj^-eight heads of cabbage in order to consume a poison- 

 ous does of arsenic even if the balance of the poison remained after 

 cooking. 



AN EXPERIMENT AGAINST WHITE GRUBS. 



The bisulphide of carbon capsules, manufactured by Paul Jamain, of 

 Dijon, France, have been recommended for use against Phylloxera 

 abroad, and with a view of experimenting upon some of our subterra- 

 nean insects we ordered a small quantity some time ago. One success- 



