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In place of tin cans a fencing may be manufactured from tin or zine. They should 
be about 2} inches high and 3 inches in diameter. The top should be a little larger 
than the bottom so that they will nest together to save room when not in use. Their 
seams should be lapped and hooked together like stove pipe so that they may be 
easily separated and taken from the plant in place of slipping them over the leaves, 
as 1s to be done when the cans are not used. 
While this kind of a fence is a protection to small plants it is not so protected by 
“letters patent,” and may be used by all persons who have faith enough to give it a 
trial, and I hope that they may have reason to feel thankful for having seen this 
article.—[T. B. Ashton, Kansas, January 27, 1891. 
REpLy.—* * * Your idea has been suggested before, but is nevertheless a 
good one. We have recommended the use of tin cans in just this way for a number 
years to small gardeners. * * *—[January 31, 1891.] 
A Sphinx Larva feeding on Mints. 
Last year I found a dozen larve of some species of Sphinx feeding on Pennyroyal 
and wild Mint, color purple-black with minute white spots all over the surface, shiny 
on each side, a row of oval yellow spots, head having a reddish tinge, anal horn 
black with purplish-red point. I have never seen them before; from this what were 
they ?—[George W. Berry, Iowa. ‘ 
REPLY.—* * * The Spinx larve which you found upon Pennyroyal and wild 
Mint were those of Sphinx eremitus. You will find this larva figured in the Annual 
Report U. S. Department of Agriculture for 1870, page 80, while it is described by 
the Rev. T. W. Fyles in the Canadian Entomologist, Vol. xi, 1879. According to Prof. 
Snow specimens taken in Kansas are light green in color, while Mr. Fyles describes. 
his Canadian specimens as sepia black. It is the only Sphingid whose larva is. 
known to feed upon mints. 
The Clover-hay Worm. 
isend you herewith specimens of worms found in a mow of two-year old hay just 
taken out. They eat the inside out of the stems. Cattle refuse to eat this hay. I 
inclose stems of hay. They have never been known in hay before in this section.— 
[Ed. V. Bohl, Illinois, April 13, 1891. 
REPLY.—* * * The worms you found in your hay mow are samples of the so- 
called Clover-hay Worm (Asopia costalis). This insect is frequently reported from 
Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, and the more southern states. The eggs are laid by a small 
moth in stacks of clover hay. These worms hatch from the eggs and feed upon the 
dry hay, transforming to moths again in June or July. New hay should never be 
stacked in contact with old, and the worst infested stacks are those which have been 
placed upon the same sites for successive years. When practicable it is well to 
build the stack on good rail ventilators with an air passage underneath. It is also 
well to salt the hay two or three feet from the bottom.—[April 20, 1891. ] 
A California Twig-borer: Isit Anarsia ? 
A few days ago I went up to Kern County to investigate the gray Otiorhynchid I 
sent you as having been received with the statement that it was very destructive to 
deciduous fruit trees. - You pronounced it probably an undescribed species of 
Ophryastes. I saw the owner of the trees where this weevil was found, but neither 
he nor any other person that I interviewed on the subject had actually seen the 
beetle engaged in feeding upon the trees; all reported having found them resting 
motionless in the forks where the branches start out from the trunk of the tree, and 
I strongly suspect that the weevils were there simply for shelter. The owner in- 
formed me that several of the lateral branches on these trees were observed to wither 
Res) oe ne spibes i 
