100 



GARDENING FOR THE SOUTH. 



cannot enter it to complete Ms transformation ; besides tliis, 

 picking up tlie fruit as fast as it drops before the worm 

 can enter the earth has been found beneficial; likewise 

 jarring the tree (by striking sharply with a mallet on the 

 stump of a limb removed for the purpose) as soon as the 

 fruit is the size of a pea, and collecting the insects on a 

 white sheet as they fall, and destroying them; as the in- 

 sects are torpid in the morning, that is the best time for 

 the operation, which should be kept up until the fruit 

 begins to ripen. Trees planted near piles of fresh horse 

 manure are said to be free from the insects., they being 

 repelled by the ammoniacal gas. But the best of all 

 methods is to plant all stone fruits in an enclosure by 

 themselves in which pigs and poultry are admitted ; these 

 will collect the fruit as fast as it falls, and tread the 

 ground firmly together, so that it is not easy for the insects 

 to enter it. None of these methods will be fully effectual 

 if there are neglected trees near by from which the cur- 

 culio may emigrate. The most reliable of them is jarring 

 the trees, and destroying the insects daily; the next is 

 giving access to a large flock of chickens which destroying 

 the perfect insect are a much more efficient remedy than 

 the pigs alone. 



The Corn Wor?n [Heliothes) comes from the egg of a yel- 

 lowish moth deposited in June, and after in the silk or 

 apex of the ears of Indian Corn while in the milk. The 

 caterpillar, at first scarcely visible, increases rapidly, and, 

 sheltered by the husk, feeds voraciously upon the tender 

 grains at the end of the cob. It is thought to be identical 

 with the boll-worm of the cotton plant. Injury may 

 probably be warded off by catching the first brood of 

 moths in the wide-mouth bottles before mentioned, or by 

 Col. Sorsbey's plan with the moth of the boll-worm. 

 He mixed four parts vinegar to. one of molasses and put 



