176 



INSECTS. 



can editions of Willich'^s Domestic Encyclopedia^ observes^ 

 that " Our fruits, collectively estimated, must thereby be 

 depreciated more than half their value;" and adds, in his 

 directions for destroying the insect, All the domestic ani* 

 mals, if well directed, contribute to this purpose. Hogs, 

 in a special manner, are qualified for the work of extermi* 

 nation. In large orchards, care should be taken that the 

 stock of hogs is sufficient to eat up all the early fruit which 

 falls from May till August. This precaution will be more 

 especially necessary in large peach orchards ; for, other- 

 wise, when the hogs become cloyed with the pulp of the 

 peach, they will let it fall out of their mouths, and content 

 themselves with the kernel, which they like better ; and 

 thus the curculio, . escaping from their jaws, may hide 

 under ground till next spring." 



" The ordinary fowls of a farm-yard are great devourers 

 of beetles. Poultry, in general, are regarded as carnivo- 

 rous in the summer, and therefore cooped some time before 

 they are eaten. Every body knows with what avidity ducks 

 seize on the tumble-bug, (Scarabceus carnifex^) and it is 

 probable the curculio is regarded, by all fowls, as an 

 equally delicious morsel. Therefore it is that the smooth 

 stone fruits, particularly, succeed much better in lanes and 

 yards, where poultry run without restraint, than in gardens 

 and other enclosures, where fowls are excluded." 



Instead of turning swine into orchards, to pick up the 

 fruit which falls, and thus destroy the worms which it con- 

 tains, it will often be found most expedient to gather such 

 fruit, and ^ive it to swine in pens, &c., either raw, or, what 

 would be better, boiled. If such measures were generally 

 taken, with fruit which falls spontaneously, as to prevent 

 the insects, which generally cause it to drop prematurely, 

 from escaping into the ground, the worms, which destroy 

 one half our fruit, and very much deteriorate a considerable 

 part of the other half, would soon be extirpated from our 

 orchards and fruit-gardens. 



Aphis, Plant-louse, Ptjceron, or Vine-fretter. — " This 

 genus of insects comprises many species and varieties, 

 which are denominated from the plants they infest. The 

 males are winged, and the females without wings : they 

 are viviparous, producing their young alive, in the spring; 

 and also oviparous, laying eggs in autumn. Water, dashed 

 with force from a syringe, [or garden engine,] will prove 

 as destructive to them as any thing, when on trees ; and 

 smaller plants mny be washed with lime-water, with tobac- 



