GENERAL REMARKS ON INSECTS. 



55 



soon be entirely destroyed by them. As it is, the orchards and gardens 

 of careless and slovenly cultivators are often overrun by them, and many 

 of the finest crops suffer great injury or total loss from the want of a 

 little timely care. 



In all well-managed plantations of fruit, at the first appearance of 

 any injurious insect, it will be immediately seized upon and destroyed. 

 A few moments in the first stage of insect life — at the first birth of the 

 new colony — will do more to rid us for the season of that species than 

 whole days of toil after the matter has been so long neglected that the 

 enemy has become well established. We know how reluctant all but the 

 experienced grower are, to set about eradicating what at first seems a 

 thing of such trifling consequence. But such persons should consider 

 that whether it is done at first, or a fortnight after, is frequently the 

 difference between ten and ten thousand. A very little time regularly 

 devoted to the extirpation of noxious insects will keep a large place quite 

 free from them. We know a very large garden filled with trees, and 

 always remarkably free from insect ravages, which, while those even in 

 its vicinity suffer greatly, is thus preserved by half an hour's examination 

 of the whole premises two days in the week during the growing season. 

 This is made early in the morning, the best time for the purpose, as the 

 insects are quiet while the dew is yet upon the leaves, and whole races 

 yet only partially developed may be swept off in a single moment. In 

 default of other more rapid expedients, the old mode of hand-picking, 

 and crushing or burning, is the safest and surest that can be adopted. 

 For practical purposes, the numerous insects infesting fruit-trees may 

 be divided into four classes : 1st, those which for a time harbor in the 

 ground and may be attacked in the soil ; 2d, winged and other species, 

 which may be attacked among the branches ; 3d, aphides or plant- 

 lice, which infest the young shoots ; 4th, moths, and all night-flying 

 insects. 



Insects, the larvce or grubs of which harbor in the ground during a 

 certain season, as the curculio or plum-weevil, are all more or less affected 

 by the application of common salt as a top-dressing. On a larger scale, 

 in farm crops, the ravages of the cut- worm are frequently prevented by 

 sowing three bushels of salt to the acre, and we have seen it applied to 

 all kinds of fruit-grounds with equal success. Salt seems to be strongly 

 disagreeable to nearly all this class of insects, and the grubs perish where 

 even a small quantity has for two or three seasons been applied to the 

 soil. In a neighborhood where the peach-worm usually destroys half the 

 peach-trees, and where whole crops of the plum are equally a victim to 

 the plum-weevil, we have seen the former preserved in the healthiest 

 condition by an annual application of a small handful of coarse salt 

 about the collar of the tree at the surface of the ground ; and the latter 

 made to hold abundant crops by a top-dressing applied every spring of 

 packing salt, at the rate of a quart to the surface occupied by the roots, 

 of every full-grown tree. 



Salt, being a powerful agent, must be applied for this purpose with 

 caution and judgment. In small quantities it promotes the verdure and 

 luxuriance of fruit-trees, while if applied very frequently, or too plenti- 

 fully, it will certainly cause the death of any tree. Two or three years' 

 top-dressing in moderate quantity will usually be found sufficient to 

 drive away these insects, and then the application need only be repeated 

 once in two or three seasons. Any coarse refuse salt will answer the 



