REMEDIES AND PREVENTIVES OF INSECT ATTACKS. 



Cutting out the Squash-Vine Boeer. 



This pernicious insect — the larva of Melittia cucurbitce (Harris) — 

 of the injuries of which complaints are often received, 

 was given an extended notice in the Second Report on 

 the Insects of New York, pp. 57-68, and the remedies fig.i— The Squash- 

 and preventives pointed out which were thought to vine borer, Melit- 

 be the most serviceable against it. In referring to TIA CUCUKBITiB - 

 protection by " cutting out the larvae," it was stated : " When, how- 

 ever, thousands of the larvse have to be destroyed in order to 

 insure the crop, the method is quite unsatisfactory. It certainly 

 is not reliable under the great increase of the insect in recent years, 

 as stimulated by the increased cultivation of the Hubbard squash." 



I would now recommend its adoption in the manner detailed below ^ 

 in connection with the means which Mr. Goff, of the New York 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, found so successful, viz., " wetting 

 the stems at a distance of two feet from the base of the plants with water 

 containing Paris green at the rate of half a teaspoonful to a gallon, 

 after every rain, from the middle of July to the first of September;" 

 and as preventive of egg-deposit, placing in each hill four or five corn 

 cobs dipped in coal tar, and redipping them from time to time 

 during July and August. 



"With these methods faithfully employed, there would seem to be 

 no necessity for failure in maturing a crop of squashes, so far as 

 dependent upon the attack of its greatest enemy. 



We give below an extract from a communication to the Country 

 Gentleman of August 12, 1886, from Mr. H. C. Schmitz, of Albemarle 

 county, Va., in which his manner of detecting the presence of the 

 "borer," its extraction, and subsequent treatment of the vine, are 

 detailed. The success that attended these measures are a sufficient 

 recommendation for their general adoption. 



Walking through the plantation at regular intervals, to operate 

 immediately when action was wanted, I noticed the following signs as 

 a certain indication of the presence of the borer. 



The vine assumes a more or less yellow color, often the whole, 

 sometimes only the portion near the main root ; the leaves droop, 



