396 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



saucers, with sweet or other oil, in difiercnt places, either in the 

 open air, or in hot-houses, which will destroy ants, beetles, 

 crickets, and other insects, the margin of the oil being sprinkled 

 with a little sugar. 



Caterpillars, which arc the larvae or young of the papilio 

 genus, are very destructive, and various means have been tried 

 to destroy them. As their whole employment seems to be 

 eating, when they meet with food that suits their palates, they 

 are extremely voracious, and will soon leave leafless any plant, 

 bush, or ti'ce, on which they begin their ravages. But nature 

 has provided a wise restraint on their propagation by also 

 forming other insects which keep them within due bounds. 

 These insects deposit their eggs in the bodies of caterpillars : 

 from these eggs proceed small maggots, which gradually devour 

 the vitals of the animal in which they reside. When about 

 to be transformed into a chrysalis, they pierce the skin of the 

 caterpillar, spin their pods, and remain on the empty skin till 

 they assume the form of flies, and escape into the air to per- 

 form the same office to another unfortunate larva. But to 

 man, there is room left to exercise his reason, in devising means 

 for their destruction. Lime-water has been used, which will 

 destroy a great part ; tobacco-water will destroy more ; but 

 the most efficacious plan is to employ a few children in the 

 garden for a few days to pick them up, and afterwards to de- 

 stroy them. The garden-engine, used with the greatest force 

 upon the bushes, will wash off' many of them, but picking we 

 have always found the most certain in the end. 



In the Agricultural Journal of Bavaria, the following method 

 is given for the destruction of caterpillars in an orchard: — 

 Plant according to the size of the orcliard, from one to four 

 plants of bird-cherry {Primus Padus) ; almost the whole of 

 die caterpillars and butterflies within one or two hundred yards 

 will resort to that plant. The appearance of the bird-cherry 

 will be hideous, but the fruit-trees will be safe. 



The Aphides, or what is more generally known as the 

 green fly, black fly, &c., two species of the same genus, may 

 be destroyed by the same means. They are destructive, and 

 annoy almost all sorts of fruit-trees, and many herbaceous and 

 flowering plants. They attack the young tips of the tender 



