THE GEELONG NATUEALIST. 
25 
covered witli little brown insects with long antennae (or horns) and 
with two projections from the extreme end of the body. Now the 
person who does not know, or who has not read anything about the 
nature and habits of this pest, often says to himself — "Ah ! I have 
heard somewhere of Paris green. I will give my trees a good dose, 
and so surprise our little brown friends." He gets the Paris green. 
Hellebore, or London purple, as the case may be, and with it he 
sprays his trees. The result is he finds the aphids there as usual 
and not in the least concerted by what he considers to be his 
remarkably ingenious device for their destruction. Tou will prob- 
bably wish to know why and how this is ? I will endeavour to tell 
you. The aphids, as well as the large family of so called " plant 
bugs," are wholly suctorial in their habits, that is they have 
a rostrum or beak with which they pierce the bark of the 
tree, and by this means the sap is extracted or sucked out. It 
will thus be seen that such useful preparations as the arsenical 
compounds — Paris green, London purple, &c., are of little or no 
avail against such pests, as their proboscides or beaks are then far 
out of reach of such applications. The man who has studied tlu) 
habits of these insects for himself knows this much, and proceeds 
to destroy the hordes of little insects by spraying with a liquid tbiit 
will kill by coming into contact with them. 1 need hardly tell you 
what to use as this has already been explained in both Parts I and 11, 
of my handbook, of which you doubtless have copies. You will thus 
see that by making a study of the subject you can save a great deal 
of useless experiment, and devote the time which such entails in 
■work of a more profitable nature. We will suppose the aphids 
on the branches to have been disposed of, no easy matter, 
as you probably know ; when lo ! next morning we find countless 
numbers swarming up the stems of the trees. It is then 
that the man who neither reads nor observes for himself 
would doubtless say — " Why those that I sprayed yesterday 
have recovered and are as lively as ever." But the careful 
grower will examine with his lens the parts of the trees sprayed 
with the proper material, and will thus satisfy himself, as to the 
efficacy or otherwise of his attempts to destroy them ; and if 
successful, he would look over the tree for further indications of- 
their presence. The trained man knows the insects are also on the 
roots, where they hybernate, as well as on the rest of the tree. He 
at once comes to the conclusion that he must first strike at the 
" root " of the disease. AVhereas the man who knows nothing of 
the subject, and probably cares little either, proceeds to lament, and 
not infrequently winds up by chopping out his trees and returning 
to the city with the melancholy wail that any attempt to grow fruit 
m Victoria must end in failure. W^hen one goes on the land, 
whether it is for the purpose of growing anything— from wool to 
special products — he will find that there are many leisure moments 
■which may be profitably spent in the interesting and useful study 
