54 
INSECTS. 
some enemy of the orange tree, it is stated in the Gardener' s 
Chronicle, has been destroyed by hanging plants of the common 
chamomile among its branches. The odour of the coal tar of 
gas works is exceedingly offensive to some insects injurious 
to fruits, and it has been found to drive gway the wire worm, 
and other grubs that attack the roots of plants. The vapour of 
oil of turpentine is fatal to wasps, and that of tobacco smoke to 
the green fly. Little as yet is certainly known respecting the 
exact power of the various smells in deterring insects from at- 
tacking trees. What we do know, however, gives us reason to 
believe that much may be hoped from experiments made with a 
variety of powerful smelling substances. 
Tobacco water , and diluted whale oil soap, are the two most 
efficient remedies for all the small insects which feed upon the 
young shoots and leaves of plants. Tobacco water is made by 
boiling tobacco leaves, or the refuse stems and stalks of the to- 
bacco shops. A large pot is crowded full of them, and then 
filled up with water, which is boiled till a strong decoction is 
made. This is applied to the young shoots and leaves with a 
syringe, or, when the trees are growing in nursery rows, with a 
common white-wash brush ; dipping the latter in the liquid and 
shaking it sharply over the extremities or the infested part of each 
tree. This, or the whale oil soap-suds, or a mixture of both, will 
kill every species of plant lice, and nearly all other small insects 
to which young trees are subject. 
The wash of whale oil soap is made by mixing two pounds of 
this soap, which is one of the cheapest and strongest kinds, with 
fifteen gallons of water. This mixture is applied to the leaves 
and stems of plants with a syringe, or in any other convenient 
mode, and there are few of the smaller insects that are not de- 
stroyed or driven away by it. The merit of this mixture be- 
longs to Mr. David Haggerston, of Boston, who first applied it 
with great success to the roses lug, and received the premium of 
the Massachusetts Horticultural Society for its discovery. When 
this soap cannot be obtained, a good substitute may be made by 
turning into soap the lees of common oil casks, by the applica- 
tion of potash and water in the usual way. 
Moths and other insects which Jly at night are destroyed in 
large numbers by the following mode, first discovered by Victor 
Adouin, of France. A flat saucer or vessel is set on the ground 
in which is placed a light, partially covered with a common bell 
glass besmeared with oil. All the small moths are directly at- 
tracted by the light, fly towards it, and, in their attempts to get 
at the light, are either caught bj the glutinous sides of the bell 
glass, or fall into the basin of oil beneath, and in either case 
soon perish. M. Adouin applied this to the destruction of the 
pyralis , a moth that is very troublesome in the French vine- 
yards ; with two hundred of these lights in a vineyard of foui 
