STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
509 
STRirED FLEA-BEETLE. CHICKENS THE BEST REMEDY. 
them; and some individuals being stationed in the little pits which 
they have eaten in the thick texture of the leaves, and others down 
in the axils at the base of the leaf-stalks, pertinaciously remain, 
regardless of any jarring or shaking of the plants, and are only 
dislodged by crowding them out from their lairs with the point of 
a'knife or other implement. And though the plants be kept well 
dusted over with ashes, and the beetles be repeatedly driven off 
from them, they immediately return to them again. It was, no 
doubt, a season when these insects were thus froward and bold, 
when Mr. LeKeux failed to perceive that lime, sulphur, snuff, &c., 
had any effect in expelling them from the plants. What is the 
cause of their thus varying from their ordinary timorous habits, 
we know not. One occasion, when we particularly noticed their 
clinging to the plants in the garden so persistently, the season 
was quite backward, with rains falling almost daily in May and 
June. 
But this dusting of the plants with ashes, lime, &c., is only a 
palliative remedy, valuable as a temporaiy resort when we have 
no better means at hand for averting this evil. It leaves the 
insects as numerous as they were before. It does not subdue the 
enemy ; it merely drives him away from one point, and leaves him 
in full force to make his attack upon some other point. It should 
be our aim to kill and lessen his numbers, and hereby so weaken 
his force that ho will not be able to do us serious injury. The 
best mode of accomplishing this will probably be most clearly 
imparted to the reader by another extract from my memoranda, 
reading as follows: 
“June 21, 1864, I discovered that my young cabbage plants 
were being considerably injured by the Striped flea-beetles. 
Many of the leaves had a wide strip upon their border excoriated, 
with several of the beetles present upon these particular leaves, 
feeding and extending the injury. I thereupon sprinkled tho 
leaves copiously with ashes. But the rain soon after washed off 
tho ashes, whereby tho single application was but partially suc¬ 
cessful. I then turned some large half-grown chickens into the 
garden, and watching their movements, I saw them spitefully 
picking at these cabbage leaves. I thought it was tho cabbage 
they were picking; but keeping my eye upon a particular leaf 
which I saw a chicken picking at, and going to it I found tho leaf 
was not at all wounded. It was therefore evident it was theso 
