356 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
THE SQUASH BUG. 
July 15, 1856. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
Enclosed I send you specimens of an in¬ 
sect which just now threatens a total de¬ 
struction of the squash vines, and in many 
cases even those of the pumpkin, I find 
ahem especially on my winter squashes, 
>where from their numbers both of full grown 
insects and nests of eggs, 1 very much fear 
that on a large patch, not a vine will be left. 
I send you four specimens which, had I not 
examined them attentively, I should say 
were at least three distinct insects, but 1 
have watched them closely for two years, 
and have actually seen the largest bug in the 
,-act of depositing its eggs upon the under 
•side of the squash leaf, in patches of from 
HO to 25 or 30 in number. I have also 
watched the eggs as they hatched a yellow¬ 
ish porcupine looking worm, which almost 
immediately commences its depredations by 
apparently eating away all the cellular sub¬ 
stance, leaving the fibious portion to wither 
and dry up as though scorched. They con¬ 
tinue to feed and increase in size until they 
are a’bout one-fourth of an inch in length 
and from six to ten days old, when they un¬ 
dergo another transformation and assume the 
iform of a bug like the turtle back beetle 
'enclosed, which is more destructive than 
when in the worm or caterpillar state. 
They are now exceedingly voracious, 
^commencing upon one edge of the leaf, and 
• scarcely quitting it until a large part is eaten 
.away and withered as stated above. 
I have attempted to destroy them in this 
stage by going over the vines with a dish of 
hot water, and scalding them by immersion, 
but the process is a slow one and the num¬ 
bers scarcely seem to diminish although 
I have repeated the process daily. 
Can any one tell me how to rid my vines 
from such unwelcome and vicious intruders'? 
T. C. 
Remarks. —The specimens arrived in good 
order and are at once recognized as the 
genuine Squash-bug, (coreus tristis, of the 
order Hemiptera heteroptera). Our cor¬ 
respondent describes the habits of the insect 
wery accurately. By far the easiest method 
,of protecting the vines is to search for the 
ifull grown bugs (largest of the specimens 
sent,) which is a dark or rusty colored bug 
about f of an inch long, and destroy them 
previous to laying their eggs, by which 
means a whole brood is annihilated at once. 
They may be found at almost any time 
during the month of July, and even into 
August on the main stalk of the vine near 
the ground, or else upon the ground where 
they endeavor to escape observation. Being 
of a dusky color they are not always readily 
discovered. As they lay several litters of 
eggs during the season, it is always better 
to destroy them early, but in case they es¬ 
cape observation previous to laying, the eggs 
may readily be destroyed by pinching out 
that part of the leaf upon which they are 
found. 
A little time spent each day in hunting 
the insects previous to laying, and their 
eggs when laid, will save much after labor in 
staying their ravages and preserve the vines 
from destruction. 
We found these depredators in large num¬ 
bers on our vines from the 10th to the 15th 
of July, and succeeded in saving the vines 
by a very little labor such as we have re¬ 
commended.—[E d. 
PURSLAIN. 
“ Mean as purslain,” is a Yankee proverb, 
which describes both the plant, and a certain 
class of men. It is now abundant in all 
places in the garden, in the rows of car¬ 
rots and onions, among the squash vines, 
under the spreading corn, wherever there is 
a patch of dirt not touched with the hoe. 
Cut it up by the roots, and unless you carry 
it off out of the garden, you have gained 
very little. A slight rain will reinvigorate 
it, and after a few days your purslain will 
be as green as ever. Turn it bottom upward, 
and it will not die, unless the sun actually 
crisps it. Even when wilted and perfectly 
dead to appearance, it will surprise you with 
new life after a few days neglect. If allowed 
to go to seed, it will soon stock a garden for 
a whole generation. There is no end to its 
progeny. One plant, with its one mean lit¬ 
tle root in the ground will sprawl over a patch 
of ground as big as a bushel. A pig weed, 
when plucked up, will die a decent death, as 
if it. belonged to a mortal race, but this mean 
thing is as vital in every part as Milton’s 
fallen spirits, and about as vile. 
It is a sponge upon the soil of the garden, 
humble and obscure, but all the while drain¬ 
ing the life out of it, in a very sly way like a 
vegetable vampyre. Its meanness in this 
respect is an apt type of certain specimens 
of humanity. There is nothing honest and 
manly about them. They do nothing praise 
worthy, render to the world no equivalent 
for the manifold service, which society ren¬ 
ders them. They are mean as purslain. 
It is hard to get rid of, and in this respect 
it reminds one of certain human bores, that 
infest all communities. They greet you in 
the morning and bore you until you in¬ 
vite them to lend a hand, when they guess it 
is about time they were going. Thinking 
you are rid of them for the day, they drop 
in again at noon. They will not take a hint, 
but rob you of time. They are mean as 
purslain. 
But we have not time to apply the pro¬ 
verb. The great business now is to apply 
the hoe to the purslain, rake it up in heaps, 
and carry it to the pig stye. We believe it 
has never been known to sprout under a pigs 
nose, or in the heat of a compost heap. If 
fermented it dies, and the seeds are destroyed. 
Apply the hoe and rake, boys, and clear the 
garden of this mean weed.— [Ed. 
Improved Currants. —We received a bas¬ 
ket of very large, nearly uniform size, and 
finely flavored red currants, from Mr. Fun¬ 
nel, of Huntington, L. I., with the promise 
of the detailed management with his bushes, 
which has brought them up to the present 
high standard, in size and quality. We 
shall be happy to place the statement of Mr. 
F. before our readers.— [Ed. 
TOMATOES—SUPPORTING AND SHORTEN- 
1NG-IN. 
Few gardens are now found unsupplied 
with tomatoes, but very few persons take 
any pains to cultivate them. The vines are 
usually left to straggle ad libitum,. This is 
bothbad economy and bad taste. If toma¬ 
toes are planted in rows, a convenient plan 
is to put up stakes on both sides of each row, 
and nail on horizontal strips or slats to keep 
the vines perpendicular. They may be car¬ 
ried up to the hight of three to five feet. By 
this means the vines will show much better, 
especially when covered with ripened fruit 
clustering thickly upon the sides. The fruit 
itself will be much superior to that matured 
on the ground and in the shade. Strong 
twine or wires may be substituted for the 
horizontal slats. A cheaper process of 
supporting tomatoes is to bush them, in the 
same manner that beans or peas are treated. 
Our own tomatoes are planted around the 
border of the garden and trained upon the 
fence, the vines being upheld by strips of 
leather, doubled around the stalks and fast- 
tened to the fence with small nails. 
Tomatoes are also benefitted by shorten¬ 
ing-in. Three-fourths of the mature fruit is 
produced upon a small part of the vine near¬ 
est to the root, say one-third or one-fourth 
of its length. It is recommended to stop the 
further development of vines after a fair 
supply of fruit is set, by clipping off the vines 
growing beyond. The clipping should not 
be carried too far, as a supply of foliage is 
required to gather food from the air. One of 
the most successful cultivators in our ac- 
quaitance made it a rule to let no vine ex¬ 
tend beyond four feet from its root.— [Ed. 
THE CURCULIO SMOKED OUT AT LAST. 
Sometime since we announced that the 
Kentucky Horticultural Society had offered 
a premium of five hundred dollars for a 
cheap and effectual remedy against the Cur- 
culio. Several have already been proposed, 
of which the following, published in the 
Louisville Journal, has the merits of cheap¬ 
ness and simplicity at least, and it is said to 
be effectual. Here it is with the proposer’s 
specification :— 
I take an old tin pan that is worn out or 
unfit for other use, put some coals from the 
fire into it, and lay on strong tobacco and 
smoke the tree and young plums well. One 
nail through the bottom of the pan into the 
end of a stick or pole five or six feet in 
length, is sufficient, so that it can be raised 
handily and carried about the tree and 
through the branches. Care must be taken 
not to have a blaze. This should be repeat¬ 
ed about once a week for three weeks, after 
the plum is formed from the blossom. 
Thomas T, Gbenn. 
Niles, Berrien county, Mich, 
Remember that one weed going to seed 
now will sow a square yard for next season 
