56 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
keep a large garden free from them. Constant attention and watchfulness in 
destroying insects on their first appearance, save a great deal of labour in 
the end. 
The many insects that infest fruit trees may, for all practical purposes, be 
divided into four classes: 1st, Those which for a time harbour in the ground 
and may be attacked in the soil; 2nd, Winged and other species which may be 
attacked among the branches; 3rd, Aphides, or plant lice, which infest the 
young shoots ; 4th, Moths, and all flying insects. 
Insects, the larvse or grubs of which harbour in the ground during a certain 
season, are all, more or less, affected by the application of common salt as a top¬ 
dressing. Salt is very disagreeable to nearly all this class of insects, but being 
a very powerful agent, it must be employed for this purpose with the greatest 
caution and judgment; if applied very frequently, or too plentifully, it will 
certainly cause the death of any tree. 
It is astonishing what havoc caterpillars make of fruit trees if allowed to 
increase; in an incredibly short time a tree, or a whole orchard, as the case 
may be, is denuded of all its leaves, than which there is nothing so unsightly 
in a garden during the summer months, to say nothing of the loss of fruit. 
Watching well, and destroying them on their first appearance, is the best and 
wisest course that can be adopted; and, in default of other more rapid ex¬ 
pedients, the old mode of hand-picking and crushing is the safest and surest 
that can be followed. 
When caterpillars are very numerous, and hand-picking would occupy too 
much time, powdered white hellebore is a sure and quick means of destroying 
them. The mode of applying it is to dust it on them from a small dredger. 
One dose is, in general, sufficient; but as many of the caterpillars may be on 
the under side of the leaves at the time, and so may not get any, it is advisable 
to repeat the application after a few days ; it is rarely that a third application 
is required. When caterpillars are very numerous on fruit trees, this is the 
surest and most speedy mode of destroying them. 
Of the winged and other species which may be attacked among the branches, 
many small insects may be destroyed either by powerful odours, or by a strong 
decoction of tobacco. The great point is to do it in time; one or two 
syringings with tobacco water, and one or two fumigations with tobacco, will 
soon destroy a young colony; but if not taken in time, and allowed to increase, 
the difficulty of exterminating them effectually is very much greater. 
Aphides, or plant lice, which infest the young shoots, are readily destroyed 
by fumigating with tobacco, and for clearing plants under glass it is the best 
and surest mode; but when fruit trees on walls and in the open ground are 
infested, the best mode to adopt is to syringe with tobacco water, which is an 
efficient remedy for aphides and many other insects that feed upon the young 
shoots and leaves of plants. The young shoots of Plum trees, Cherries, Peaches, 
Gooseberries, Currants, &c., are often infested with aphides in summer; the 
best plan for destroying these, is to dip the end of the shoots into tobacco 
water; it is rather a tedious plan, but for the black fly which attacks Cherry 
and Peach trees it is the best remedy. When the trees are syringed, the water 
does not reach all the insects so effectually as when the shoots are dipped into 
the water. 
Moths, and all night-flying insects, are destroyed in large numbers by the 
following mode:—A flat saucer or vessel is set on the ground, and in it is 
placed a light, partially covered with a common bell-glass besmeared with oil. 
All the small moths are directly attracted by the light, fly towards it, and, in 
their attempts to get at the light, are either caught on the sides of the bell-glass, 
or fall into the basin of oil beneath, and in either case soon perish. If a 
