( 26 ) 
mixture which will temporarily paralyse the grubs or 
insects as they fall on to it, or possibly kill them out¬ 
right, has been recommended, and in the present case it 
appears quite admissible that the cloths recommended to 
be placed under the trees to be beaten should be so 
prepared beforehand. There are many mixtures of 
petroleum or other mineral oils which would probably 
answer the purposes. The fact of the oil soon separating 
from water would not matter in this case, and the cloths 
might be dipped in a mere mixture of the petroleum and 
water and used wet, or they might be drenched over 
(when laid down) with soft-soap and petroleum wash, 
which would presumably prevent any of these little 
creatures straying away; or a good swilling on to the 
ground of soft-soap wash would be a great preventive of 
wandering. 
In England, for prevention of wandering from a given 
point, it is sometimes found useful to circumscribe a 
small area with a line of wet tar, and where there were 
only the droppings from a few trees or the infestation in 
a limited spot to be temporarily dealt with, it might save 
all trouble to run a little furrow (just to save waste in 
application), and to pour some tar along it, renewing it 
for a day or two if necessary; but in whatever wa}^ it is 
managed, it is obvious, from the remark of the Inspector 
of Fruit Pests of California, quoted at p. 20, that the 
point of the spread of the attack from the pest being 
dispersed in removing the infected trees requires much 
consideration. 
On Aug. 21st, 1886, Mr. Bairstow wrote:—“ I notice 
that the large female attacks the black-wood roots most 
fiercely in the winter time. Just now 1 ’ [winter in Cape 
Colony— Ed.] “in St. George’s Park the ground in some 
parts is simply alive— snowy —with them.” At this 
period a little care and attention must prove amazingly 
beneficial. 
How far mechanical measures can be brought to bear 
on such a state of things as that above described can 
only be certainly known by trial, but it occurs whether 
