176 
usually large the past season, which doubtless accounts in 
a measure for the slight injury from this pest. It is well 
known that on large plantations the damage is almost. 
always less than on garden patches. 
For the squash vine borer, Melizttca cucurbitae (Harris), 
the experiment made in 1884 and 1885! was repeated. This 
consisted in placing corn cobs dipped in coal tar among the 
plants about the first of July. “he borer scarcely appeared 
at all, however, and plants that received no treatment suf- 
fered very little. Inaplat containing fifty plants, on which 
no cobs were placed, seven borers were found, while in a 
plat of sixteen plants on which the cobs were used, none 
were found. 
APHIDES. 
As already noted, the damage from aphides the past sea- 
son was unusually large. During the spring and the first 
half of summer, nearly all garden plants and fruit trees 
were more or less infested. Hven the water lily, Nymphaea. 
odorata, growing in tubs in the Station lawn, was found! 
to be covered with plant lice in July, wherever the leaf 
stems were exposed above the water. In the extensive 
nurseries about Geneva the damage caused to plantations 
of apple, pear, plum and cherry trees by these insects was. 
estimated at many thousands of dollars. 
It is safe to say that no satisfactory method is known for: 
avoiding the injury from these pests in seasons when the 
conditions are favorable for their rapid multiplication. 
Kerosene emulsions and whale oil soap washes, when made 
of proper strength, destroy all the lice that can be reached, 
without much injury to the foliage; but owing to the 
rapidity with which the insects multiply, and the practical 
impossibility of reaching all at one application, these means 
prove far from satisfactory. 
Nothing new was developed in the experiments made at. 
the Station. A mixture of lime water and kerosene was 
tried as a substitute for the soap emulsion. This was 
equally efficacious, with the advantage that it does not 
cover the foliage with soap. To make this mixture, slack 
one pound of fresh lime in five quarts of water and add one: 
part in fifteen by measure of kerosene. When shaken well 
it is sufficiently permanent for the purposes of application. 
ea for the root aphis, on lettuce, it appeared to do no 
good. 
Hot water was also tried. The difficulties attending its 
application are so great, and the range of temperature at 
‘See report New York Agricultural Experiment Station, 1884, p. 318; 
1885, p. 216. 
