ingly, the paste will destroy the vines. But it is perfectly easy and entirely safe to use it if the least possible amount be used. I repeat, add only enough that it may be seen.

I have thus been enabled to safely apply this mixture to even to our tender melon and cucumber vines. I would not apply it when the dew is on, as the application will be more even if the vines are dry, and with the strength recommended above will always prove effectual. I think this is the most economical method yet recommended. By using the flour mixture I have found that two applications are always sufficient for our early varieties, and frequently for later ones; and three applications are in any case all that are needed, even in seasons of heaviest rains. Some prefer to use plaster instead of flour, using forty or fifty parts of plaster by measure to one of the green. This does not form a paste, and can be added in quantity without danger to the vines,-indeed the plaster may be useful,-but the first heavy rain will wash it off.

ENEMIES.

I might enumerate and describe the score or more of natural enemies, birds and insects, which attack and destroy this potato beetle; but as they will not for long years, if ever, make the use of Paris green unnecessary, and as this article is only to deal with practical problems, I will omit this interesting part of the subject. Now, will not all who read this article

PRACTICE THIS REMEDY,

and thus make a blessing out of a curse? For if, by expending $5 per acre, we can save our crop, and get, as is true all over the State, fifty cents more per bushel than in ante-beetle days, we shall surely sustain the paradox of being indebted to a sore enemy for an increased profit of $40 per acre on our potato crop. How pertinent the following from H. Vorhees of Ottawa county, in the New York Tribune:

"I see now how I might have made much money; for the price of potatoes has doubled. I find the cost of applying Paris green is not more than $5 an acre, and it is a sure remedy. Yet there are those right here who spend fifty days labor, hand-picking, per acre."

Is not the Detroit Tribune quite right in saying that no one has any moral right to neglect insect pests and thus bring evil to others? With slight care this remedy is entirely safe. Of course no one need eat or breathe the poison, while the danger of poisoning the earth, lately heralded forth by that first scientific entomologist of our country, Dr. J. L. Le Conte, was shown by Professor Kedzie of our own college, some years since, to be entirely groundless. It is strange that so able and careful a scientist as Dr. Le Conte should lend his great name in fostering such expensive errors.

CUT-WORMS.

Agrotians. Family, Noctuide. Sub-Order, Lepidoptera.

Little, if any, inferior to the potato beetle in its destruction to our field crops, is the cut-worm. The cut-worms (for there are several species which claim tribute from the grain-grower), are not confined in their operations to a single staple, for nearly all our cereals, grasses, and especially our corn crops, are made to contribute to their support.

The cut-worms are so named from their prodigal habits of cutting off plants; not taking their fill on a single plant, leaving all uneaten undisturbed, but, as

if totally depraved, rejoicing in rioting and wantonness, they simply cut the plants asunder, thus ruining every plant that they attack.

These destroyers are called surface caterpillars in England, doubtless from the fact that they lie concealed by day just beneath the earth surface. In Europe they are dreaded from their effect on grasses, and such injury in this country, though less patent than that done to corn, is by no means inconsiderable. In Europe the loss of a third of a crop is ruinous; here it is common, and hardly causes comment.

The cut-worms are no foreigners, "being to the manor born." Even the Indians found in them a foe fully as persistent if not as formidable as the white man.

NATURAL HISTORY.

The natural history of these insects (and this will apply to those which ravage our gardens and orchards as well as those attacking field crops), is as folFIG. 2.

Agrotis Subgothica.

lows: Some time, usually late in the season, the moths, which are always of a sober hue, gray or brown, with two conspicuous spots on their front wings, may be seen in concealed places about our houses, as being attracted by lights they come into our houses by night, and being night moths, seek to hide by day.

It is probable that the moths, after pairing, seek some grass spot on which to deposit eggs, for true it is that we find the caterpillars, in fall and spring, amidst the roots of grass on which they appear to feed, though even these immature larvæ may, like the mature ones, come forth for the more succulent blade and leaf. And among all insects there is a strange instinct which seldom errs, which secures egg-laying in close proximity to the food of the larva. In sooth, there are some flies which only sip the liquid sweets of flowers, yet seem to remember their former less refined diet, as they place their eggs in the midst of carrion filth or stable refuse, on which their maggot progeny seem to feed with unfailing relish.

FIG. 3.

The young cut-worms, perhaps from their small size and abundant food, seem to attract little attention because of their injuries till the succeeding May, when the full-grown larvæ, now over an inch in length, greasy, and in sober garb of gray, brown, or striped with light and dark, depending on the species, come forth to nip our crops and blast our hopes.

FIG. 4.

Agrotis Cochrani.-Larva and Imago.

After the larva growth is complete they become chrysalids in an earthen cocoon, a few inches from the surface, and in summer and autumn the moths again appear, when the same cycle of growth, changes, and destruction is again repeated.

Pupa.

I might describe here, as before, many predaceous and parasitic insects which help to hold these dread destroyers in check, but as they are unable, without aid, to wholly accomplish the good work, I will at

once proceed to the more practical duty of detailing artificial means to preclude these injuries.

REMEDIES.

I am fully persuaded that there is no more sure way to ward off cut-worm injuries than to enter into partnership with the birds, in which it shall be the duty of the party of the first part to plow the land early in the fall, so that bluebird, robin, and grakle may have a cut-worm feast before leaving for more genial climes. Deep harrowing will aid the party of the second part, while a repetition of the same as early in the spring as the season will permit, will insure a thanksgiving repast of the same nature. I feel very certain that from this cause, and not freezing of the larvæ, has originated the unquestionable fact that fall plowing is an advantage. When unprotected larvæ can survive a temperature -30°, as I have proved the past winter, we may be slow to credit the freezing method of destruction.

Our early spring birds are much put to it to gain sufficient food for themselves and brood, and with the opportunity will become chief abettors in cutworm destruction. That the three birds above named do merit loudest praise for such valuable service I have personal proof.

The only method to supplement the above measures when they are not adequate to remove the evil, with our field crops, is digging out by hand and destroying. This is by no means so tedious a procedure as would be thought at first, as by passing along the corn-field early in the morning the cut stock will reveal the whereabouts of the night-marauder, which, by digging around the stub, may soon be found and crushed. As this plan implies the loss of at least a single stock to a larva, it would be very well in planting to practice the advice of the poet: "Two for the blackbird, two for the crow (they have earned them), two for the cut-worm, and four to grow." This advice will be all the more pertinent if the corn is to be planted after late spring-plowed greensward; I need hardly say late, as our wet springs usually necessitate late spring plowing. If our farmers will heed the above, and give the go-by to all those quack remedies which obtain annually an unmerited place in our periodicals, such as salt, plaster, etc. (though all fertilizers which promote rapid growth are always to be commended as aids in the work of insect destruction), this cut-worm evil will soon assume less importance.

The following are the species which I have found injurious to our corn crops in this State: Agrotis nigricans. Linn.; Agrotis devastator, Brace; Agrotis subgothica (see Fig. 2d), Howorth; and Hadena amputatrix, Fitch. These species are all on exhibition in the college museum, and those desiring full descriptions of them in all stages will find them all in Riley's and Fitch's reports

THE MAY BEETLE.

Lachnosterna fusca, Frohl. Family, Scarabeida. Sub-Order, Coleoptera.

Few farmers will need a description of that sleek old culprit, the white grub, still less to be assured of its destructive powers, as the damage to our meadows and other products are becoming yearly more alarming. If I mistake not, this is considered in some portions of our State, especially the southwest portion, the farmer's worst insect pest.

NATURAL HISTORY.

I need hardly say that in May and June the beetles (3 and 4, Fig. 5), all brown and plump, come forth from the ground, and at early twilight, and on into the night, fly forth in such numbers as to sound like the swarming of bees, often annoying us by thumping at our windows or lumbering into our rooms, to be felled by bumping the walls; hence the name dor-beetle, and the expressions "beetle-headed," and "blind as a beetle." These beetles often do FIG. 5.

no inconsiderable damage by eating the foliage from our fruit trees, though here at the college they have seemed to prefer the oak leaves. Would that they might rest content with the completion of such mischief. After pairing, the females lay their eggs, fifty or more, probably in the ground, near the roots of grass or other plants.

The grub, white, wrinkled, with a brown head (2, Fig. 5), feeds on the roots of grass, wheat, corn, and other plants for three years, when it becomes full-grown, having attained nearly one and one-half inches in length. In the third autumn it forms a cocoon of earth, in which it pupates (1, Fig. 5). The next May or June the beetles come forth to enjoy a brief riot, and prepare for another round of mischief under ground.

1, Pupa; 2. Larva; 3 and 4, Imagoes.

REMEDIES.

As the numbers of these beetles and grubs are frequently so alarmingly great, and their mischief so wide spread and extensive, we can only hope to ward off their ravages in our pastures and meadows by wholesale remedies. So soon as the meadow turns sear, and we have the further evidence that the white grub is the culprit in the grass, now rootless, freely yielding to the hand or rake; or, still better, finding the sleek old gormand beneath by a little digging; if this state of things is so extensive as to create uneasiness, the field better be given over at once to the swine, and the more swine the better. It may be as profitable to turn the grass into pork, indirectly through the aid of the white grub, as to change it directly into beef or mutton; besides, we then are sure to destroy a grievous pest. If a meadow is the seat of the evil, it may pay best to cut the hay first. Early fall plowing will enable the birds to aid the swine, and possibly kill the grubs by destroying their food. Frequent harrowing will give the birds a still better chance to indulge in this "feast of fat things.'

99

In protecting our wheat and corn, the same remedies would apply as those recommended to destroy the cut-worm.

As yet, we know no method to fight these pests of our meadows, except the one given above; and if the ravages appear while the grub is in the first or second year's operation, which can be ascertained by the size, the above method of procedure will be still more desirable.

THE WHEAT MIDGE.

Cecidomyia tritici, Kirb. Family, Cecidomyida. Sub-Order, Diptera.

Unlike its near relative the Hessian fly (Cecidomyia destructor), the midge or wheat berry fly, is not yet driven from among us, though its many insect enemies have so depleted its numbers, that it no longer fills our agriculturists with dark forebodings as to the future of our wheat interests.

NATURAL HISTORY.

The natural history of the midge is as follows: The little orange fly, so small as to almost escape notice, appears in June. The eggs are laid on the chaff of the berry. Upon hatching, the orange-colored maggot lies between the chaff and berry, and by absorbing the juices, ruins the kernel, and thus an insignificant larval fly does immense damage.

REMEDIES.

This imported enemy, which does no great damage in Europe, because of the numerous parasites which prey upon it, is fast losing its terrors here, and so I will only mention the very commonly understood preventives:

If they are troublesome, get the variety of grain which is least affected, and then sow fall wheat so early, and spring wheat so late, that the former may mature too early to be injured, the latter, too late.

WIRE-WORM.

Elater. Family, Elaterida. Sub-Order, Coleoptera.

Within a few years, these insects have become quite destructive in our State. Complaints have came to me from all points, in reference to injuries done to corn and potatoes.

FIG. 6.

NATURAL HISTORY.

Wire-worms, the larvae of elater, or springbeetles, usually feed on rotten wood, so that we can hardly raise a piece of bark on a decaying log, or turn over a rotten log, without finding them. Would that all were content with such a diet; but not so, for, as too many know by disheartening experience, some of them attack the newly planted potatoes in a perfectly ruinous manner, so that to have a crop demands a second planting. Nor do they behave better towards the fresh corn plants. These wire-worms are well named as they much resemble in form both a worm and a wire. They FIG. 7. have the six usual jointed legs, and thus may be easily told from the myriapods, which they somewhat resemble, but which have many legs. They work for several years and pupate in an earthen cocoon. The beetles (Fig. 7) which come from these grubs, are the well-known elaters, or spring beetles, which possess such a power of springing up, if, perchance, they fall on their back. This habit, no less than their peculiar form, will serve to distinguish them wherever seen. I am not able to state what species are injurious when in the larvæ state.

REMEDIES.

The same course as that recommended for cut-worms and the white-grub,fall plowing and frequent harrowing, to give the fall and spring birds a good chance, will also serve here. In England, where they are greatly troubled with