Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/519

Rh The Hamburgh Society for the Encouragement of the Arts and Useful Trades, has published the following methods of destroying this voracious insect, as communicated by different authors:

1. In order to prevent the worm from changing into a chafer, it is advisable to intersect the fields with ditches: as this insect is continually creeping about, it penetrates through the sides of those trenches, falls into the water which they generally contain, and cannot extricate itself from that situation; but it is necessary to collect the worms every day; for they will serve as an excellent food for swine and poultry.

2. Take two ounces of oil (it is not stated what kind of oil) to every pailful of water, and sprinkle it on such places as are visited by the worm: or bury twenty small pots, at equal distances, from 8 to 10 inches deep, and each containing from 20 to 30 drops of sulphurated oil, or thick balsam of sulphur, the exhalation of which expels the insects.—This expedient, however, can be practised only in gardens.

3. Another correspondent suggests the frequent hoeing of plants, or ploughing of the soil in the months of June and July, in order to bruise the insect, or to expose it for the prey of birds. He also advises to pour boiling water on those less productive, or barren spots of meadows, which may be easily distinguished from others: this remedy, however, appears to us exceptionable; because hot water would at the same time injure the vegetating roots of grasses.

4. Previous to a shower of rain, the following powder strewed on the land has been found of great service: namely, two parts of pulverized quick-lime, two parts of sifted wood-ashes, and one part of pounded sulphur: the hepatic vapour disengaged from this mixture, on being moistened, is affirmed to be effectual in destroying that pernicious grub.

5. The Rev. J. F., an aged German clergyman, has, in a separate essay on this subject (1786) published the following method of extirpating the cock-chafer: he found from long experience, that irrigation of the fields towards the latter end of May, or in June; alternate manuring of land with marl, street-dung, acrid and corrosive matters, such as quick-lime, gypsum, nitre, the ley of wood-ashes, and of tanners' waste, &c. are the only practicable means of destroying that insect in a grub-state; besides which, he advises to drive a flock of sheep frequently over such land as has been much perforated by this insect; to water the meadows in spring; to sow red clover early in March, or (in Germany), as soon as the snow is melted on the soil; then to harrow in the seed, to cover it thinly with a mellow dung, and to repeat the sowing in the first three or four years, as occasion may require.

In the Memoirs of the Agricultural Society of Paris (for 1787, vol. iii.) the Marquis has suggested a very simple, but, as he asserts, effectual remedy for preventing the depredations ot this injurious grub, and consequently its progressive transformation into a chafer. He observed, namely, that turf or peat ashes, strewed on the fields, produced that desirable effect.

Uses of the Cock-chafer. Although this numerous and voracious insect is by no means