It has been assumed by most writers that we cannot successfully attack the rose chafer in any of its earlier states. To search for the eggs in the ground would be impracticable. It does not, however, follow because of the poor success that has generally resulted from attempts to destroy similar larvae that they cannot be successfully destroyed. In the case of the common European cock-chafer and of our own white grub, the methods adopted have consisted in plowing and hand-picking. The experiments made, however, on a similar larvae with the kerosene-soap emulsion,* clearly show that we have in this insecticide a means of successfully destroying the bulk of the larvae of the rose bug wherever they are known to be sufficiently abundant to justify such treatment. A thorough investigation should be made in the direction of ascertaining the preferred breeding grounds of the species, and it were rash to say here that we have no effectual mode of preventing the insect, notwithstanding the disfavor in which this mode of warfare has been held in the past.

*The Cinnamon Rose, Rosa cinnamonica, is said to enjoy immunity.

It is evident, however, that for the present we should concentrate our efforts on the destruction of the beetles, especially when they first issue from the ground and congregate in the garden on our roses, grapevines, and fruit trees. A brief statement of the various methods that may be employed for this purpose may prove advantageous. Hand-picking and killing the beetles, either by crushing them or throwing them into hot water or water having a scum of kerosene upon it, has proved useful and satisfactory in a limited way, as also the shaking and knocking down of the beetle into pans or upon sheets saturated or smeared with coal oil. These measures are best carried out and most satisfactorily in the early morning hours and towards evening, as the beetles are then more sluggish and not so quick to take wing as they are during the heat of the day. White roses, spiraeas, or deutzias, planted on a place, will attract great numbers of the beetles, and thus no only facilitate the destruction of these last, but act as a kind of protection to other plants.

As to other topical applications intended to destroy the beetles, whether directly or by poison taken with the food, the experience with the arsenites is that they are of little avail, and the experience with other materials, like hellebore and Pyrethrum, has been so conflicting, that we cannot consider either of them reliable or satisfactory. Pyrethrum would seem to have given on the whole the most satisfactory results, and the experience of Mr. E. S. Carman, editor of the Rural New-Yorker, would certainly show that it may be used advantageously.

Col. A. W. Pearson, of New Jersey, states that the "eau celeste" (solution of sulphate of copper with ammonia) is not only the best remedy for mildew, but at the same time an effective poison to the rose-bug.

The trouble with all these remedies is that the beetles during their brief season continue to issue from the ground and to congregate upon their favored plants in such numbers, under favorable circumstances, that however fatal an application may be it has to be continued, and the most persistent may justly become discouraged in a fight with these beetles when they are abnormally abundant and swarm to the extent we have known them.

(*) Insect Life, i. 48.

As early as 1829 Dr. R. Green, as quoted by Harris, urged as a preventive measure the covering of the grapevines with millinet, but however valuable such a method may be for choice vines in limited numbers, it would evidently be too costly for large vineyards or for larger fruit-trees.

Another protective measure (first suggested in the Rural New-Yorker, May 19, 1883) is to dust the plants with air-slaked lime or gypsum, and Prof. C. M. Weed has suggested as an improvement upon it (7th Ann. Rept. Ohio Agr. Exp. St., 1888, p. 151) a liberal spraying of lime water, from one-half to one peck of lime to a barrel of water. Mr. E. A. Dunbar, of Ashtabula. Ohio, who tried this "whitewashing" of his grape-vines and peach trees, reports most satisfactory results.

- C. V. Riley. (Adapted from current number of "Insect Life.")