The Kew Grass

The following Memorandum, says the Cottage Gardener, sets all speculations about the "new Grass" at rest; it is taken from De Candolle's "Prodromus:" -

Killing Cut Worms

St. Joseph, Michigan, is again the theatre of another wonderful discovery in the way of destruction to insect enemies. It will be remembered that last year Mr. Ransom discovered the chip trap for catching curculios. Now Mr. Boynton has discovered a method of trapping cut worms by the thousand. It comes about in this wise: In a field of tomatoes he was much troubled with the worms destroying the plants. Thinking they might be baited, he cut some green clover, wadded it up into small balls and distributed among the hills of tomatoes, and found that the worms would collect about them, eat and go into the ground near them. In this way he took from the locality of these balls the numbers of 37, 68, 70 and 82. He has experimented with various poisons mixed with the clover to destroy them, and at last took boiling water, pouring it over and about these wads, in this way destroying 15,000 in a single day. - Prairie Farmer.

Killing Grubs

The following cheap and effecacious method is given in a late number of The Gardeners' Monthly: " Dissolve a coffee-cup full of salt in hot water, then put into a common sized watering pan, and fill up with cold water. Just give each plant a gentle switch over with this mixture, and they will disappear in a moment, and the salt and water will nourish the plants wonderfully. All greens are fond of salt and water. Some people would be afraid of killing their cauliflowers; but it must be borne in mind that the salt and water will not penetrate the leaves. It runs off to the roots, killing every caterpillar in its way".

Killing Insects By The Gallon

A writer in a French horticultural journal relates this suggestive experience: "After sunset I place in the center of my orchard an old barrel, the inside of which I have previously well tarred. At the bottom of the barrel I place a lighted lamp. Insects of many kinds, attracted by the light, make for the lamp, and while circling round it strike against the sides of the barrel, where, meeting with the tar, their wings and legs become so clogged that they fall helpless to the bottom. In the morning I examine the barrel, and frequently take out of it ten or twelve gallons of cockchafers, which I at once destroy. A few pence worth of tar employed in this way will, without any further trouble, be the means of destroying innumerable numbers of these insects, whose larvae are amongst the most destructive pests the gardener or farmer has to contend against."

Killing Trees With Salt

Dr. Kedzie, of the Michigan Agricultural College, speaking of how salt is taken up in the circulation of trees, relates a case of its fatal effects that came under his own observation. On the college grouuds formerly grew a fine vigorous specimen of common sassafras (Sassafras officinale), apparently in perfect health. A quantity of strong brine was inadvertently thrown beneath this tree, forming a stagnant pool in its immediate vicinity. In a very short time the tree began to manifest signs of decreasing vitality. The salt was absorbed unchanged in such immense quantities that, entering the circulation, it effloresced upon the surface of the leaf, in white crystalline deposits, after which the tree grew rapidly feebler and died.