South Canterbury Times. TUESDAY, MAY 14, 1889.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 5006, 14 May 1889, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. TUESDAY, MAY 14, 1889.

It was someting like a “sell ” for the considerable number of people who assembled in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday, that none of the first called among those who were summoned for using dynamite in the harbor “ showed fight.” The proceedings were of the tamest possible description. The “ sell ” was even more pronounced when two of the alleged delinquents did assume the defensive,and the police in turn gave in. This was the greatest sell, because those two could not very well plead ignorance of the law. They not only got off “ without a stain on their character,” but were not even asked to join in the otherwise general “ shilling in.” It was a mistake in our opinion on the part of the police to use so big a net in catching people to utilize in giving a warning to others, of the existence of the “ Fisheries (Dynamite) Act,” a mistake to have used any net at all, as the warning could have been given without it. But it was a greater mistake surely, having made a haul, to let the biggest and best fish escape. “Burying the hatchet ” is a praiseworthy thing for contestants to do, but the proposal to bury it does not come with a good grace from the challenger who retires from the contest at the first show of resistance.'

Ip one would overcome a troublesome insect pest the first requisite is to find out as much as possible of its little ways. The Oodlin Moth has troubled orchardists for many years, and has caused the loss of thousands of dollars in America, and of no few pounds in New Zealand. Advice has been given freely how best to attack the moth, but the capture of the insect in its winged form is difficult, as it is never hungry enough to be caught with bait in a trap, nor foolish enough to fly unanimously into either a candle or a bag. Gathering the eggs out of the eyes of the apple blossoms is of course out of the question. A Victorian nurseryman thinks he has “shadowed” this criminal long enough and closely enough to have made sure of the best way to effect an arrest. As the pest is not to be got at in the egg state or the perfect condition, he turned his attention to the third of the insect’s trinity of forms, the chrysalis. In the autumn the grubformsforitself a cocoon, usually on the leaves, but also frequently on the branches and twigs of the tree, and in the cocoon it remains inactive and an easy prey to the judicious “ natural enemy ” till the following spring, when, if it has not become a prey to something it emerges as a moth, and sets to work to increase and multiply and replenish the earth with codlin grubs. Mr Knight, the nurseryman mentioned, says if all orchardists would carefully rake up and burn the fallen leaves in autumn, they would get rid of as many grubs as were cocooned as chrysalides on the leaves. As to those which have preferred the twigs and branches, they never select a bare spot, but choose the shelter of a bit of bark, and from such lodgements the cocoons could be picked off. He found that he could rely upon the innocence of the grubs to a great extent to lead them into pitfalls in the shape of bits of cloth or paper tied round the branches. The grubs spun their cocoons in these with great but entirely misplaced confidence, and he picked them off in their winter nests in great numbers. The great point, however, is, he points out,to gather up the fallen leaves, to which the larger proportion of cocoons are attached, and puttbem in a warmer place than the earth, into which the chrysalides would wriggle their way on the decay of the leaves. There certainly seems to be a better chance of success in tlv is dealing with the helpless chrysalides, than chasing the moths at night with a lantern and a muslin bag, or trying to smother them in flannel bandages placed round the tree.