eing the best material for them to sleep upon. Flea
afflicted dogs should be washed every few days in strong soapsuds, or
weak tobacco or petroleum water.

A writer in "Science-Gossip" recommends the "use of the Persian Insect
Destroyer, one package of which suffices for a good sized dog. The
powder should be well rubbed in all over the skin, or the dog, if small,
can be put into a bag previously dusted with the powder; in either case
the dog should be washed soon after."

[Illustration: 100. Chique.]

One of the most serious insect torments of the tropics of America is the
Sarcopsylla penetrans, called by the natives the Jigger, Chigoe, Bicho,
Chique, or Pique (Fig. 100, enlarged; a, gravid female, natural size).
The female, during the dry season, bores into the feet of the natives,
the operation requiring but a quarter of an hour, usually penetrating
under the nails, and lives there until her body becomes distended with
eggs, the hind-body swelling out to the size of a pea; her presence
often causes distressing sores. The Chigoe lays about sixty eggs,
depositing them in a sort of sac on each side of the external opening of
the oviduct. The young develop and feed upon the swollen body of the
parent flea until they mature, when they leave the body of their host
and escape to the ground. The best preventive is cleanliness and the
constant wearing of shoes or slippers when in the house, and of boots
when out of doors.

[Illustration: The Willow Gall Fly.]

CHAPTER VIII.

THE BORERS OF OUR SHADE TREES.

In no way can the good taste and public spirit of our citizens be better
shown than in the planting of shade trees. Regarded simply from a
commercial point of view one cannot make a more paying investment than
setting out an oak, elm, maple or other shade tree about his premises.
To a second generation it becomes a precious heirloom, and the planter
is duly held in remembrance for those finer qualities of heart and head,
and the wise forethought which prompted a deed simple and natural, but a
deed too often undone. What an increased value does a fine avenue of
shade trees give to real estate in a city? And in the country the single
stately elm rising gracefully and benignantly over the wayside cottage,
year after year like a guardian angel sending down its blessings of
shade, moisture and coolness in times of drought, and shelter from the
pitiless storm, recalls the tenderest associations of generation after
ge