50 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



detected by the naked eye, and are a bright 

 orange color wlien first deposited, but as incu- 

 bation supervenes, tliey cliangy in color to 

 dirterent shades of brown. These eggs sliould 

 be carefully collected and destroyed. The em- 

 ployment of the children of the household could 

 be beneficially and economically improvised for 

 this purpo.se," but in the absence of such chil- 

 dren it would be far better to hire children at 

 reasonable wages than to leave the work un- 

 done. One day's vigilant labor in early spring 

 would be worth more than ten days at a later 

 period, when the eggs are hatched, and the 

 larva have begun their devastating work. 



REMEDIES. 



If, however, through negligence or other- 

 wise, the insects have become so numerous that 

 handpicking would be impracticabk^ and hope- 

 less, and antidotes or mechanical means be- 

 come necessary in order to save the crop, what- 

 ever is done shoidd be done intelligently, sys- 

 tematically and perseveringly. Too many re- 

 medies are carelessly and hastily applied, and 

 then if no good from them becomes immedi- 

 ately apparent, they are luiqualifledly con- 

 demned. People exi)ect the result of artificial 

 remedies to be something analogous to a patient 

 taking a dose of medicine. He shuts his eyes 

 and swallows the pill, and then folds his hands 

 and waits for its operation, without any other 

 eflbrt on his part. You might as well attempt 

 to kill a bird by dropping a little salt upon one 

 of the feathers of its tail, as to expect to kill 

 potato beetles by such an indolent application 

 of remedies. The tobacco grower goes to work 

 more skillfully and perseveringly than that, j 

 and surely the potato crop of the country is of 

 more consequence to the poorer masses of the 

 people than the tobacco. 



Remedies may be divided into three classes, 

 namely : Mamial, arViflrial and naturul. To 

 the first of these belong hand-picking and the 

 various contrivances which have been invented 

 or devised for knocking the insects oil' the vines 

 into receiving vessels, by the hands, a broom 

 or wisp, a bat, a revolving fan-wheel i)assed 

 between the rows, or by a sort of scoop with a 

 divergent mouth. The simplest of these is a 

 shallow pan held in the left hand under the in- 

 fested vine, and then with the right hand sweep- 

 ing or stripping them oft' iuto the pan, and de- 

 stroying them. As the.se insects are not gifted 

 with any very great powers of locomotion and 

 prehension, they very readily fall into such a 

 trap, if it is carefully and skillfully manii)u- 

 lated. Of course, in the use of these remedies 

 many of the insects may tall upon the ground 

 near the base of the plant, and therefore these 

 should receive careful attention, or they will 

 soon returu again to the places from where they 

 had been temporarily dislodged. The adults, 

 also, when they fall, will be apt to practice de- 

 ception for awhile, and pretend to be dead — 

 trust them not. 



The artificial remedies are many — good, bad 

 and indifterent; but even the best of them may 

 be worthless, if not skillfully and perseveringly 

 applied. Woodfuhts, strewn on the jilants when 

 they are wet with dew or rain, is claimed as a 

 remedy, on the ground that an alkalinous sub- 

 stance results from a combination of ashes and 

 water, that is distasteful or destructive to the 

 insects ; air-slaked lime, on account of its acid- 

 it'erous qualities; yas lime, as a repellant orex- 

 pellant, through its asphaltic odor; pulverized 

 tuhacro, on account of its narcotic qualities, and 

 for the same reason tohwco dienvtions are ap- 

 plied; a solution of wliaJe nil soap, which is a 

 general remedy for the destruction of insects, 

 is also classed among the artificial means to ex- 

 tinguish the Colorado Potato Beetle ; white 

 hellebore, on Account of its poisonous qualities, 

 has been applied, and in some instances with 

 perceptible effect; but, so far, the best remedy 

 yet discovered is Paris green, ai)))lied as a pow- 

 der or held in suspension in water. Those who 

 have tried both plans, give the preference to 

 the dry powder application as tlie simplest, 

 most economical, and also most effective, when 

 carefully administered. 



As a liquid, a tablespoonful of Paris green 

 is put intoacommon pailof water, thoroughly 

 stirred up, and sprinkled on the infested plants 



with a common watering can, or a sprinkler 

 made for that sjiecial purpose. In the same 

 manner, a potato grower recommends one 

 pound of concentrated lye dissolved in a barrel 

 of water, sprinkled on the plants at any hour 

 during the day; but an intelligent farmer, re- 

 siding near this city, reports that he has tried 

 it without any visil)le good effect. ' Although 

 all the foreiroing remedies may destroy some 

 of the insects when skilfully and perseveringly 

 used, yet many of them have proved failures. 

 Tills may notbesomuch on account of the 

 substance used, as upon its intrinsic quality — 

 its uece-s.sary strength to kill the insects or drive 

 them away," and yet not to injure the plants, 

 or not being so cmidoyed as to come in imme- 

 diate contact with the evil. 



One pound of dry Paris green, however, 

 thoroughly mixed with twenty pounds of 

 wlieat,"rye, oafs or buckwheat flour, has, uprm 

 general trial, been adopted as the best artifi- 

 cial remedy, and to which no danger attaches 

 if the ordinary care be taken, as in the use of 

 any other poison. It must also be remembered, 

 that the dilution of Paris green must be in pro- 

 portion to its quality, if the desired benefits are 

 to be expected from its use. 



Now that the demand for this substance is so 

 great in the western States, " a shoddy " or 

 adulferated article has found its way on the 

 market, and farmers have been cheated and 

 their crops destroyed through the application 

 of a weak, ineffectual remedy, and the remedy 

 itself decried as a failure. Honorable druggists 

 ought to compound and mix the remedy them- 

 selves, and keep for sale nothing but a good 

 article. If we do not greatly misconstrue the 

 "signs of the times," tlie demand for Paris 

 green will be a brisk one in the future, and 

 none but a practical druggist would so well un- 

 derstand the mixing of it, for on this depends 

 greatly its beneficial effects; moreover, the 

 man who sells the best article, would certainly 

 rt ( f ^ tli( largest patronage. 



fi A tin or wooden cylin- 



drical l)ox, {(j) capable 

 of hf)lding about one 

 quart of the remedy, 

 having a wire-gauze or 

 perforated bottom, to 

 avoid waste, is a good 

 implement to scatter 

 the powder on the 

 Jilants. This box should 

 lave a handle at the 

 side, three or fotu' feet 

 9 long. If this box is held 

 over the plant, after the lid (/() on the perfora- 

 ted end is removed, and a gentle or brisk blow 

 is struck on the handle with a small mallet, 

 enough of the powder will be discharged to kill 

 all the insects it cimies in contact with. 



Care should lie taken nol; to inhale any of 

 the mixture; but a very small quantity* in this 

 diluted form would not be veri/ hurtful. The 

 ojierator should always keep to windward of 

 the discharge, but, if possiljle, the remedy 

 should not be used when it is very windy, as 

 much of it would be wasted, and would jirob- 

 ably not reach the enemy. The best time to 

 use any powdered preparation is early in the 

 morning, when the dew is on the plants, or 

 immediately after a rain. In the absence of 

 dew or rain, and it became important to save 

 the cro]), the plants could be wetted artificially. 

 In our next number we will pulilish an illus- 

 trated article on natural remedies, as a neces- 

 sary sequel to the foregoing; which will be fol- 

 lowed with an illustrated paper on other species 

 of "Potato-beetles, " that our patrons may com- 

 prehend what this popular term really means. 



* On this subject, however, we refer our readers to 

 paices 85 and ".Oof the Marcli numberof The Fakmek, 

 aud commend to their careful consideration the whole 

 article, iu which both sides of the question are ably dis- 

 cussed. Also to the second column of pagQ. 43, as 

 touching the poisonous qu.alit y of the insect itself. We 

 have received several other papers on the same sub- 

 ject, from authors, which we may insert in some 

 future issue, but in the meantime we would like to 

 have the experimental knowledge of our local potato 

 growers themsi Ives — whether negative or alHrmative 

 — because we desire to invest the subject with facts, 

 and not merely reckless /iKJcics. 



GALLINOCULTURE et OVACULTURE. 



Without stopping to discuss which of these 

 branches of hmnan husbandry has the prece- 

 dence in the ordinary developments of na- 

 ture's realm, it may be as clear to state that 

 without chickens there could be no eggs, as 

 that without eggs there could be no chickens. 

 Under any circumstances, the egg and 

 chicken questions are assuming a magnitude 

 and an importance in this country, that 

 are little apprehended by the masses of our 

 citizens, or perhaps even by those of more than 

 orduiary intelligence on other subjects. Per- 

 haps it may surprise some of our readers to 

 learn, that through the reports of the Chief of 

 the Bureau of Government Statistics, at Wash- 

 ington, it transpires that diu-ing a period of 

 eleven months, in 1873, we have imported 

 .5,4(J7,264 dozens of eggs, at a cost of 4^732,- 

 234, and that the importations of 1874, proba- 

 bly, far exceed those amounts. If acciu-ate 

 statistics of tlfe consumption of eggs in the 

 United States could be obtained, we feel con- 

 fident that the general result would be an 

 "eye-opener," and clearly demonstrate the 

 little danger there is of overstocking the mar- 

 ket. One large hotel in Boston uses an aver- 

 age of one hundred dozens of eggs daily, and 

 another in Philadelphia one hundred and fifty 

 dozens daily. According to the most reliable 

 data that can be obtained on the subject, the 

 annual consumption of eggs and poultry in the 

 Union amounts to the enormous sum of two 

 hundred and sixty-five millions of dollars. Six 

 millions of dollars worth of poultry were sold 

 in New York and Boston alone, in a single 

 year. This exceeds the commercial value of 

 all the swine and half the value of all the 

 sheep sold during the same period in those 

 places. It exceeds the entire value of the 

 neat cattle, and over four times the total value 

 of the horses and mules, yearly sold in those 

 cities. 



Mr. Geo. S. Burnham, in his work on poul- 

 try, states that during last year one estiiblish- 

 ment iu Europe, engaged in the egg and 

 poultry business, averaged 50,000 dozens week- 

 ly, which, with the annual sales of chickens 

 hatclied, yielded ^28-5,000. The expenses of 

 the establishment amounted to §145,000, leav- 

 ing a profit of .fl35,000 a year. 



It seems to us that these facts and figures 

 very clearly illustrate the increasing impor- 

 tance of gallinrivulture and ovaculture in our 

 country, and the necessity for systematic ef- 

 fort in a most useful industrial enterprise 

 — an enterprise which, if intelligently and 

 perseveringly followed, could not help being 

 remunerative. 



The fact that the eggs of the ostrich, the 

 crocodile, various species of terrapins, and 

 other rejitiles are hatched without the aid of 

 tlie mothers that lay them — by the heat of the 

 sun alone — led the Egyptians, centuries ago, 

 to improvise the hatching of the eggs of poultry 

 by artificial means; and the existence of the 

 "Egyptian egg-ovens" has passed into his- 

 tory as a domestic institution these many 

 years. 



But the artifl(tial hatching of eggs and the 

 raising of poultry, as a source of profit, has 

 not been confined to the Egyptians, -but 

 on the contrary, the Chinese, and tlie people 

 of Damascus, Palestine and elsewliere, in an- 

 cient times, were extensive artificial breeders. 



Let any man in ordinary circumstances 

 ponder the subject — let him note how often 

 during the year he has had eggs and chickens 

 served up at his daily meals, and see how it 

 will compare with rancid bacon and tough 

 beef. The fact is, both eggs and chickens are 

 usually too high in price for the general cou-» 

 sumption of the common people. 



Many people of delicate con.stitutions and 

 sedentary occupations are nearly all the time 

 half starved, because they cannot appropriate 

 the coarse and fatty food that is relished by the 

 robust man, .or the one who has much daily 

 physical exercise. 



Tliere is no reason why modern ingenuity 

 should not be able to improve upon the ancient 

 systems of chicken production, and develop an 

 industrial occupation that will pay. 



