98 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[July, 



irregularly corrugated, and are glued by the 

 female under the loose scales, or within the 

 crevices of the bark, several freiincntly being 

 fouud together, although it is evident that they 

 must also sometimes be deposited on the 

 smooth bark, and that the female makes i)unc- 

 tures with her jaws for their reception. When 

 the young larva are hatched they penetrate the 

 bark and feed on the fibre inniiediately under 

 it, and cut broad llattened channels, filling up 

 the space behind them with their packed ex- 

 cretions. Their location under the bark, es- 

 pecially in smooth young trees, is plainly visi- 

 ble from its pakr unliealthy color; and on one 

 occasion in which we removed a piece of bark 

 about six inches wide and two feet long, we 

 discovered in that space, as nearly as we can 

 recollect, fully fifty of them, of half-a-dozen 

 diflerent sizes. It is not certainly known 

 wliether it requires only a single year or a 

 longer time to complete the larval period, but 

 when the larva waxes older and stronger it is 

 Kiid to penetrate the solid wood, although we 

 have never found it thus circumstanced. We 

 are inclined to believe that it only penetrates 

 the wood sufficiently far to form a horizontal 

 channel in which to pass its pupal period, sim- 

 ilar to the habit of the Round-headed borer. 

 In this locality the beetles appear about the be- 

 ginning of June, and may be found as late as 

 August and September. 



Of course this insect, like many others, has 

 its natural enemies. Woodpeckers, especially 

 the busy little "sap-sucker," before alluded 

 to, if permitted, will appropriate many of them; 

 but many of them are destroyed by several 

 species of Ilymenopterous parasites, and per- 

 haps these are doing more to check or destroy 

 them than any remedy human ingenuity can 

 devise. While they are just beneath the bark, 

 of course they may be successfully cut out, but 

 if we could be sure that the parasites were 

 present there would even be no need of this 

 laceration. They seem to prefer young, or 

 weak and decaying trees, but will also attack 

 strong and healthy ones in certain emergencies. 

 As a preventive, painting the trees once or 

 twice during the season with soap and lime, 

 has been reasonably successful in the West. 

 The avoidance of contusions and sacriflcations 

 of the bark is also recommended, and in par- 

 ticular where large branches are removed, the 

 face of the stumps and other incidental wounds 

 should be i)rotected by grafting wax or paint, 

 for these places crack open and admit the rain, 

 inducing rapid decay, and the female beetles 

 will take advantage of such places to deposit 

 her eggs. Mr. Briggs, an experienced farmer 

 of the West, recommends a thorough exami- 

 nation of trees from May until fall, watching for 

 the exudations of sap from the bark " which is 

 a sure indication of the presence" of the in- 

 sects. Carelessness in that respect cost him 

 over 300 young trees in one season. 



THE CUT WORMS. 



[AgrotiK jaculifti'a, et. a?.] 

 Complaints come up to us thick and fast 

 from all parts of the county — and, indeed, 

 from a large portion of the whole State — that 

 at no former period have the "cut worms" 

 been more numerous and destructive than 

 they have been the present seiison ; and al- 

 though the worst may be over before this 

 reaches our subscribers, still they can "stick 

 a pin in it," and use it on some future oc- 

 casion. 



Out ii)orins are merely the larval form of a 

 genusof nocturnal moths called "Agrotans, " or 

 "owlets," [Afjrotis) of which there are a large 

 number of species in our county. They are a 

 fat, greasy-looking, hairless — or nearly so — 

 caterpillar, of a gray or brownish color, shaded 

 with darker brown or gray, on the different 

 segments of their bodies. 



When they arc disturted, they usually 

 double themselves in the form of a crescent or 

 semi-circle — in some instances with tlie head 

 and tail touching each other — and ivmain tlius 

 as long as they are not molested, and as they 

 make no attempt to escape, they fall an easy 

 prey to those who may hai>pen to unearth 



them from their cover during the day, where 

 they lie like "sneak thieves," waiting for 

 night, or dark, cloudy days, under cover of 

 which tliey do their evil work. These "sur- 

 face grubs " have long been known to cut off 

 and destroy almost all kinds of field and gar- 

 den vegetables ; such, for instance, as young 

 corn, cabbages, beets, etc. ; but the present 

 season they have been particularly destructive 

 to the young corn and tobacco plants, as high 

 as a dozen or more having been found in a 

 single hill. 



The moths which are developed from these 

 worms expand from one to two inches, liaving 

 their fore wings variously marked with black, 

 brown and gray or ashen colors, and the hind 

 wings shorter and broader, and of a light or 

 dark silvery color. 



These moths, in warm evenings, enter 

 houses through open windows, and flit around 

 gas or other lights, and many of them heed- 

 lessly " come to grief" by plunging into tlie 

 flames ; sometimes hundreds of them may be 

 picked up in the morning aroimd the city street 

 lamps and in illuminated windows. This fact 

 seems to suggest that traps for their destruction 

 might be devised on this principle. 



A gentleman in Philadelphia, some years 

 ago, sent us some five or six hundred insects 

 which he had captiu-ed in large-mouthed bot- 

 tles containing sweetened water, which he 

 had hung among the branches of his trees, and 

 fully one-half of these insects were the moths 

 of various species of cut worms. It is true 

 that these remedies destroy our friends as 

 well as our foes ; but if the latter fall, we will 

 have less need of the former. 



It is hardly necessary to attempt a specific 

 description of these insects without sitecific 

 illustrations, and as soon as we obtain these, 

 we will give the patfons of The Farmer the 

 benefit of them. It may suffice at present to 

 say that they differ very materially in their 

 transformations and habits. Probably the 

 worst kinds arc those that pass the winter in 

 the immature larva state, buried in the earth. 

 These are on hand early in the spring, about 

 one-half or three-quarters grown, and hence 

 about the time that beans, cabbages, beets, 

 corn and tobacco are well up, or set out, these 

 Itests attack them at night or during dark, 

 cloudy days, not only cutting off the plants at 

 or near the surface of the ground, but also in 

 some instances drawing the plants into their 

 holes and totally consuming them. We have 

 often found cut worms in the winter and 

 early spring nearly full grown, in fields that 

 had contained green vegetation the previous 

 year — such, for instance, as clover and differ- 

 ent kinds of weeds — and when two or three days 

 of mild winter or spring weather followed each 

 other, these worms would come to the surface 

 and feed on any green vegetation within their 

 reach, showing that manj' of them are in the 

 soil all winter and only require a moderate 

 portion of heat to reanimate them. 



Of course, the best remedy is to be on the 

 "look-out" for the worms when they come 

 out to feed, or to dig them out of their holes 

 near the plants. Many artificial remedies 

 are, however, recommended by persons who 

 represent that they have practically exjieri- 

 mented upon these worms with various de- 

 grees of success. Among these are salt-w.ater 

 — an ounce of salt to a quart of water — tob.acco 

 water; (piick-hme, put on the plants when wet ; 

 dry soot dug into the ground ; soap-suds, made 

 of one pound of whale-oil soap to ten gallons 

 of water, applied warm ; four ounces of aloes, 

 dissolved in one gallon of water and applied to 

 the plants, is said to destroy them ; lime- 

 water or lime ashes applied to the soil ; also 

 gas-lime ; smooth holes made in the soil by 

 forcing in a smooth probe or hoe-handle, will 

 make i>itfalls to retain them long enough to 

 capture or destroy them in the morning ; coal- 

 oil and water — a tablespoonful of the oil to 

 one gallon of water — is said to drive them 

 away, and not injure the plant ; wrajiping the 

 plant three or four inches with stiff jiapcr is a 

 good piotcctor, l)ut it is very troublesome. 

 Plowing up the ground late in the fall .and 

 early in the .sjiring will expose them to wet 



and cold, or crows and other birds, and de- 

 stroy many of them. The following from the 

 Lancaster'/«(eHi(/e)KW will speak for itself, and 

 can easily be tested, but we confess we 

 doubt it : 



Mr. Jacob S. Heiland, of Manor township, informs 

 us that he has put a stop to tlie ravages of the cut 

 worm amoni; his tobacco and sweet jxjtato jilants by 

 the use of a very cheap and simple device. He merely 

 places around each plant, and a few inches from it, a 

 circle of wheat bran. The worms prefer the bran to 

 the plant, and eat voraciously of it. This unaccus- 

 tomed luxury swells them up, and tliey eenerally 

 burst open and die, and those that are not killed be- 

 come so sick and torpid that they cannot get away, 

 and may easily be picked up and destroyed. Mr. 

 Ileilaud informs us that since his adoption of this de- 

 vice he has destroyed thousands of worms that 

 would otherwise have destroyed thousands of his 

 plants. The best time to spread the bran around the 

 plants is late in the afternoon. The plants may 

 then be examined in the morning and the sick worms 

 gathered up and destroyed. Tins is certainly cheap 

 and, we have no reason to doubt, an eft'ective way of 

 getting rid of an annoying enemy. Other plants be- 

 sides tobacco and sweet potatoes may be protected in 

 the same way. 



BOGUS POTATO-BEETLE. 



{Doryphora juncta.) 

 If the reader will turn to the first page of 

 the April number of The Parmer, in the 

 first and second columns, he will find that we 

 alluded therein to this insect, which we re- 

 ceived from Wisconsin in 1845, and at 

 that time supi>osed was the Dortiphora 

 IQ-Uneata, which, however, subsequently 

 proved otherwise. By a close examination the 

 distinctions between the two species, in their 

 details, will become apparent, although super- 

 ficially they may seem the same. Place the 

 two numbers of The Farmer containing the 

 illustrations side by side, and then only will 



the difference become manifest. It will Ijc 

 seen that the hirra in this species, 6 h, has 

 only one row of lateral spots ; that the head 

 is of a pale color ; that the first segment be- 

 hind the head is dark in color and margined 

 entirely with black, .and that the legs are pale. 

 The arrangement of the spots on the thorax 

 of the mature beetle, in both siiecies, are sub- 

 stantially the same, but they differ materially 

 in other respects ; but this difference only be- 

 comes conspicuously visible under a micro- 

 scopic examination. 



Figure d\s a, magnified wing cover, in which 

 it will be seen that the dark stripes are edged 

 by a siuglefegular row of punctures, placed 

 in a groove,' and that the second and the third 

 stripes are united behind, the space between 

 them being generally brown ; and the leg c is 

 entirely pale, with a black spot on the middle 

 of the front femur or thigh. 



But the greatest distinction between the 

 trite and theb oyus beetle is in their habits. The 

 D. jwirta, so far its known, h.as never attacked 

 the cultivated jiotato, although it has been 

 known to exist where domestic i)Otatoes have 

 been cultivated for forty years or more. 



Its native food plant is the " Ilorse-nettle," 

 (Solannm cariilincmis, I^in.) a wild, solanace- 

 ous plant which grows, according to Dr. Gray, 

 "from Connecticut to Illinois, and south- 

 ward." This insect has been found in Vir- 

 ginia, Georgia, Missouri, Alabama, Kentucky, 

 Illinois, Wisconsin, and elsewhere and, so far 

 as positively known, it nearly always has been 

 feeding on the horse-nettle, which, although 

 belonging to the same great family that in- 

 cludes the cultivated potato, is quite dis- 

 tinct from it. Whether it will or will not ulti- 

 mately abandon its native food plant and 

 adopt the cultivated plant, as its congener has 



