The Lancaster Farmer 



Prot S. S. SATHVON, Editor. 



LANCASTER, PA., SEPTEMBER. -1875. 



Vol VII. No. 9. 



LANCASTER'S OPPORTUNITY. 



Before the issue of the Oetoher inimber of 

 The Faumkk, our apiiroachiiii; Slate Agri- 

 cultural Fair will he nuinhered anionj? the 

 things that iinr ; and, inasiniieh as Lancaster 

 county's seat of justice has been selected as 

 the local centre of that important event, it is 

 not expecting too uuicli tVoHi her citizens to 

 lend a williiii; and edi'ctive liaiid in making it 

 an event of which any county niiRht feel 

 l)rou(l, besides rellectini; credit upon aState of 

 which she has lon^r been accorded tlie distin- 

 guished title of bein.if the " sarden spot." 

 Posse.ssini; all the necessary elements of beinj; 

 a great agricultural, maniifacturiii!.' and com- 

 mercial centre, .she ought also po.sscss all the 

 euergy and enterprise of making this annual 

 exhibition of our material resources a com- 

 plete success, without the aid of her sister 

 counties. Never was such an opportunity for 

 Lancaster county to mdkr her marlc i)re.sente(l 

 before. With the patronage of the whole 

 Keystone .State, and its central organization, 

 together with all the appliances and conveni- 

 ences of the Park Association to back her up, 

 there is nothing to prevent her from wreath- 

 ing her brow with victorious laurels but the 

 apathy of her own people. Under such cir- 

 cumstances, and under such auspices, there is 

 oidy one consideration that ought to be para- 

 mount, and that is the honor and dignity of 

 our great county, and the great common- 

 wealtli of which she is a distinguished por- 

 tion. In the main, the moral t(me of such ex- 

 hibitions is elevating, expansive and progres- 

 sive, whatever incidental irregularities may 

 attend them ; and the most enterprising and 

 progressive people are those who do tlie good 

 that is in them, without permitting inad- 

 vertent evil to prevent or thwart them. At 

 no period within an experience of three-.score 

 years has a single season passed in which the 

 county of Lancaster could not have made a 

 creditable disi>lay of her material productions, 

 if she chose to "exercise the tcill, and during 

 all that long period, no time has been more 

 propitious tliau the present. Indeed, such an 

 opportunity may not occur again for another 

 century, because its iutiuence will not be ex- 

 hauster] in tlie approaching occasion, but, if 

 successful, will be extended to our National 

 CrntC}}ni(il. 



One thing has very forcibly struck us at 

 nearly all the State or County Agricultural 

 'exhibitions we have ever witnessed, and that 

 was the meagre exliibition of the vegetable 

 and tloral productions of the garden, both in 

 quantity and quality; and we have more than 

 once felt humiliated or chagrined, when we 

 heard visitors renuuk that " they have better 

 vegetables and llowers at home," or that had 

 they "just thought of it," they would have 

 exhibited "this, that, or the other thing," 

 which they did not lind there at all. These 

 things will perhaps always be so, so long as 

 people only sellisldy think of being personally 

 entertained, amused, or instructed, without 

 contributing to the entertainment, anniseinent 

 or instruction of their neighbors. And we 

 hai)pen to know, too, that many such visitors 

 have afterwards regretted that they had not 

 themselves been cxhibiti rs. Now, this is a mat- 

 ter on which people havi' oidy to exercise, a lit- 

 tle forethought, and a cullivati(m of the uill 

 to carry that forethought into visible effect. 

 Although the /<r'/)(i'!(/(j.s awarded can never be 

 regarded as a comiiensation for the lalior re- 

 quired in the neces.sary preparation, yet if that 

 were a re<iuisite stimulant, by consulting the 

 premium list of the State Society, it will be 

 found that they have made a very liberal pro- 

 vision for such products, and we hope llieir 

 expectations will be realhcil. Farmers aiKl pro- 

 ducers it behooves you to "be up and doing." 



THE " CURCULIO," OR PLUM-WEEVIL. 



{i'otivtrarheluti iieiniphnr.) 



This insect, in its long career bcfon' the hor- 

 ticultural world, has attained to greater noto- 

 riety than p(!rhaps any other individual belong- 

 ing to the long and dark catalogue of fruit de- 

 stroyers of the AnnMican continent in the 

 nineteenth century. AVe accord to it no such 

 thing as fume; it is simply and infamously 

 nolin-iiius, and how to circumvent orexlcrmin- 

 atc it has already cost more profound and 

 l>erplexing thought, more inventivegi'niu.s, and 

 more mechanical skill, an<l we might ajjpropri- 

 ately add, more blank disaiipoinlnient at results, 

 than any other subject of the insect realm, 

 and we are very little nearer a surtr and ell'ec- 

 tual remedy to-day than we weic twenty years 

 ago. It is true, by laljorious and untiring per- 

 severance, its numbers have been, in sonu- spe- 

 cial cases, greatly diminished, but the li'ast 

 relaxation, or susjiension of such labor, has 

 only w^itncssed a return of the pest to a renewal 

 of its destructive; propen.sities. and a further 

 embargo on the fruit cultivator's industiy. 



This insect belongs to the order CoLEOf- 

 TERA, or "Sheath-winged insects;" and the 

 family Citrculionid.k, or " Snout-beetles, " 

 from Ciora^io, which simply meansa "weevil." 

 The C'urculio has always manifested a parti- 

 ality for the fruit of the plum, and the cherry, 

 but" it also injuriously infests the ajiple, pear, 

 peach, quince, apricot and nectarine. In the 

 absence of fruit, it is said, also, to deitosit its 

 eggs in the tender branches, or in the soft 

 fungous protuberances or swellings, that pre- 

 vail sometimes on plum and cherry trees, under 



the name of " Black Knot. " For many years 

 it has l)eenso destructive to the phnn crop that 

 fruit-growers generally were conqielled lo dis- 

 continue its cultivation, and then the in.sect 

 turned its attention to the jieacli and theai>i)le, 

 and twif they are sometimes found as nunuMous 

 in the apple" as the " Codling Moth," and be- 

 tween the two, that fruit has as fatal a ga\mtlet 

 to run as the plum aiul peach. There is proba- 

 bly but one distinct brood of this insect during 

 a year, but this fact, it f art it may be called, is 

 not distinctly clear. One consideration is very 

 .a]iparent. If any one desires to destroy theCur- 

 culio, he must l)egin early in the spring, as. soon 

 as the friiit they infest is in bloom, and cont iiuie 

 his labors until late in autnnm, or until all the 

 fruit is gathered, and even tlini he may not 

 succeed to his own .satisfaction. We have 

 taken the Curculio in almost every month of 

 the year, and we therefore feel convinced 

 that it belongs to the hibernating class; 

 and this /((of also supports the theory that 

 it is one-brooded ; but, rarely dei>ositing 

 more than a single egg in a fnut— accord- 

 ing to size — it requires some days. juThaps 

 weeks, liefore the femali' has them all depositi'd , 

 and hence it will appear asa succession of broods 

 during a greater jiart of the season, and the in- 

 sects will seem to be coming all the while: there- 

 fore, theneces.sityof cont inning the war against 

 them will become apparent, a fact that fruit- 

 growers do not sulliciently heed. IJilore there 

 was cultivated fruit, this insect no doubt con- 

 lined itself to various species of wild fruit, espe- 



cially the wild cherry, and even now that fruit 

 becomes occasionally infesteil with it. 



This Inseci is generally regarded ;ls a native 

 of Xorth .\merica. infesting wild plums, aiiples 

 and cherries, but when domestic! fruit began to 

 be cultivated, like many otherspeeiesof insects 

 — the (,'olorado I'otato-lJeetle, and the ,\|)ple 

 Tree Borers, for instance -it deserted the wild 

 varietiesaiiil look lo the domestic varieties, ;ts 

 suiting its taste and convenience l)etter ; and 

 this ai-counts for the fad that don>eslic fruit is 

 gcni'rally more infesle<l than wild. We piti- 

 suine that, at least, the major part of our read- 

 ers have seen a Curcidio. or I'lum- Weevil, and 

 are, therefore, tolerably well acciuainted with 

 its appearance; and those who have not this 

 knowledge will be assisted in the idetitiliealiou 

 of the insect by till' accompanying illustrations, 

 the size being indicated by the "hair lines" 

 near each figure — n. b, and c, being magnilicd. 



Piij. a is the hirftt, a while lleshy grub, en- 

 tirely without feet, thickest in the nii<ldle,and 

 slightly tapering towards the anterior and pos- 

 terior ends. It is composed of a head and thir- 

 teen segments, or rings; and is soft, smooth 

 and glossy, with a few white hairs .sparsely dis- 

 tributed over the body, but which are scarcely 

 pcreeiitihU; without "the aid of a magnifier. 

 Although destittite of feet, it still pos.s«-s8e8 

 considerable locomotive power by means of the 

 longit udinal exi)ansi(Uisand contractions of the 

 segments of the body. 



Fiij. h is the 7<i<//'(, of a dirty whit<' or light 

 clay color, jierhaps somewhat modified in shade 

 by "the nature of the soil in which it is found, 

 which is also interspersed with a few short, 

 erect, bristling hairs, and in which an ai)prox- 

 imation to the p(a-fe<'.t insect may iK^.seen. The 

 snout, the eyes, and the upper ))ortion of our 

 figme, bear a striking resemblance to the 

 "Phiz," of " Bo.ss Tweed," as caricatured in 

 the public journals, and in siiyiug this we me;in 

 no ilisrespeet whatever to the — Curculio. 



Fiij. (• is the mature l)eetle, mottled with 

 asheii gray, while and browni, with its long 

 snout bent under and backward, and with a 

 peculiar hiunp on its back. When it is dis- 

 turbed it sudileidy draws its feet and antemia: 

 clo.se to its body, drops down, and "acts po.s- 

 sum," iis if it were (lead. In this respect it 

 seemsloexhibitalowcmniingthat is .something 

 more than mere instinct; for shiuild it ])re- 

 teiid to recover, and find that the danger has 

 not biH'ii removed, it inuiiediately relai)sesinto 

 its ;)<i.s*-)(»i state again, and renuiins for some 

 time after the ai>parent or pending danger is 

 fully over, seeming to exercise a reconnoisance 

 tw() or three times bef(ue it ventures lo move 

 again. Fin. d. shows a young plum, and a 

 curcidio on it in the act of depo.siting its eggs. 

 Near the upper disk is a cres(;ent shaped in- 

 cision, and a small black dot, to represent 

 the position of the egg. under the skin of the 

 fruit. It is (pu'Stional)le whether this insect 

 can make any other than a circular incisitm 

 with its jaws". Its p/-o?«>.s<i,s, or snout, has a 

 swivel-like action in its head, aiul, in tm-ning 

 right or left, it must describe a circidar line, 

 rm account of the rigiil articulation. After 

 the imiision has been made, it carefully lifts 

 nil the edge, and plunges in its snout atiout 

 where the dot is, and llien turns around aiul 

 depositsan egg therein, after which it reverses 

 its position, and pushes the egg into the hole 

 it had previously made, smoothes down the 

 upraistnl edge of the skin again, and the work 

 is acconqtlished. The fruit represented is a 

 young plum, showingaboul the size it js when 

 "the curculio dei)osits its egg in it, for when 

 the fruit is small it rarely deposits more than 

 one egg in it. Later in the season, when fruit 

 is larger and more tleshy, and the insects 

 more abundant, two, or even three or more, 

 inav Ik- found in a single fruit. A large num- 

 ber of the insects belonging to this family 



