HICKORY CATERPILLAR. 



HIDE OF LAND. 



holes, as otherwise, for want of speedily sea- ] 

 soning, they soon decay. For handspikes the ! 

 hickory is particularly esteemed on account 

 of its strength ; it is accordingly employed in 

 most American vessels, and is exported for the 

 sahie purpose to England, where it sells from 

 50 to 100 per cent, higher than ash, which is 

 brought also from the north of the United 

 States. The hickories are cut without distinc- 

 tion for this use, but the Pignut, I believe, is 

 the best. 



"All the hickories are very heavy, and in a 

 given volume contain a great quantity of com- 

 bustible matter. They produce an ardent heat, 

 and leave a heavy, compact, and long-lived 

 coal. In this respect no wood of the same lati- 

 tude in Europe or America can be compared 

 to them ; such, at least, is the opinion of all 

 Europeans who have resided in the United 

 States. 



"It has been seen by what precedes, that 

 though hickory wood has essential defects, they 

 are compensated by good properties which ren- 

 der it valuable in the arts." 



In concluding this article, Michaux recom- 

 mends particularly for propagation in Euro- 

 pean forests the Shellbark hickory and the 

 Pignut hickory, whose wood unites in the high- 

 est degree the valuable properties of the group. 

 He thinks, also, that the Pacanenut merits at- 

 tention from promoters of useful culture, not 

 so much for its wood as for its fruit, which is 

 excellent, and more delicate than that of the 

 European walnut. It might probably be dou- 

 bled in size, if the practice was successfully 

 adopted of grafting this species upon the black 

 walnut, or upon the common European walnut. 



HICKORY CATERPILLAR. Whilst the 

 wood of the hickory is preyed upon by borers, 

 the foliage suffers in the latter part of summer 

 from troops of caterpillars covered with short 

 spreading tufts of white hairs, with a row of 

 eight black tufts on the back, and two long, 

 slender, black pencils on the fourth and tenth 

 rings. When fully grown, they are nearly one 

 and a half inch long. They leave the trees in 

 September, make cocoons, which are thin, oval, 

 and hairy. The moths, which come out of the 

 cocoons in the month of June, are of a very 

 light ochre-yellow colour, the wings being 

 sprinkled with brown dots. In England, the 

 moths that come from caterpillars having long 

 pencils and tufts on their backs, are called tus- 

 sock-moths; and Dr. Harris says we may name 

 the one under consideration the hickory tus- 

 sock-moth (Lophocampa caryce}. They expand 

 their wings from If to 2 inches or more. The 

 caterpillars found on the black walnut, butter- 

 nut, the ash, and even the oak, closely resem- 

 ble the hickory caterpillar in shape, but not in 

 colour. They belong to a different species. 



HICKORY TREE BORER. The hickory 

 tree is much exposed to the ravages of the 

 larvas of wood-eating insects or borers, which 

 not only attacks the trees of the forests, but 

 those of orchards, especially after they have 

 passed their prime. The transformations of 

 the insects take place in the trunks and limbs 

 of the trees. " The larvae," says Dr. Harris, 

 "that are known to me have a close resem- 

 blance to each other; a general idea of them 

 624 



can be formed from a description of that which 

 attacks the Pignut hickory. It is of a yellow- 

 ish-white colour, very long, narrow, and de- 

 pressed in form, but abruptly widened near the 

 anterior extremity. The head is brownish, 

 small, and sunk in the fore-part of the first seg- 

 ment; the upper jaws are provided with three 

 teeth, and are of a black colour ; and the an- 

 tennae are very short. These grubs are found 

 under the bark and in the solid wood of trees, 

 and sometimes in great numbers. They fre- 

 quently rest with the body bent sidewise, so 

 that the head and tail approach each other. 

 This posture those found under bark usually 

 assume. They appear to pass several years 

 in the larva state. The pupa bears a near re- 

 semblance to the perfect insect, but is entirely 

 white, until near the time of its last transforma- 

 tion. Its situation is immediately under the 

 bark, the head being directed outwards, so that 

 when the pupa-coat is cast off, the beetle has 

 merely a thin covering of bark to perforate, 

 before making its escape from the tree. The 

 form of this perforation is oval, as is also a 

 transverse section of the burrow, that shape 

 being best adapted to the form, motions, and 

 egress of the insect. , 



"Some of these beetles are known to eat 

 leaves and flowers, and of this nature is pro- 

 bably the food of all of them. The injury they 

 may thus commit is not very apparent, and 

 cannot bear any comparison with the extensive 

 ravages of their larvae. The solid trunks and 

 limbs of sound and vigorous trees are often 

 bored through in various directions by these 

 insects, which, during a long-continued life, 

 derive their only nourishment from the woody 

 fragments they devour. Pines and firs seem 

 particularly subject to their attacks, but other 

 forest trees do not escape, and even fruit trees 

 are frequently injured by these borers." 



A borer belonging to another family of bee- 

 tles is also found in the hickory, namely, the 

 larvae of the beetle called by naturalists Steno- 

 corus cinctus, or banded stenocorus, the generic 

 name signifying narrow or straitened. Long 

 galleries, running in the direction of the fibres, 

 are made by this grub in the hard wood of the 

 hickory. The beetle is of a hazel colour, with 

 a tint of gray, arising from the short hairs with 

 which it is covered. There is an oblique ochre- 

 yellow band across each wing-cover. (Harris.) 



HIDE-BOUND. In farriery, applied to a 

 certain disease of cows and horses, in which 

 the skin adheres to their sides. Want of pro- 

 per care, spare diet, and bad food, such as rank 

 long grass in swampy situations, and musty 

 hay or oats, are the most probable causes of 

 this affection. Hide-bound is rarely a primary 

 disease; it is a symptom of unhealthiness, and 

 often of disease, of the digestive organs. It is 

 sometimes an accompaniment of chronic cough, 

 grease, farcy, and founder. A few mashes, and 

 a mild dose of physic, often have a very bene- 

 ficial effect. If the horse cannot be spared for 

 physic, the following alterative, which is in 

 common use, may be given every night for 

 some time in a mash, or in the form of a ball : 

 levigated antimony, 2 drachms; nitre, 3 drachms; 

 sulphur, 4 drachms. For the cow, eight ounces 

 of sulphur, with half an ounce of ginger, and 



