204 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JANUARY 9, 1833. 



A DISCOURSE 



Delivered bclbrc llic UlassaehuscMs Hoilieiillural Sociely, on 



the Celebralion of its fourlli Anniversary. October 3,"1S32. 



By Thadreus William Harbis, M D. 



Upon the return of this annual festival I have 



the honor to present to the President and Mem- 



hcrs of " The Massachusetts Horticultural Society" 



the congratulations of the season. 



During four years you have been associated for 

 the purpose of promoting Horticulture ; and, al- 

 thoug-h the summer has not been propitious, abun- 

 dant evidence of the utility of your united efforts 

 is afforded by the offerings of fruits and flowers 

 with which your tables are this day crowned. 



To ensure continued success, it is necessary, not 

 only to study the artificial science of Horticulture 

 itself, and to practice it in detail, but to advert to 

 the close connexion si;bsisting between it and 

 the natural sciences of Zoology, Botany, and Min- 

 eralogy. In the interesting Address of your 

 Botanical Professor,* delivered on the last anniver- 

 sary, " the prominent features of Horticulture and 

 its associated and auxiliary studies," were in- 

 dicated. To ])ursue the subject so ably opened 

 would seem to be incumbent upon tliose to whom 

 in the distribution of duties, you liave assigned 

 the illustration of these studies. Upon the ])resent 

 occasion, however, it will be impossible to exhibit 

 a complete view of all or of any one of the acces- 

 sory sciences, and of their various bearings upon 

 Horticulture. I shall therefore endeavor only to 

 show the Relations subsisting between Insects and 

 Plants, and tlie useful results to be obtained by 

 the cidtivator from a knowledge of the habits and 

 economy of insects. 



American Entomology is yet in hs infancy. 

 Melsheiiaer, a Lutheran clergyman in Pennsyl- 

 vania, may be considered as the father of tlie 

 science in this counti-y. His collection of insects 

 was very extensive, and he published a catalogue 

 of one order or group of them in 1806. It con- 

 tained merely the names of about thirteen hundred 

 and si.vty native species, without descriptions or a 

 lilstory of their haliits. The late Professor Peck 

 rendered no inconsiderable aid to Horticulture and 

 Arboriculture, by his memoirs on several insects 

 injurious to vegetation, illustrated by plates from 

 original drawings of the most faithful kind. Pro- 

 fessor Say, the author of an unfinished work, en- 

 titled " American Entomology," and of numerous 

 papers in various periodical publications, has been 

 engaged, for many years, in describing scientifically 

 the unnoticed insects of this country; and, by his 

 continued labors, has materially facilitated the 

 stu<ly, though he has been unable to furnish much 

 respecting the habits of insects. Much, therefore, 

 remains to be done in this department of Natural 

 History; much of immense importance in its prac- 

 tical application to the various arts of life. Some 

 degree of regard for the science appears to be 

 a\vakened among us ; and we are gradually grow- 

 ing sensible of the utility of the pursuit. It must 

 become a popular study, and be allowed to share, 

 with Botany and Mineralogy, a small portion, at 

 least, of the time devoted by a judicious, enlight- 

 ened, and agricultural people, to elementary educa- 

 tion. It is recommended to us by its intrinsic 

 merits, the novelties and wonders it unfolds ; it 

 is enforced by the powerful influence which in- 

 sects are permitted to exert upon our persons and 

 possessions. 



Insects may be .said, without exaggeration, to 



have established u universal reign over the earth 

 and its inhabitants. Their kingdom extends from 

 tlie torrid zone to the utmost limits of polar vege- 

 tation ; from the lowest valley to mountainous re- 

 gions of perpetual snow. Some of them have 

 sent forth their colonies with man, and with him 

 Jiave circumnavigated the globe ; while others 

 hold imdisputed sway where man has not yet ven- 

 tured to establish himself, and where their innu- 

 merable hosts and noxious powers have forbidden 

 his approach. 



As insects depend for sustenance either imme- 

 diately or remotely upon vegetable productions, 

 their dispersion through various regions is subject 

 to nearly the same laws that govern the geograph- 

 ical distribution of plants. 



Temperatiu'e exerts an influence u|>on them. 

 An increase of heat is always attended with a pro- 

 portional increase in the kinds and numbers of 

 these creatures. Altitude has the' same ettect as 

 latitude in diminishing the numbers of insects. 

 Hence the insects, like the plants, of high regions 

 v.'ill be the same as those of northern latitudes. 

 On the suuunit of the White Mountains are found 

 some of the plants of Lapland, and there also a 

 species of butterfly* occurs, which appears to be 

 identical with one in Lapland. The rice-weevilf 

 is the constant concomitant of its favorite grain ; 

 and, though often found alive in imported rice, 

 does not seem to have established itself beyond the 

 natural regions of its appropriate food. In all 

 parts of America where the sugar-cane flourishes, 

 the euciiij, or luminous beetle,): which lives upon 

 it, may be found. 



The presence or absence of humidity, in a 

 country or district, gives predominance to certain 

 insect and vegetable races. Thus predatory and 

 stercoraceous insects arc more common and abun- 

 dant in dry, sandy, and hot regions, than in more 

 moist and temperate ones. The prevailing insects 

 of Africa, of the south of Europe, of the steppes 

 of Asia, of the pamjias and prairies of America, 

 are of this description ; and such also are those 

 which frequent dry pathways and the arid sands 

 of the sea-shore every where. Other tribes, 

 destined to subsist upon vegetable juices, and those 

 that iiid)ibe their food by suction, are more preva- 

 lent in regions of perpetual moisture, as well 

 as in the bogs and fens, and on the marshy 

 margins of rivers, lakes, and seas, in all countries. 



Peculiar kinds of insects and plants appear to 

 be appropriated to particular continents and 

 countries. The laws, governing the geographical 

 limits of indigenous insects, are more absolute than 

 those already specified. It is true that countries, 

 possessing a similarity of climate and temperatiue, 

 have many insects allied to each other in forms 

 and habits ; but it will be found, that diflereuccs 

 exist among them sufficient to prove that they 

 could not have descended from a common stock, 

 or, in other words, that they are of different 

 species. Thus, of the tribe of butterflies, called 

 by the French brassicaires, because they are ap- 

 propriated to the cabbage, turnip, mustard, and 

 other allied plants, there is one solitary species in 

 the mountainous and northern parts of New Eng- 

 land devoted to these plants.§ The common cock- 



•Wallhus A. Ward, M. D. 



* Tile llipparchia semiilea of Say, appears to be identical 

 with the Papilio fortujiatus of Fabricius. 



t Catandra Ort/zcc. L. J Elater noctilucus. L. 



^ It now attacks the turnip and cabbage, bnt probably lived 

 originally upon the Arabia rlunnboidea^ The insect is the 

 PoiUia oUracea. Harris. 



chaffer* of Europe is represented, in this country, 

 by our nocturnal dorr-bug,t as it is usually called ; 

 and the European vine-chafter| by an allied 

 species, § which has recently multiplied greatly, 

 from some unknown cause, and threatens, if un- 

 checked, to become as great a depredator. It ap- 

 pears now to be pretty well established, that coun- 

 tries, separated by a wide expanse of water, by 

 extensive deserts of sterile sand, or by an unbroken 

 chain of lofty mountains, possess vegetable and 

 animal productions peculiar to themselves, which 

 do not under ordinary circumstances, pass these 

 natural limits ; but that when two continents, or 

 great divi.^ons of the globe, are contiguous, or 

 nearly ajiproach each other, the same animals and 

 plants may be found in each to a limited extent. 

 No one species or kind could have originated on 

 two difterent points of the earth's surface; each 

 one inu.^t have commenced existence in some ono 

 place, from whence, in the course of successive 

 generations, it would have spread over the whole 

 globe, had it not been restrained and confined 

 within narrow limits by insuperable geographical 

 and pliyslcal barriers. From a careful comparison 

 of the insects of our own country with tho.sc of 

 other parts of the world, I luii fully convinced, 

 that these laws are founded in nature, and can 

 venture to assert that, with the exception of the 

 polar species, there are no insects in America 

 identical with those of the Eastern continent, which 

 have not accompanied man and his imports from 

 thence. 



[To be continued.] 



' Mflohntha vulgaris. F. 

 : Anomaia Yitis. L. 



\ Mflohntha Qu 

 ^ Anoytiala varia 



ON THE MEANS OF DESTROYING CiVNADA 

 THISTLES. NO. II. 



Salt will destroy Canada thistles. It will do 

 this by its own direct agency, and also by an agency 

 that is indirect. It is, I believe, generally known, 

 that salt applied in considerable quantities to the 

 roots of vegetables, will destroy their life. I have 

 never known it fail of doing this, except in a case 

 of horse radish in my garden, when I attempted, 

 but without success, to kill it by the application of 

 strong brine. When Canada thistles exist only in 

 small patches, this will be an easy and expeditious 

 way of getting rid of them. The process is very 

 simple; 1st. to cut oft' the thistles a little below 

 the surface of the ground, and then ajiply to the 

 stem of each root a small (juantity of salt. A quan- 

 tity less than a table spoon full will I think be suf- 

 ficient. Strong brine will answer the same pur- 

 pose. No matter by what philosophical principles 

 of action it is done, the fact is ascertained that salt, 

 applied in the manner here suggested, will inflict 

 tipon the root a mortal distemper. I have fre- 

 quently destroyed thistles by salt and by brine, ap- 

 plied in this way, the results in both ca.ses being 

 the same. Care, however, must be taken when 

 salt is used for this purpose, that no stock of any 

 kind run in the field at the time, nor for several 

 days thereafter. I salted in one day, and with 

 entire uniformity, three patches of Canada thistles, 

 two of which were in one field, the other in a 

 field adjacent. The experiment, as to the two 

 first mentioned patches, was completely successful, 

 while, as to the other, it was an entire failure. At 

 first this seemed to involve something of mysteiy ; 

 but the mystery was soon solved, by the consider- 

 ation that sheep were running in the field where 



