262 



KEW ENGLAND FARRIER. 



Junk 



most resembling it." The tree has the same 

 ■wood, fuliago, and vigorous habit, as our Fall 

 I'ippin, and the fruit keeps from November to 

 February or INIarch. 



SEVENTEEN-YEAR LOCUSTS. 

 Prof. Fitch, in his report to the assembly 

 of New York, for the year 18.35, remarking 

 upon the seventeen-year locusts, says, "A 

 fourth brood, and which has been the oftenest 

 and most fully noticed of any, reaches from 

 Pennsylvania and Maryland to South Carolina 

 and Georgia ; and, what appears to be a de- 

 tached branch of it, occurs also in the south- 

 eastern part of Massachusetts. It was ob- 

 served as long ago as 1715, and its re-appear- 

 ance has been recorded seven times since — the 

 last one of which was in the year 1851. It 

 wil consequently re-appear in 1868. 



Will our friends in the southeastern part of 

 the State make a note of this prophecy, and 

 look out for its fulfilment. 



The pupa of this locust emerges from the 

 ground in the night time. Some of them leave 

 their shells near the holes from which they 

 emerore. Others crawl up fences and bushes 

 and trees, sometimes twenty feet, when, fixing 

 themselves' by the feet, the thin, shell-like cov- 

 ering cracks open, and the inclosed insect 

 withdraws itself, leaving the empty case where 

 it was fixed. 



The oak is the tree which this locust appears 

 most to infest, for the purpose of depositing 

 its eggs, and next to this, probably, the apple 

 tree. It also infests the hazelnut and the lo- 

 cust tree, and probably most of tha deciduous 

 trees, in the absence of the oak. 



The full-grown insect attaches itself to the 

 twigs of the trees, and inserts its ovipositor 

 in an obli<ine direction through the succulent 

 bark and alburimm. The wound is so made 

 as to form a sort of lid of its upper side, un- 

 der which the eggs are deposited, sometimes 

 to the number of sixteen or twenty. A num- 

 ber of wounds are often made on the same 

 twig. As soon as the eggs are hatched, the 

 worms, which are about .06 in. in length, eat 

 their way into tlie pith of the twig. The twigs 

 usually die at the point at which the eggs are 

 inserted, and arc broken off by the wind and 

 fall to the ground. Mr. Thomas W. ^lorris 

 speaks of having seen the tops of the forest 

 trees in Pennsylvania and Ohio for upwards of 



a hundred miles, ap{>earing as if scorched by 

 fire, a month after this locust had left them. 

 Many of the wounded limbs, however, sur- 

 vive the injury which tbey have received. If 

 the twigs are cut off as soon as the leaves be- 

 gin to wilt, the worm may often be found in 

 the pith. The worm is of a yellowish white 

 color; clothed with fine hairs, the eyes and 

 the claws of its fore legs tinged with red. It 

 has six legs, the front pair being much the 

 largest. It is quite lively and active in its 

 motions and drops from the limb to the 

 ground, in which it immediately buries itsdf 

 by means of its fore legs, which are admira- 

 bly adapted for digging. 



IMPKOVEMENT OF OUK WOOL. 



In the Weekly Farmer of January 4, and 

 in the ]\Ionthly, page 87, we published an arti- 

 cle written by II. D. Tellkampf, of New York, 

 and submitted by him to the National Wool 

 Manufacturers' Association, Nov. 7, 1867, in 

 the form of a report. In that article Mr. T. 

 proposed the formation of a company for the 

 importation and breeding of "the Escurial 

 breed of Silesia and Saxony breed of sheep," 

 to counterbalance the "Negretti blood," 

 which he objected to "for its heavy grease," 

 "harshness of the points of staple," "pitch 

 tops" and want of the "necessary fulling 

 qualifications." 



A correspondent of the Country Gentleman, 

 in replying to these objections to American 

 wool, says : — 



The responsibility for the faults of American 

 wool rests wholly upon the shoulders of our wool- 

 dealers, and the only remedy that will ever prove 

 effcc u:il must be the adoption of simple /«5</ce to 

 the producer, by the fraternity 'oiwhidi i\Ir. Tell- 

 kampf is supposed to be an honored member. 

 The history of tlie woolen trade of the country, 

 dcmonstrafcs the fact that American dealers have 

 actually paid a premium for "harsh ends," "pitch- 

 tops," and a lack of "fullins qiuvlilicatioiis." 



From the bcj,'inninj: of 1827 to the close of 1861, 

 the avcraijc difference in the price ofjlne and medi- 

 tnn wool iias been but about spvai and a fialf vents 

 a poimd ; and, from tables prepared by Messrs. 

 Tellkampf and Kitching of New York, l" liiid that 

 theavcriitrc ditrcrcnix' in the value of choice Saxony 

 and fiiil b'ood Merino, from 18.3-3 to 18'i2, has been 

 liut iibout six cents a pound, and it is the full blood 

 Merino that produces the "pitch tops" and \noo1 

 lacking tlic necessary "fulling qualifications." 

 Now, every experienced wool-grower knows that 

 it is quite safe to assume a difference of at least 

 two jiounds of wool per head l)ctwccn the two 

 breeds of sheep, under ordin.nry care, and this is 

 in favor (if the Merino. "Pitch-tops" a)id "Sax- 

 ony" both go to market with their year's clip of 

 wool, and should the lirst obtain Imt 4S cents a 

 pound, be receives §~2AQ per Lead : while the latter, 



