NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



fihocts uikIpv tl]p tree and sliook them down and 

 1)11 rat them. U'aicr will nut drown tliein. They 

 can live in tobacco juice 12 hours, and will climb 

 up the sides of the vessel and escape. Fire or 

 crushing arc the only remedies, unless our nj^tu- 

 ralist=? will discover how we may attack them in 



I'rovi Ibe Mass. Agnc. Journal. 



SOME REMARKS ON THE DESTRUCTIVE 

 POWERS OF THE ROSE BUG. 



Tiie Trustees of the Massachusetts Agricultu- 

 ral Society having received from various parts of 

 the State, in the summer of 1825, accounts ofj the egg, or in the larva, or chrysalis state. This 

 the e.xtensive devastation and injury produced by | single apple tree has been successively attacked 

 this insect, were induced to offer a premium to j for three years, and has been nearly destroyed by 

 any person who should produce au essay on its them. I mention this fact, because I think it has 

 natural history, and point out any probable means | some tendency, coupled with other interesting 

 of checking their progress. No such essay has j ones, yet to be stated, to show the localih/ of the 

 appeared, to our deep regret. We remain in ig- j evil, that the eggs are deposited in certain dis- 

 norance, as to their mode of propagation, and the j tricts, whicli are contiguous, or convenient for the 

 wonderfully sudden appearance of them in such i food of the future progeny. In 1825, they were 

 clouds is left still unexplained. Having been a j abundant overall my grounds, but still I did not 

 severe sufferer by them the last year, mid a still , suffer much injury till about the 2.5th of June, 

 greater one during tlie present season, I thought i when they took possession in o?ie day of a bigarou 

 .that an account of their appearance and progress | cherry tree, (the large white heart,) about fifty 

 and effects might not bo useless. feet high, and loaded with 4 or 5 bushels of cher- 



The rose bug is not one of those insects, which, ries nearly ripe. Their appearance was so sud- 

 like the locust and the caterpillar or the slug , den, that two days before, I thought of gathering 

 worm appear in great numbers eitijer at stated, or , tlie cherries, which were entirely fair and free 

 intermediate intervals, and then wholly di.=appuar. < from them. In two days after the examination I 

 It is an annual an<l constant visitor, and tliis cir- could not find a cherry, witliout two rose bugs 

 cumstance renders its occasional inundations, if upon it, and many had ten. The leaves of the 

 I may use a metaphor, the more unaccountable, tree certainly not less than 10,000 in number, 

 for we can see no apparent reason why it should were covered with them, were literally alive with 

 not every year abound to a destructive extent. In them. In five days, the whole tree was precisely 

 ordinary seasons, the rose bug is seldom seen ex- in the state in which the canker worms leave the 

 cept upon tlie plant whose name it bears, and I apple tree ; nothing but the ribs of the leaves was 

 never recollect a year in which the rose was not ' to be seen. The tree fell a victim to it as I ex- 

 more or less injured by it, but it is rather a curi- i pected. It was the most vigorous cherry tree I 

 ous, liiough an unquestionable fact, that in the : ever saw, and three fourths of it is entirely dead 

 seasons in which it becomes a. generut scourge, it this year, and the residue must follow. This was 

 deserts the rose bush, and that plant almost whol- the only serious loss I sustained last year. In 

 ly escapes uninjured. The rose bug is the most ! the present year not a rose bug was visible on the 

 general feeder of any insect which I have ever i 31st day of May. On the 1st day of June I gath- 

 known. The Canker worm attaches itself to the ! ered at 8 o'clock in the morning a mess of peas, 

 apple and the cherry, and when it is abundant, it j and not a rose bug was to be seen upon the vines, 

 will strip the American elm of all its foliage. — At ten, I had occasion to visit those vines again, 

 The slug worm prefers the cherry and the pear. , and they were literally swarming with rose bugs 

 It rarely touches any other plants except the '; of both sexes, generally double, of full size, and no 

 thorn, a cousin german of the pear. The common , appearance of youth. I proceeded to kill them by 

 caterpillar prefers the apple, will take the cherry | hand, the only sure remedy. In three hours after 

 and rarely the peach, and leaves undisturbed all [ they appeared on some rows of bush beans to the 

 other plants, unless driven to it by famine. The number of some thousands. I killed them all, and 

 rose bug is omnivorous. It eats with apparent as soon as I had gone through, I returned to see 

 relish, and it has destructively attacked not injuri- , if any had escaped, and I found them as fall as be 



icli 



Sept. 8. 18'2C. ..ij 



gusting squash bug, the companion and the friend « 

 of the yollow bug, who agree to divide betweenl "'■ 

 them this plant of our care. The yellow bug preys " 

 upon the leaf, the black triangular squash bug 

 feeds upon tlie bark or cortex of the root und^ '' 

 stern. This bug is easily destroyed. It is slug 

 gish. It places its eggs in open view on the lower J <" 

 or upper sides of the leaf, and the careful farmer 

 or gardener will crush the eggs before they' 

 hatch. If he does not, his vines will be covered 

 with the young squash bugs of all sizes and ages, 

 and no state or vigour of the squash, the cucum- 

 ber or melon, (even when the fruit is nearly ripe) 

 is any security againstthctn in dry seasons. 



As wo know that the squash bug lays* eggs 

 which produce, not larva, but the perfect insect, is 

 it not probably also tlie case with the rose bug, 

 and tlie yellow bug ':' Their incessant amours 

 cannot certainly be without production, and their 

 constant re-appearance for many weeks would' 

 lead us to believe that they produce the perfect, 

 insect either viviparous, as does the Aphis, or from ' 



jeggs as the squash bug certainly docs. No doubt. 



: all these points are settled, and were well known 

 to Fahricius and Olivier, but unliappily those who 

 have tliese treasures of knowledge keep tlieni 

 from us under lock and key. If the knowledge of 

 the mode of propagation should not enable us to' 

 meet tlie evil and to subdue it, yet in our day of 

 inquiry, it. is agreeable to know the truth, and the 

 whole truth, under the hope, that ingenuity will j 

 devise a remedy- J. L. 



ously simply, but destructively, the cherry, the 

 apple, the grape, Indian corn, peas, beans, the 



fore. They appeared the next day on my corn, 

 and to give some idea of their numbers, we killed 



"ommon potato, squashes, pumpkins, the sweet 25 on one leaf, the corn being then only G inches 

 potato and the elm, besides its favourite, the ros?. high. They then attacked my young cherry trees 

 It attacks also meadow grasses, aud in the sum- which they stripped in 12 hours. On one hill of 

 iner of 1825, when ray meadows were cut, they corn we killed 105 rose bugs, and there were not 

 rose in such clouds, as to cover the hats, and more than 12 or 14 leaves on the stalks, which 

 clothes of persons employed in mowing them. were only 5 in number. It would be but a mode- 



Tho first recollection which I have of the np- rate computation to allow, that we killed 100,000 

 pcarance of this insect in such terrific numbers, of them on a quarter of an acre. I followed them 

 was in the year 1810. They then fastened upon up for one week, every morning, and have nearly 

 my grape vines, and though I employed all my subdued them on that piece of ground, but they 

 own hands, and hired additional labourers, they have yet three weeks to run, and they may re-ap- 

 succeeded iij cutting off the crop of grapes. 'pear in greater numbers than ever. How do they 



From that year, though they occasionally an- propagate in summer ? I can find no eggs. The 

 noyed my grape vines, yet they gave me no anxi- : yellow and black striped bugs which infest the 

 ety, till three years since. I then discovered : squashes present the same difficulty ; you see no 

 ihem in vast numbers, such as could not be des- i eggs ; they must be deposited in the earth, but 

 cribed, and would not be believed, if they were i/ou see no young ones ; do they come forth full 

 described, or, at least none but an ocular witness grown at once ? No, this is impossible. Do they 

 could conceive of their numbers, on a russeting] remain under the surface till they are full grown? 

 apple tree, which stood remote from all others. — 1 1 am inclined to believe it, as they are capable of 

 The numbers on this tree were so great, that des- living below the ground, and always seek a refuge 

 truction by hand was out of the question. I put (there, when attacked. It is not so with tlie dis- 



ON THE WILD INDIGO PLANT AS A 

 SUBSTITUTE FOR WOAD. 



The wild indigo plant growing every where in 

 this country, ought to be brought into use for the , 

 blue dye. I gathered some in the fall of 1821, too 

 late ill the season to obtain it in maturity, and had 

 it boiled, and used the liquor in place of swill from 

 bran and madder, to assist the fermentation of the 

 vats. The plants were too old to retain much of 

 those succulent juices in which their value chiefly 

 consists, yet they answered far beyond my expecta- 

 tion ; for the liquors, so long as I was enabled to 

 supply them with it, worked much more frcclv 

 and more vigorous!)' than in the usual way : and 

 although this experiment was not decisive, for 

 want of a sufficient quantity, and from the plant 

 being too old wlieu gathered, yet I am convinced, 

 by the eftect produced, that it might be used to 

 considerable advantage. In Bancroft's first vol- 

 ume on permanent colours, this article is noticed 

 as follows : 



" It is well known, according to Mr Clarkson, 

 that the African dyers are superior to those of any 

 other part of the globe. 



" The blue dye is so much more beautiful and 

 permanent, than that which is extracted from the 

 same plant in other parts, that many have beeiu 

 led to doubt whether the African cloths brought 

 into England were dyed with indigo or not. — 

 They apprehended, that the colours in these, must 

 have proceeded from another weed, or have been 

 an extraction from some of the woods which are 

 celebrated for dyeing there. The matter, howev- 

 er, has been clearly ascertained : a gentleman 

 procured two or three of the bales, which had been 

 just prepared by the Africans for use : he brought 

 them home, and upon examination, found them to 

 be the leaves of indigo rolled up in a very simple 

 state." 



As this plant is found every where in the Unit- 



