50 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[April, 



1 



our belief tliiit much, if not all, occurring on 

 the leaves above named, is the secretions of 

 ((pitids, or i)lant lice. We have seen them dis- 

 charge it "a many a time and often" from 

 the little tubular spines at the end — or near 

 tlie end— of the upper side of the abdomen. 



We do not, liowevcr, intend to insist, in 

 this paper, that the spines aforesaid are the 

 organs through which the .saccharine fluid is 

 ejected, because this has been disputed ; and 

 it has been alleged that the honej-dew is the 

 natural oxcreruentitious discharge of the 

 Aphid, and that it is discharged from the usual 

 anal oiitice. Be that as it may, we have wit- 

 nessed the discharge of honey-dew from 

 aphids dozens of times, and have even caught 

 it on small pieces of white paper held under 

 them, and have also tasted its sweetness ; and 

 this, not of aiihids only, but also of the orange 

 coccus. Some vegetation yields projiortionate- 

 ly more saccharine matter than others, and 

 these species will supply the aphids with a 

 larger proportion of honey-dew. The sap of 

 what is called S!ar((?c?!i vegetation, has a thin- 

 ner and more aqueous constitution, and hence 

 on such plants there will generally be less 

 honey-dew than on those of the tree and 

 shrub kind that contaiu more sugar. But 

 there is another cause of the absence of this 

 substance on some vegetation, and that cause 

 is the presence of other honey eating insects, 

 such as Bees, Wasps, Moths, Yellow-jackets, 

 Hornets, Flies, but most especially of ants. 

 These lap up the honey dew as fast as it is 

 discharged by the Aphids, and it is even said, 

 that when they do not discharge it rapidly 

 enough to suit the demands of the ants, these 

 little "Keepers"of tlie Aphids somehow stimu- 

 ate a discharge of it by artificial m eans. 

 From the fact that honey-dew is usually found 

 on the upper surfiice of the leaves, it has been 

 alleged that it falls down from far above, if 

 not from the clouds. But when it is observed 

 that the Ajjliids are usually on the underside 

 of the leaves, or on the tender twigs and 

 stems, and that they have the power of 

 ejecting the dew a considerable distance from 

 them, it will be readily perceived how it falls 

 on the leaves below them. It is usually dis- 

 charged in little globules which fall on the 

 leaves in drops, and where the discharge is 

 copious, these drops run into each other until 

 the whole surface is sometimes covered with 

 the liquid. 



With these facts before us, we cannot as- 

 sent to Mr. Noe's theory, although we are far 

 from saying it is impossible, ; but, for the fol- 

 lowinji reasons, we consider it very improl)a- 

 ble. Firstly, if lioney-dew is the condensa- 

 tion of the aroma or odor of flowers, how does 

 it happen that this substance is usually pre- 

 sent in greatest quantity long after the bloom- 

 ing and odoriferous season is over V Cherry 

 trees, apple trees, plum trees, etc., most fre- 

 quently only begin to show honey-dew after 

 tlie young shoots have gi'own several inches, 

 and when the fruit is already formed. 

 SccomVij, if honey-dew falls from a condensa- 

 tion of odor or aroma, how does it hapjien 

 that it only falls upon the leaves of the trees 

 and shrubs, and not ou the grass and other 

 vegetation around them? Thirdly, if such, 

 as lias been suggested by Mr. N., is the cause 

 of honey-dew, why is it that a beech, an oak 

 or a willow may have abundance of it, and 

 other contiguous trees and shrubbery be en- 

 tirely free from it V and no fragrance or bloom 

 of any kind be near them. It is true, that 

 some trees during their flowering season se- 

 crete nectar so copiou.sly that it .sometimes runs 

 from the flower-cujis and falls on the leaves 

 belovs' them— such for instance as magnolias, 

 dog-wood and tlie white pojilar or tulip-tree ,• 

 especially the last named. But this is not a 

 condensation from a vapory condition, it is a 

 liquid exudation or secretion. .Some fragrant 

 flowering plants— the white Peony, for in- 

 stance—after the flower liuds have become 

 much swollen, secrete considerable quantities 

 of a sweet mucus, and hence become infested 

 by numbers of flies, ants, wasps and bees, to 

 tlie great annoyance of anxious flower grow- 

 ers, and many other plants in the leaf and 



flower buds do the same, but this is an exu- 

 dation. Finally, honey-dew — so-called — is 

 eitlier a normal or abnormal saccharine or 

 resinous exudation from vegetation ; or it is 

 extracted, elaborated and discharged by in- 

 sects, generally ^jj//jds or Cocci; and either 

 one or both of these causes may explain every 

 case where it occurs, with reasonable satis- 

 faction. 



As touching the subject of condensation, 

 from an abstract ])oiut of view we admit the 

 hiwe jxissihility of Mr. N.'s theory; but at the 

 same time we are constrained to place it in tlie 

 category of ivqirobtihilities. Of course, the 

 substance called houey-dew does not originate 

 from nothing, and therefore must proceed from 

 sovuthirig. Scent, aroma, odor, perfume, fra- 

 grance, or whatever else we may call it, is a 

 material sulistance, but one of the most im- 

 ponderable of substances, and we opine it 

 would lie more diflicult to condense it into 

 as tangible a substance as honey-dew than 

 it would he to condense carbon into a 

 diamond. It is too refined, too ethereal, 

 diffusive and volatile for condensation, with- 

 out the aid of the most perfect and com- 

 plicated machinery. It is said that when the 

 bed chamber and drawers of the Empress 

 Josephine were ventilated forty years after 

 she had occupied them, they were still as fra- 

 grant as they had been during her life time. 

 No matter what the f)dor may be, it is still a 

 highly refined material substance, and in the- 

 ory may be resolved into its original form ; 

 but, if it may remain forty years ethcrealized 

 in a confined apartment, the condensation of 

 odor in the open air will hardly account for 

 the presence of honey-dew or its swatness. 



WHERE DID THEY COME FROM? 



No doubt this cjuestion often occurs to those 

 who are i>osi5essed of reflective minds, and they 

 would liavegiveii almost anything if tliej' knew 

 where "this, that, or t'other thing" origi- 

 nally came from. 



Indeed, "Where did you come from?" 

 natur.ally also involves the question, "Where 

 are you going to?" because if we know pre- 

 cisely the origin, the latitude, and the native 

 clime of a iilant, we may also know where we 

 would lie justified in taking it to, with any 

 prospect of success in its outdoor cultivatioii. 

 No doubt the particular origin and tlie native 

 country of many of our trees, shrubs and 

 plants, are merely conjectural, but even that 

 conjectural knowledge is Ynore satisfactory 

 than no knowledge at all. The qualifying, 

 " it is said," is sometimes a great relief to iis, 

 and often assists us in "pointing" a para- 

 graph, the responsibility of which we fiicl re- 

 luctant to assume. The following will illus- 

 trate the when and original whereabouts of a 

 few subjects of the vegetable kingdom with 

 which we may be familiar, but the origin 

 aud history of which we may not always be 

 able to " lay our finger on " without some 

 labor or expense. 



The Travels of Plants. 



Alexander brought rice from Persi.a to the Medi- 

 terranean, the Arabs carried it to Egypt, the Moors 

 to Spain, the Spaniards to America. Lucullus brought 

 the cherry tree (which takes its name from Cerasus, 

 the city of Pontus, where he found it,) to Rome, as a 

 tropliv of liis Mithridatie campaign; and 120 years 

 later, or in A. D. 4fi, as Pliny tells us, it was carried 

 to England. Ciesar is said to have given barley to 

 both Germany and Britain. According to Strabo, 

 wheat came originally from the banks of the Indus, 

 but it had reached the Mediterranean before dawn of 

 authentic history. Both barley and wheat came to 

 the New World with its conquerors and colonists, and 

 the maize wliicli they found here soon went to Eu- 

 rope in exchange. It was known in England in less 

 than fifty years after the discovery of America; it 

 wasintroduced to the Mediterranean countries, by way 

 of Spain, at the end of tlie sixteenth century, and the 

 Venetians soon carried it to the Levant. Later it 

 traveled up tlie Danube to Hungary, aud gradually 

 spread eastward to China. While it was thus inv.-id- 

 iug the regions formerly devoted to rice, the latter, 

 as we have said, was establishing itself in this country. 



The sugar-cane, which, with its sweet product, was 

 known to the Greeks and P.omaus only as a curio- 

 sity, seems to have been cultivated in India and China 

 from the earliest times. Its introduction into Europe 



was one of the results of the crusades, aud thence it 

 was transplanted to Maderia, and early in the six- 

 teenth centui-y from that island to the West Indies 

 The original home of" King Cotton " was probably 

 in Persia or India, though it is also mentioned in the 

 early annals of Egypt, and liad spread throughout 

 Africa in very ancient times. 



The potato was found in Peru and Chili by the first 

 explorers of those countries, who soon carried it to 

 Spain. It is said to have reached Burgundy in ISliO, 

 and Italy about the same time. It appears to have 

 been brought from Virginia to Ireland by Hawkins, 

 a slave trader, in 1.5(;.5: and to England in 15S.5, by 

 Drake, who presented some tubers to Gerard, who 

 planted them in his garden in London, and described 

 the plant in In^s Herball; and it was also introduced 

 by l;aleigli at about the same date. But it was slow 

 to attract attention, and it was not till nearly a cen- 

 tury later that it begau to be muelr cultivated. In 

 IfitW the Royal Society puljlislied rules for its culture, 

 and from that time it rapidly gained favor. The 

 Dutch carried it to the Cajie of Good Hope in 1800, 

 and thence it made its >ay to ludm.— Journal of 

 Chemistry. 



Time 9 o'clock, A, M. 



DAYS. THEEM. WINDS. 



WEATHEIt. 



METEOROLOGY OF MARCH 1776-1876. 



We have never niade.or recorded meteoro- 

 logical observations, simply for the reason that 

 we have not had time and opiiortunity, since 

 we have attached any imiiortance to the sub- 

 ject. The following record of March 1876, 1 

 and Maich ii hundred years ago, illustrates in I 

 a rather remarkable degree the similarity of 

 the two widely separated periods, and our 

 readers can make the comparisons for them- 

 selves, as to details, in which they may be 

 much more familiar than we are. We shall 

 occasionally, during the Centennial year, en- 

 deavor to furnish our patrons with mental and 

 intellectual food, of the ''old iuid the new," 

 just to show us how far aud fast we are travel- 

 ing, and what we have gathered on the way. 

 Meteorology has assumed a mighty importance 

 in this country, since the establishment of the 

 "U. S. Signal Bureau," and the results are 

 becoming every year more perfect, more 

 satisfactory and wide-extended. Its results 

 are now had in hand and are transmitted by 

 telegrajih and just here, we think, the "new" 

 is just so far in advance of the "okl." If every 

 thing else that constitutes our stiifl' as a people 

 was making the same progress it would stamp 

 us as a progressive people. 



Meteorological Diary, at Philadelphia, for 

 March 1776. 



1 .... 13 W Fair and windy. 



3 .... 3.5 W Fair. 



3 ... 36.... S.W Foggy. 



4.... 40 N.E. .. H'v'zy. 



5.... 47 S.W. Misty. 



6 47 W Flying clouds and windy. 



7 ... 40 S.W Cloudy. (Stormy prev. night.) 



8 46 W Cloudy. 



9 ...53 S.W Fair. 



10... 33 .... N.E Cloudy. 



11 .39 .. N.E Fair. 



13 .... 49 .... S.W Foggy. 



13 35 N Fair. 



14 40 N.W.... Rain. 



15 45 N.E Cloudy. 



16 .... 51 S. W Cloudy— nain in the night. 



17 .... 52 N. W Cloudy. 



18 .... 48 N.E Cloudy— rain in tlie night. 



I'J .... 4.S ... S.W Cloudy — rain preceding day. 



20 ... il W Fair. ^ 



21 32 . . N. W Fair and windy. 



23 37 S. E Overcast. 



23 39 W Fair — much rain previous day. 



24 33 N. W Wind and Hying clouds. Frost 



in the night. 



25 33.....N.W Overcast. Hard frost in the 



night. 



36 38.....N.W Fair. 



37 33.... N.W Fair. 



38.... 39 N.W ... Fair. 



29 36 .... S. W Cloudy. 



30 41 N. E Sleet. 



31 37 N. W Cloudy — much raiu the pre- 

 ceding day. 

 From Pemmylvania Magazine for April, 1770. 



The average or mean temperature of the 

 month of March, 1"7(), was SiljJ. There were 

 eight days on which rains fell, but tlie quan- 

 tity was not noted. Perhaps at that period no 

 instrument was in use for that purpose. It J 

 may be interesting to some of our readers to ■ 

 coiiqiare 1870 and 1770, day for day, and then 

 note the diiference for themselves. 



I 



