166 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[ November, 



verbena strkta (beub.) or the Hoary Vervain, 

 common in barrens from Ohio to Wisconsin, 

 but never before known to grow in Pennsyl- 

 vania. Since then I have watched the plant 

 with a good deal of interest, and I find it is 

 still growinr; in the same locality. Other in- 

 dividuals are springing up, so that although 

 the present specimens seem somewhat depau- 

 perated, it is not unreasonable to suppose 

 that the species will maintain itself upon our 

 soil, and add a new plant to the flora of our 

 State. 



Where did it come from ? How was it 

 transplanted hither ? These were the ques- 

 tions that natui-ally arose as soon as the ques- 

 tion, What is it ? was answered. Perhaps it 

 was brought hither in manure from cattle cars. 

 Railroads transi)ort live stock in more than one 

 sense of the word. Perhaps (and this seems 

 more probable) it stole a passage by mixing in 

 with western clover seed. True, in this case 

 you might expect to find it in the field rather 

 than by the roadside ; but we cannot tell how 

 many plants may have sprung up in the field ; 

 they should be cut down with the grass, and 

 thus ))e prevented from^ blooming or bearing 

 seed, and of course they'would die unhonored 

 and unsung. But a slight pufl'of wind, carry- 

 ing one seed to the roadside, would give it a 

 different destiny, and, perhaps, make it the 

 progenitor of a sturdy race of verbenas to live 

 and bloom in years to come. 



Undoubtedly plants and animals were orig- 

 inally adapted to a particular soil and climate, 

 and confined to a definite locality. The de- 

 cree, "increase and mnltijily," looks to an in- 

 ternal, living power, lodged in the germ, capa- 

 ble of reproducing the original type, with more 

 or less variation, in new individuals. But 

 this power in the seed to reprofluce after its 

 kind, necessarily presupposes certain external 

 conditions, which make tlie springing into life 

 and consequent subsistence possible; such as. 

 for instance, a certain temperature, particular 

 degree of humidity, certain ingredients of soil 

 ancl atmosphere necessary for the processes of 

 nutrition and respiration. These external con- 

 ditions vary continually as we pass from place 

 to place, and hence it "is that every country, 

 yea every district, has its own/ctmjaand/ioca. 

 The Alpine flower pines away, withers and 

 dies, when removed from its native soil. Our 

 own Epigcea rejiens^ or trailing arbutus, will 

 only thrive in sandstone woods and hills. Veiy 

 often great care is taken to transplant certain 

 species and furnish all the requisite conditions 

 of subsistence, and yet the results fail to be 

 satisfactory, Ijecause of differences so slight 

 that we fail to discern what is really wanting. 

 The variations from the original type, above 

 referred to, are no doubt intended to adapt the 

 individual to different conditions ; but there 

 are limits beyond which the power of adapta- 

 tion cannot stretch, and thus species of plants 

 and animals have their boundaries, beyond 

 which they cannot pass. However the seed of 

 plants may be transported, in the stomach of 

 bird or beast, borne along by wind or water, 

 sticking to the hair of animals or the clothing 

 of man, it can reproduce its kind only where 

 the conditions of soil and climate are such as 

 to afford room for its gi'owth. — J. S. S., 

 Lancaster, Aug. 26, 1876. 



For The Lancaster Farmkb. 



THE DESTRUCTION OF NOXIOUS 

 INSECTS. 



The loss to the farming connnunity through 

 noxious insects is becoming more and more 

 serious every year, and in nothing else is it 

 more important that farmers should combine, 

 than in efforts to secure the destruction of 

 such insects, or at least, to diminish their num- 

 Ijers to such an extent as to leave the remain- 

 der comparatively harmless. In order to work 

 to the best advantage there should be a regular 

 and systematic plan adojited, and to accom- 

 plish the desired iiurpose, it must be based on 

 the habits of the insects. 



The following are some of the more destruc- 

 tive insects, and remarks on some of the ways 

 in which they can be destroyed: 



The Colorado potato bug (or beetle) hiber- 

 nates through the winter, in a perfected state, 

 in the ground and under rubbish. It flies as 

 soon as comparatively wann days set in, and 

 usually a long time before potatoes have pushed 

 above ground. This is the best time to de- 

 stroy them, as every bug destroyed at this 

 time would have been on an average the pro- 

 genitor of several thousand in that season. 

 The only way of destroying any number at 

 this time is the plan recommended in the 

 Scientific American by Prof. Riley, and that is 

 to slice potatoes, give them a good coating of 

 Paris green, and strew them around places 

 where no domestic animals can get at them, 

 the potato patches of the year before being 

 particularly suitable. At this time, also, if at 

 no other, the bugs should be crushed with the 

 foot whenever met with. I think the sliced 

 potatoes might also be laid very profitably for 

 them in the fall, after the potato vines are all 

 dead, and there is very little for the bugs to 

 forage on. The methods of destroying them 

 in tlie summer have been so well discussed 

 that it is not necessary here to repeat them, 

 but I think to apply the Paris green dry mixed 

 among flour, when the vines are wet, is the 

 best, as the paste that is formed will stand a 

 couple of pretty heavy rains. It should, how- 

 ever, be applied with one of the better class of 

 machines, and it would pay to get one, in the 

 saving of flour, Paris gi'een and labor, in one 

 season, even should there not be more than an 

 acre of potatoes under cultivation. 



The flve-spotted sphynx is the insect that 

 lays the nit from which is produced the tobac- 

 co worm. Some years there is but little dam- 

 age done by the worms, but this season there 

 were so many of them that it was nearly im- 

 possible to keep their numbers down, and 

 some fields were as badly damaged as though 

 visited by a hail storm. The efforts hereto- 

 fore have been mainly directed to destroying 

 the worms, but by destroying the insects them- 

 selves there is a great deal of labor saved, and 

 an enhancement in the looks of the tobacco. 

 If the farmer would see to it that a number of 

 jimson-weed stalks would be left standing, he 

 could each evening after sunset, kill with a 

 plastering lath, many of the insects which 

 come to feed at these flowers. I believe it is 

 also recommended to take a thin preparation 

 of honey water and strychnine, fill a spring- 

 bottom oil can with it, and then squirt a little 

 of the poison into the flower. The insect com- 

 ing to feed will die in a short time. Other 

 poisons can be used, but strychnine is the most 

 deadly and surest. It is also stated that by 

 making a fire in the tobacco field right after 

 dusk, a great many of the insects will fly into 

 the fire and be killed. After tobacco is cut 

 off, the stumps should be plowed under, par- 

 ticularly ifcut vei7 early, as if left standing 

 they throw up many sprouts, which become a 

 nursery to produce a crop of insects for the suc- 

 ceeding year. 



Wasps may not be looked upon by many 

 people as an insect pest outside of their pro- 

 pensity to use their stings. If such people 

 would sometimes see the way they damage 

 peaches, grapes, pears, etc., they would soon 

 change their opinions, and to make these pests 

 more provoking, it seems they have a relish 

 for the fine varieties just as well as human be- 

 ings. In spring is the time to destroy wasps; 

 by going on the garret on some warm spring 

 day, scores of them can be destroyed at the 

 windows. Of course, a wasp destroyed at this 

 time will accomplish as much as destroying 

 half-a-hundred later in the season. Last spring 

 I destroyed over two hundred wasps in a few 

 days time, and I do not believe that it took 

 me an hour altogether to do it. Later in the 

 season many can be destroyed by sweetening 

 some water in a bottle and hanging it in a 

 sunny place out of doors. The greatest ob- 

 jection against this is that at times many bees 

 al.so fall victims. Whenever a nest is oliserved, 

 wherever possible, it should be burned down 

 after dusk. The best way to burn them is to 

 tie some rags on a long pole and saturate them 

 with coal oU. This gives a good flame without 

 any sparks. 



Hornets are as much of a nuisance as wasps, 

 particularly at early peaches. There are two 

 ways of destroying them to any advantage — 

 sweetened water and fire as described for 

 wasps. 



The cabbage butter-fly and its larvse (or 

 worm) is more ditlicult to destroy than any of 

 the preceding, as it is altogether out of the 

 question to kill the worm by poison, and of all 

 the remedies that have been recommended 

 there is not one tliat is infallible except by 

 picking tliem off by hand, which will take 

 more labor to accomplish than the crop 

 is worth, and is altogether impracticable where 

 calibage is farmed by acres. AVhere the cab- 

 bage piece is not large, such as persons have 

 who grow for their own use only, the butter- 

 fly can be killed pretty readily by taking some 

 leafless branch with many twigs on and 

 knocking them down with this. By a little 

 pratice a butterfly can be hit at every blow. 

 By doing this every few days when the butter- 

 flies are flying about most, there will soon be 

 a precepti'ble decrease both in the insects and 

 iu the worms. Brusli with leaves on, though 

 others will do, are not nearly as good as those 

 without leaves, as the leaves prevent a quick 

 blow being given. 



The cut-worm is the larvie of some night 

 moth, and is very destructive some years to all 

 crops planted in the spring. As it is a night- 

 flying moth there is only one way of destroying 

 it and that is by building fires or putting up 

 night hawks which are large lanterns made for 

 this purpose. These moths and many other 

 night-fliers are attracted l)y the light and are 

 soon destroyed by dashing into the flames. I 

 have heard old lime-burners state that in the 

 times when wood was yet used for burning 

 lime, there was a contant stream of insects 

 dashing into the kiln every night as soon as set 

 afire. If this was the case, and I have no reason 

 to doubt it, there certainly ought to be some 

 showing for it in the less number of cut-worms 

 in the vicinity of kilns where they use wood 

 only in burning whitewash lime. 



There are many other insects which might 

 be mentioned and the methods of destroying 

 them, such as apple tree and peach tree borers, 

 plum ciu'culio, bee-moths, &c., but all these 

 have been discussed in the papers for years and 

 anyl;)ody that is interested in raising fruit, 

 keeping of bees, &c., will have some book on 

 that branch, and will find therein the best 

 methods of overcoming such drawbacks. 



There are many natural enemies of all the 

 noxious insects, such as some insects feed alto- 

 gether on the eggs or larvaj of other insects, 

 for instance the soldier bug, lady bug, &c. ; 

 but birds are our Ijest friends in this particular 

 and since natural history has become more and 

 more of a study, it has been found that there 

 are very few birds indeed that are not more of 

 a help than an injury to man. Some might 

 single out the chicken hawk and yet for every 

 chicken tliat a hawk carries off he no doubt 

 catches dozens of mice. It has been going the 

 roimds of the papers that in Scotland on ac- 

 count of the destruction of the hawks the mice 

 became so plentiful as to destroy whole fields 

 of grain as it was standing, but this is getting 

 away from insects; but we will get there again 

 by stating that a partial failure of the clover- 

 seed cropin England has been ascribed to the 

 same cause, -but in this instance the mice killed 

 the Immble-bees which are necessary to fertil- 

 ize the clover blossoms from which I infer that 

 the English save their seed from the first crop 

 and not from the second, as the latter can be 

 fertilized by bees. 



These natural enemies of insects should be 

 so thoroughly described that no one need igno- 

 rantly destroy any of them, thinking he did a 

 good deed, but it requires the pen of the ento- 

 mologist and ornithologist to do it. 



This one thing must be kept in mind, and 

 that is so long as all do not help all they can, 

 there will be an insect plague in the country, 

 and that the only way to keep most of them 

 within bounds there must be a combined and 

 systematic effort made, or the good one man 

 may do will be spoiled by the negligence of an- 

 other. — A- B. K. 



