1876.J 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



179 



either used in the cultivator's own kitchen or 

 carried to market. How is tliis obstacle to be 

 overcome V Being local and confined to par- 

 ticular districts, it never can be entirely. All 

 remedies tliat have been proposed, are partial 

 in tlieir effects. Hii,'h culture— or, keepiuR 

 the .soil ricli and in good tilth, accompanied 

 by a Judicious system of iJruninj;, — i.s most 

 important. Wood ashes are sometimes sifted 

 on the leaves, while lime and suli)hur are du^; 

 into the soil. Tlie most ellicieiit remedy is 

 covering the pronnd with a layer, ten or 

 twelve inches in thickness, of salt-hay or sea- 

 weed. In places wliere these cannot be pro- 

 cured, litter or straw can be used in their 

 stead, by being sprinkled with small quanti- 

 ties offine salt or brine. Spent tan around 

 the bushes is good to prevent the attacks of 

 the destrnctive caterpillar. 



Use. — The fruit is deservedly held in high 

 esteem for culinary purposes. In fact, its 

 name is derived from the circumstance of its 

 having been in olden times considered an in- 

 dispensable accompaniment to a green goose. 



In its unripe state, early in the season, it is 

 made into sauces, tarts, pies, puddings, etc ; 

 while, when fully matured, some of the choice 

 varieties are very acceptable for des.sert, and 

 make good preserves. In every form it is 

 wholesome, as well as pleasant to the taste. 

 It makes a very excellent wine, which is said 

 to be so near equal to champagne, thnt it often 

 passes for that among inexperienced judges. 



To Preserve Green Gooseberries. — Fillabottle 

 with the green fruit, and let it stand a few 

 minutes in a vessel of boiling water. Cork 

 and seal it immediately after being taken from 

 the water, and keep it in a cool cellar, with 

 the neck downward. 



Gooseberry Fie. — Pick the heads and stems 

 from imripe gooseberries, and rub them with 

 a towel for the purpose of cleaning them. Fill 

 a dish with them, and add a little water, to- 

 gether with sufficient brown sugar to correct 

 their acidity. Cover with puft' paste, and bake 

 for upwaids of an hour. Some persons stew 

 tlie fruit in sugar before putting it in the 

 plates ; so tliat it requires less baking. — 

 Schenk^s Gardener^s Text-Book. 



INSECT LONGEVITY. 

 Just how long the life of an insect may be 

 continued, from the many special instances 

 which have come under the observations of 

 amateurs and men of science, it would be very 

 ditlicult to determine. As a general thing the 

 famous "striped apple tree borer ^\Saperdei 

 bivittata) lives at least three years, and these 

 years are mainly spent in the lariKi orgrubstate. 

 The greatest longevity among insects occurs in 

 the order CoLEOi'TEii-E, (beetles) and among 

 the LoNGicouNiA, (long horns) and Ser- 

 KICOKNIA (saw-horns), divisions of that 

 ORDER, nearly all the subjects of which 

 are wood-borei"s in the Ztura state, but just 

 how long these larva, respectively, live in that 

 state, would be difficult to determine, except 

 perhaps in a few instances. Some we know 

 are limited to one year, some to two, three, 

 five and seven years, and isolated instances are 

 known where their lives have been prolonged 

 far beyond those periods; but whether this is 

 normal or abnormal, we arc not prepared to 

 afDrni. "Circumstances alter cases," and 

 there may be something in surrounding cir- 

 cumstances that has a modifying influence 

 upon the general habit. Messrs. Kirby and 

 Spence, the distinguished British entomolo- 

 gists, relate, in their works, several cases of 

 extraordinary longevity among wood-boring 

 insect larvte, one of which was in an old "deal 

 table," very probably for twenty years. A 

 similar ease has been brought to our notice 

 within the present month, and although we 

 have recorded one or two cases of the kind 

 elsewhere, we know of none that exceeds this 

 in length of time. Mr. John Best, boiler- 

 maker and machinist, of this city, purchased 

 from the late Wm. E. Hcinitsh a Grover & 

 Baker Cabinet Sewing Machine in 1860 or 

 1861, which has been in use in his family from 

 that period down to the present time. Of 

 late years Mrs. Best has heard a "ticking" 



or "clicking" noise about the machine when 

 it was not in motion, which was attributed to 

 the ominous fi'c/t of the "death-watch," wliich 

 is so frequently heard in old frame or log 

 houses ; but she never suspected tliat this 

 noise proceeded from tlie machine. The 

 cabinet surrounding the sewing machine is 

 made of a dark, hard wood, liuislied up and 

 oiled, such as cabinets usually are. The in- 

 side casing, the drawers and the bottom, are 

 made of pine, stained a dark color, and oiled 

 or varnished. A few days ago, on taking out 

 one of the drawers, it was found to coidain a 

 large (|\iantity of white debris or dust, and 

 this led to a thorough e.\aminati<)n of the 

 premises, when it was discovered that the said 

 sides and bottom were perforated, and, in 

 fact, pi-rfectly " honeycombed," by a species 

 of wood-boring ^arrre. On applying the linger 

 to the bottom it was found soft and yielding 

 almost as a sponge, the inside having been 

 eaten in small longitudinal galleries, inter- 

 lacing each other, leaving only the outside 

 upper and lower surfaces entire, with the ex- 

 ception of a few holes in the lower side. No 

 larva? of any kind were found, but from one 

 of the burrows a dead coleopterous insect was 

 secured, and this was preserved and presented 

 to us by Mr. Best. Contrary to our expec- 

 tations when our attention wiis first called to 

 the subject, this insect did not prove to be 

 what is generally known among entomologists 

 .as the " death-watch beetle," which belongs 

 to the genus Anobitim (family Ptinid^e), of 

 which there are at least twelve species in the 

 United States, the most common of which, 

 perhaps, are the notatiirn and carinntum of 

 Say, and the obesmn and errans of Mulshei- 

 mer. These insects are nearly all small and 

 inconspicuous, and their* larvic are wood and 

 dried jilant borers. On the contrary, the in- 

 sect which was so damaging to the cabinet of 

 Mr. B.'s sewing machine belongs to the genus 

 Hijlotrupes (family Ceramhycidjic), of which 

 there are only three or four species, and the 

 most common of which are the baj\d>is of 

 Linne, and bidlatus of Haldeman. The family 

 to which this individual belongs is included in 

 the section or division Loncjicornia, or long- 

 horned, and are usually distinguished by their 

 long and slender untennm, members which are 

 supposed to i)ossess a peculiar economy in in- 

 sect life as organs of feeling, touch and hear- 

 ing, and as a means of commiuiication with 

 each other. When two ants meet, they seem 

 to shake hands by touching each other's 

 finteunrp,. We have not access to the original 

 descriptions of these insects, but as tiiis indi- 

 vidual is not a bnjuhts, we infer that it is a 

 bidhitus. It is half an inch in length, is a 

 female, and has the ovipositor ex^erted about 

 an eighth of an inch. The color is a blackish 

 brown, the thorax nearly black, with two ele- 

 vated shiny tubercles, and margined with 

 white, downy hairs. The larvic of all the 

 Loniricornia are white, foootle.ss grubs, the 

 anterior portion of the body much thicker than 

 the posterior portion, the head black or brown, 

 and armed with a stout, short and sharp pair 

 of cutting teeth, or jaws; and they are all wood 

 or stalk-borers, and some of them very injuri- 

 ous to fruit trees ; the two most com- 

 mon instances in this locality being the ai)ple 

 and the linden tree borers. Species not in- 

 digenous to this locality are often brought here 

 in pine and other lumber from the interior 

 pine regions of the State. 



Now comes the question of the longevity of 

 this insect. From recorded data to which I 

 have access, we find that Mr. Ileinitsh was an 

 agent for the sale of Grover & Baker sewing 

 machi nes as early as 1S61, or about sixteen years 

 ago, at which time, or prior to it. Mr. Best 

 purchased this machine. It is not known how 

 long it was in possession of the manufacturer 

 before it came into the possession of his agent, 

 nor how long he had the lumber before it was 

 manufactured into a cabinet for the machine, 

 nor yet how long it may have been in the 

 lumber yard before it came into the manu- 

 facturer's possession. Nor is it probable, if 

 possible, tliat the eggs were deposited in the 

 box after it was manufactured ; therefore, 



oviposition must have taken place previously. 

 If we understood Mr. B. rightly, the ticking 

 noise was heard aljont the machine within the 

 last year. We must therefore conclude that 

 tlie longevity of this insect — as hirva, pupa and 

 inuKjo — was normally or abnormally prolonged 

 to at least sixteen years, unless we conclude 

 that the females deposited eggs within their 

 burrows, and several generations succeeded 

 each other therein, a contingency of which we 

 have no certain precedent among LonyirMrnia. 

 We might, perhaps, have felt compelled to 

 adopt tills latter conclusion, had we not been 

 cognizant of a similar instance in this city, in 

 which a single specimen of* Monoliamus 

 titillatorhiid i.ssued from the foot of a sofa seven 

 years after it came into the possession of the 

 owner, and the presence of the leirva of whicli 

 had been recognized for several years by the 

 small heaps of debris found near that foot 

 every lime the furniture was removed in 

 house-cleaning. We do not think that we are 

 to unqualifiedly infer from this circumstance 

 that tlie normal longevity of Ilylotrupes is six- 

 teen years, for there may have been retarding 

 conditions aflectimr its development, situated 

 as it was, that would not have existed out in 

 the open air, or under more favorable circum- 

 stances. It exhibits, however, a wonderful 

 adaptation of means to ends in the economy 

 of insect life and jihysical development ; and 

 is an illustration, in part, of that functional 

 suspension which often occurs in the insect 

 world, when the surrounding circumstances 

 are unfavorable to their progressive develop- 

 ment, and yet not of suyh a nature as to de- 

 stroy their vitality. lu.stances of this kind 

 arc numerous, but it is not necessary to men- 

 tion them here. 



In conclusion, we may be permitted to say 

 that no significance whatever is to be attached 

 to the presence of the trite " death-watch" 

 beetles [Annbioe) other than what may be at- 

 tached to any other wood-boring beetle, except 

 that their pre.sence in great numbers is ex- 

 ceedingly hurtful to the timbers in which they 

 are locited. All the ominous premonitions 

 implied in their ticking noise is to the effect 

 that your premises are injuriously infested by 

 their larvce, if not the mature insects, and that 

 some measures should be adopted in order to 

 efiect their extinction. We have a distinct 

 recollection of having frequently heard the 

 ticking of the death-watch in our boyhood (we 

 wish we could hear it now), and although we 

 were admonished that it was an "ill omen," 

 and presaged a calamity of some kind — death 

 in the family for instance— yet we never knew 

 such contingency to follow, as an effect of 

 which it was a premonitor. We presume any 

 wood-boring insect might produce a similar 

 noise ; at least, it seems that the insect alluded 

 to in the foregoing sketch produced such a 

 demonstration. — R. 



PENNSYLVANIA FRUIT GROWERS SO- 

 CIETY. 



This old and first-class association — which 

 by the way was formed in this city about 

 seventeen years ago— will hold its an- 

 nual session in Lancaster on the third 

 Wednesday (17th) of January, 1877, and 

 we hope our people will give it a cordial 

 welcome. Whenever and wherever this so- 

 ciety has met, it has always elicited the in- 

 terest and the most profound respect of the 

 public. It is composed of the most solid and 

 eminent men in the State among those who 

 have devoted their energies and their minds 

 to the subject of fruit-growing ; an occupation 

 alike honorable, useful, healthful and elevat- 

 ing. Lancaster county has some intelligent, 

 enterprising and energetic fruit-growers, but 

 it lacks that vigorous organic efibrt, through 

 which alone she could ever expect to occupy 

 that fore-ground of which .she is so clearly 

 callable. She al.so lacks that unflinching per- 

 severance so necessary in achieving success in 

 any calling. AVe have not yet seen a pro- 

 gramme of their proceedings for the approach- 

 ing meeting, but if it only makes an ordinary 



'Also k Lonn'connia, belonging to the family Sap^bdids, 



