34 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[ March, 



that no amount of apathy, indifference or ridi- 

 cule can divest it of its importance in the 

 sphere of domestic and rural economy. It is 

 the province of many people to "pooh-pooh'' 

 the subject as one beneath their special con- 

 sideration. Few people are in the habit of 

 viewing things in their aggregates, and hence 

 they never form an adequate conception of 

 the gains or the losses which may accrue to 

 society through the presence or the absence of 

 insects. The following essay by Prof. Aughey, 

 of the State University of Nebraska, first pub- 

 lished by the State Journal, and afterwards in 

 the Nebraska Farmer (from the latter of which 

 we copy it), is so much to the point on this 

 subject, and so experimentally practical in its 

 details, that we give it entire— especially as it 

 also involves the question of birds and bird- 

 destroying agencies, in their remedial relations 

 to the insect world — and we ask for it a care- 

 ful perusal by our readers : 



Our Danger and Our Remedy from Insects. 

 I wish to add some facts and suggestions to 

 what the press has been saying on the subject 

 of our danger from insects, and the remedy. 

 There can be no question about the increase 

 of our insect enemies. Even the chinch bug 

 has been increasing on the whole during the 

 last ten years. I saw more butterflies of the 

 army worm during the last summer than ever 

 before in our history. It only requires a 

 favorable season and conditions for this insect 

 to become a formidable foe to our agriculture. 

 Tree-borers are also alarmingly on the increase. 

 I noticed them in large numbers in ihe groves 

 during the last season where they were never 

 seen before. Many more instances of the 

 same kind could be given. Tlie vast numbers 

 of grasshoppers that occasionally sweep down 

 on our jilains are too familiar to need discus- 

 sion. It should be recollected, also, that the 

 amount of damages done in a year throughout 

 the United States by insects is not less than 

 four hundred miUions of dollars. IlUnois 

 aUme has suffered to the amount of seventy- 

 three millions in a single year. The poverty 

 and retardation of settlement in Nebraska, 

 produced by grasshoppers, is familiar to all. 

 In fact, these insect plagues bear heavily on 

 every one. 



We do not need to go far to ascertain the 

 cause of this general increase of insects. The 

 balance of nature has been interrupted in Ne- 

 braska. Insects arc increasing with the de- 

 crease of our insectivorous^birds. This de- 

 crease of birds is iraced directly to the agency 

 of man. As a few persons deny the agency of 

 birds in keeping down insects, I will give a 

 few examples from my note book. In May 

 and June, 1875, I examined the stomachs of a 

 great many prairie chickens, which I had shot 

 for that purpose, to ascertain definitely the 

 nature of their food. No. 1 had 58 grass- 

 hoppers and 13 other insects in its stomach. 

 No. 2 had til grasshoppers and 16 other insects 

 and worms. No. 3 had 75 grasshoppers and 

 9 other insects. Besides these insects, there- 

 was a large mass of the same kind of 

 materials that was too much macerated 

 to be counted. The stomachs of quails 

 contained 40 to 50 grasshoppers and other 

 insects, besides a large m:iss that could 

 not be distinguished. In previous years, when 

 the migrating grasshoppers were not in the 

 State, the contents ot the stomachs of these 

 birds were still largely made up of various 

 kinds of insects. 



No families of birds are so little appreciated 

 for their insectivorous qualities as plovers and 

 snipe. They are represented in Nebraska by 

 at least sixteen species. The number of in- 

 sects which they destroy is enormous. I liave 

 found tbirly to thirty-five insects and worms 

 in the stomachs of one small species {^gialUis 

 semipahnatt(s). Many of these plovers and 

 snipe spend tbe cold months in the Gulf 

 States, and come north in the spring to hatch. 

 Formerly they were exceedingly abundant in 

 the State, but they are now becoming reduced 

 very fast by murderous hunters. 



Our thrushes, blue birds, wrens, swallows, 

 etc., all feed almost entirely on insects. The 

 blackbirds and orioles, that are charged with 



confiscating so many grains, will be found on 

 examination to make insects at least nine- 

 tenlhs of their food. 



Now, suppose the insectivorous birds were 

 left to increase until there were 1,000 lo a 

 square mile ; each bird, at a low calculation, 

 vv-ould require 100 insects for food each day ; 

 this would destroy 100,000 insects per day on 

 each square mile, and in a month 3,000,000, 

 and in five months, 15,000,000. But insectiv- 

 orous birds really consume nearer 200 than 100 

 insects each day, and at this rate 500 such 

 birds to a square mile would accomplish the 

 same result. If birds are increased to the 

 number proposed, there will be insects enough 

 to furnish them food for many years. When 

 once the insects are properly reduced in num- 

 bers, the birds will of their own accord, if left 

 alone, betake themselves to other regions. If 

 they must be killed by carnivorous man, let 

 the point of over-supply be first reached. But 

 let it be remembered that our forests and 

 cultivated trees in Nebra.ska alone are preyed 

 on by about 140 siiecies of inserts. Apple, 

 pear and plum trees have about ILIO species of 

 insect enemies. Fifty species of insects inter- 

 fere with grape culture. There are at least 

 35 insect eiiemies of our gardens. Most spe- 

 cies of insec's have a marvelous fecundity : 

 one pair of grain weevils will produce 6,0li0 

 young between Apiil and August. Accord- 

 ing to Reaumer, one aphide, or plant-louse 

 (these aphide are found on almost all kinds of 

 plants), may become the progenitor in a single 

 season of six thousand millions. The female 

 Wiisp produces in one season 30,000 (Packard.) 

 The white ant deposits eggs at the average 

 rate of sixty to a minute. Our ovi'n wild silk- 

 worm {Attaciis cecropi(t), v/hich feeds so largely 

 on our wild plums, produces from 6C0 to 1,000 

 eggs per season. But I need not multiply 

 these common instances of the enormous in- 

 crease of insects. The entomologist, whose 

 eye is accustomed to look for insects, sees 

 almost every foot ot ground swarm in summer 

 time with insect life. If the naked eye does 

 not perceive them, the microscope brings them 

 to view. No one need, therefore, to fear that 

 such an increase ot insectivorous birds as is 

 proposed would produce a famine among 

 them. The fact is. we must get them or suffer 

 immeasurably more in the near future from 

 insect depredations than we have ever yet done 

 in the i^ast. But what liinders such an in- 

 crease of insectivorous birds as would save us 

 from insect depredations? The hindering 

 cause, as every one knows, is the barbarous 

 custom of killing birds. No agent of destruc- 

 tion is so potent as bird dogs ; they do im- 

 measurably more damage than traps. When 

 trapping was made illegal, hunting birds with 

 dogs should also have been forbidden. The 

 farmer is seldom able to hunt during thebu.sy 

 summer, and when he can go gunning on his 

 own fields the young game has been so reduced 

 in numbers and made so wild by men and dogs 

 that little can be obtained. Better forbid by 

 statute the killing of birds by any method 

 for at least three years, and after that permit 

 it only for a month, by shooting without the 

 aid of dogs. The use of dogs in hunting and 

 traps should be prohibited forever. This 

 would make all equal before the law on this 

 subject, and work unspeakable good to the 

 State. Surely,sporting men will, for the sake 

 of the public good, be willing to abandon their 

 favorite amusement. 



The objection is sometimes made that a 

 large increase of prairie chickens and quails 

 would endanger the crops of the farmers. I 

 believe that this is a mistaken view. In ex- 

 amining the stomachs of these birds that 

 were killed on wheat stubble after harvest, I 

 almost invariably found more insects than 

 grains of wheat. Tbe only exception to this 

 experience was the occasional finding of an 

 almost exclusive meal made on prairie grass 

 seeds and berries. But surely the few seeds 

 and grains that they confiscate wjll not be 

 grudged to them, in view of the many insect 

 enemies which they destroy. 



[This also bears heavily upon the "Quail 

 question" of Ohio and Indiana, and equally 



upon the "Partridge question" of Pennsyl- 

 vania, and their grauiverous propensities. 

 Our wheat harvests occur in July, and before 

 the wheat is ripe, we believe no complaints 

 against partridges as destroyers of that crop 

 have been made. Nor yet are they seriously 

 charued as destroyers of the corn. They are 

 not climbing birds, and therefore whatever 

 grain food they appropriate must be that 

 which has been left by the gleaner, and is 

 lying on the ground. These birds pass the 

 whole year with us, and between one wheat 

 or corn harvest and another, nearly a whole 

 year elapses, and during that period the 

 partridges must eat something, and until winter 

 sets in, that something is largely composed of 

 insects ; and their habits bring them nearer 

 to certain species of these, than climbing or 

 perching birds. 



^ 



"VARMINTS." 



A rather curious "varmint" was killed on 

 the farm of J. B. Boyce, in New Madrid 

 county, several days ago. It is a snake, some 

 thirty-two inches long and four inches in cir- 

 cumference, of a dark color and smooth skin. 

 It has four very small feet, two iu front about 

 three inches from its nose, and two about eight 

 inches from the tip of its tail. In its upper 

 jaw are four rows of teeth. 



Whenever an animal is found, out of the 

 ordinary occurrence, and people in general 

 have "never seen the like before," and there- 

 fore do not know what it is, they forthwith 

 call it a "va7-»/(Mit,-" a "thingumbob;" a 

 "Gosh curious thing ;" a "queer animal," or 

 something of that 'kind, according to the pe- 

 culiar phraseology ot the special locality ; and, 

 without some casual remark in its description, 

 the reader can scarcely tell what animal it was 

 between a mouse and an elephant. But, in 

 the above description the writer says, un- 

 quahfiedly, "It is a snake." If then his cap- 

 tion had been "a queer snake," or a "queer 

 reptile," he would atonce have so far classified 

 the animal, as to have assisted in determining 

 what it was. Varmint, is a "Davy Crocket- 

 ism," a general term which that distinguished 

 backwoodsman applied to a variety of animals, 

 including bears, wolves, "coons," panthers, 

 badgers, "catamounts," &c., whatever the 

 last named may be. The term "varmint," is 

 not defined in any of the dictionaries, and 

 probably is derived from "vermin," a term 

 which ill itself is very uudeterrainate, and is 

 applied to many animals that are noxious in 

 their character, from a minute insect, up to 

 an alligator, not excluding mammals and 

 fishes ; it is, however, generally applied as a 

 plural [rermine,] and generally means charac- 

 ter rather than kinds— numbers, rather than 

 single individuals- as rats, mice, cockroaches, 

 lice and maggots. 



This animal seems to have been killed on 

 the farm of a Mr. Boyce, in New Madrid 

 county, and although the state is not men- 

 tioned, we presume it means the south-east 

 corner of the State of Missouri, but it is not 

 said, whether it was killed on land or in water. 

 But no matter about that; the smooth skin 

 removes it from the snakes, (Ophidians,) and 

 also from the lizards, (Sauri.^ns) and locates 

 it among the irogs and newts, (Batra- 

 CHIANS, j in close proximity to the Proteans. 

 Of course, from a brief newspaper description, 

 it would be almost impossible to name an 

 animal specifically, unless we had previously 

 seen a similar animal ourselves ; but, from the 

 size, texture, and structure of this reptile, we 

 may inferentially set it down as.a specimen of 

 Amphiuma tridactyhan, of which there are 

 two species known to inhabit the stagnant 

 pools "and ditches of Louisiana, Florida, 

 Georgia and South Carolina; and that it should 

 have been found as far north-west as New 

 Madrid, is not more remarkable than that its 

 congener, Menopoma allcghaniensis, (Hell Ben- 

 der) which sixty years ago was not known to 

 exist east of the Allegheny mountains, should 

 have been found in the waters of Lancaster 

 county in 1870. 



It is said that the species we have mention- 

 ed sometimes attains to three feet in length, 



