1877.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



53 



aiifl liaviiift now obtained tlu! a^i! of sixtii-five, 

 with syniiiatlicticiiroclivitics town ids faiining 

 inton-sls, wc do not dwni it at all |)risuiiip- 

 tuoiis in us to asl< tlie I'arinfi-s ot I>ancast('i- 

 county to su.stain a local journal amongst 

 tliein. Taking a birds-cyp, view of I.ancastei- 

 county, fioni almost any t'livalion in it, the 

 beiioldcr is struck with llic idea nf untold 

 wealth that must still lie undiVfloi"d in her 

 soil, and in the bowels of the earth beneath 

 it. Whatever wc may be able to do towards 

 the develo]iment of that weallh, and to ex- 

 pand and elevate the minds of tlmse who arc 

 its Ictiititnate custodians, will (iiid a ready vx.- 

 position in the columns of our journal. Ed. 



Our scntimentsareentirely in harmony with 

 our friend S. I'. K., Esii.. who has \Ai\rri\ the 

 following in our hands for insertion in the 

 Fa KM nit. 



Mii/roM Gnovic, Mardi 12, 1S77. 



Mi;. E.— /)f((i- .Sic; WhiU^ looking over 

 the pa^jes of the Lanrastcr liKjitircr, I 

 saw the i)roeeedings of llie Lnxi-anter At/rind- 

 tural and IhirticulUoyd Societi/, in which I 

 find the members of that society diller very 

 mucli on tlie (juestion of lime as a fertilizer. 

 1 tiKiUiiht I ouf^ht to write yon, notmy r.rjKri- 

 tncr, but my olisirvatiniis from my childhood 

 up to the jii-esent day, on my father's farm. I 

 stiall begin with what the farm had previously 

 been. Sly father bought the I'arni alioiit forty- 

 eight years ago, and the lanil was very poor. 

 He coiunienced burning lime, not only for his 

 own use. but also for saU'; and coutinueU ap- 

 plying some of it to our farm until within 

 about twelve or lifteen years ago. Since that 

 time no lime has been applied to the farm. 

 I can very well recollect that about thirty-six 

 years ago we had a lield of 19 acres, which, 

 for three years in succession only yelded frr 

 loads of hay in iu a season. Now it will yield 

 thill;/ loads, or more, iu a season, and ibis is 

 the result of the aijplication of lime. 1 also 

 recollect, that about the same period we had 

 a Held of rye, which we only cut in some of 

 the best iilaces, because it would not pay to 

 go over the whole lield, bnt for the last twenty 

 years we did not sow rye in it, because it 

 grows too ranlv — no grains, bnt an abundance 

 of rank half rotten straw, so that it don't i)ay 

 in rye. In applying lime we generally put it 

 on the sod in the latter part of summer, or in 

 autumn, and plowed it down for corn. We 

 hardly ever put any lime on for wheat now, 

 only occasionally for experimenting, but it 

 does not jiay. In putting on lime, in order 

 to realize tlie speediest and largest return of 

 profit, put your lime on gi'ass or sod, at least 

 one year before planting in corn. On hilly 

 land, the rain will not draw as much lime 

 from the gra.ss or sod as it will from a txire or 

 plpwed lield. In imtting lime on grass, in 

 either winter or spring, or at any time, it will 

 pay the lime in grass the first year, and yon 

 will have a stronger sod to plow under for 

 corn, and it will also plow so nnich the easier. 

 Wc apply lime to the same field every six 

 years, about one hundred bushels to an acre. 

 Yours very truly. — A. II. G. 



We commend the above to the attention of 

 the members of oiu- local Society ; because, it 

 seems to be the practical result of many long 

 years of experience and local observatioTi. 

 As Tun Lancaster Fakmeii now imlili.shes 

 the full proceedings of the AfiriruHund mul 

 HortkuUural Socicti/ ; the Tnhac.ro Groirers' 

 Socvtij ; the Bee-Kteptrs'' Society; the MilUrs^ 

 Socktij and the Limxran Society, and also the 

 Essays read before those societies ; it is a per- 

 fect vade mecmn to the progressive cultivators 

 of the soil in our county, and ought to be in 

 their hands, and read by then\. It has many 

 advantages over large unwieldly folios, in this, 

 that it is printed on better jiaper and iu clearer 

 type ; is more compact and easier referred to ; 

 is not so li.able to be destroyed, and is annual- 

 ly accomiianied by a copious alphabetical in- 

 dex. At the end of the year it can be divested 

 of its transient advertising pages without in- 

 terrupting its numerical order, and then lie 

 bound into an interesting volume, for futu.e 

 reference. ($1 a year postage paid.) 



We ho)ie soon to .see A. II. G's name among 

 the list of our subscribers, and to occasionally 

 receive from him such practical contributions 

 as tlie above. 



Gei!mant()\v,\ NuitsEitiKs, March 21, lf<77. 



I'l.'oi'EssoH liATiiVdN.- - 7>fi)- Sir: (Jan 

 you tell me the name of tlie enclo.sed (ly i* I 

 am anxious to know, in connectl(»ii with my 

 studies in relation to insect fertilizatinn of 

 llowers. It makes a pretty little oval outline 

 whenat rest, or, pcu'liajis, 1 may say spathulate 

 —the head giving it the narrowest end of the 

 oval. Tli(;re were two other species in IIk; 

 woods with it ; all iu large numbers, which I 

 could not catch — one with antinmr, the Jiair 

 being as long as (he body, (lerhaps not a I)ll'- 

 Tsnors insect. It was too active to catch, and 

 )ierhai)S one-half smaller th;in the one 1 send. 

 The other a yellowish bronze lly, similar to 

 tlie one which always seems to come, as if by 

 instinct, to fri'sh/ccii deposits, but apparent- 

 ly narrow. I am particularly interested in 

 these dies, because the theinionuter has been 

 very much below Uw. freezing point, up to 

 vvitiiin four hours of the time tiiese dies were 

 so nuinerons, wlu^n it was 45 '. Very truly 

 yours, T. M. 



AVe regret to state that wc are unable to 

 give our correspondent the information he de- 

 sires ; /irst, because the specimen he sent us 

 was so biully crushed in impaling a small sub- 

 ject on a larger jiiii (like impaling amoiisc- on a 

 (u-owbar) that we could not get a good idea of 

 its form; and .svcomZ, because we i)arted with 

 our collection of Diptercv before tiie Kebid- 

 lion, and have not had time or opportunity 

 since then to make another ; moreover, our 

 literature in local species of Dipterous insects 

 has always been exceedingly scant. W(!, 

 however, do not think this species would as- 

 sist him much in the study of the " fertili/a- 

 tion of tlowers " by insects. The mouth and 

 feeding organs seems to be "ob.solele," but 

 w(! lost the head before we had completed our 

 observations. The wings were hyaline and 

 beautifully iridescent. It is not unusual for 

 dies to evolve in winter, even when there is 

 snow on the ground. The larva is probably 

 stereoraceous in its lial)ils, and pupates in the 

 ground. Send a specimen to Osten Sacken, 

 Russian Legation, N. Y., or to Prof. Kiley. 



Pieris Rapae. 



A friend has called my attention to a copy 

 of a Michigan newspaper, in which is a eom- 

 muuication from -'Prof. A. J. C'o(di, of the 

 Agricultural College.'" The conununication 

 is headed "Imported Cabbage Bulterlly, I'icn.i 

 I{up((C,'''' &c. 



The writer says that in 1875 he had slated 

 that this latest arrival from England was fast 

 nearing their own beloved State, Michigan. 

 He now reports that it is sorely vexing the 

 gardens along the eastern and soutli eastern 

 conlines. 



This foe, he adds, lias few if any equals. One 

 of the many princii)les, he continues, estab- 

 lished by the adherence to the doctrine of 

 natural selection, is the fact that plants and an- 

 imals when introduced into anew country, find 

 the "struggle for life" less severe, and as the 

 fittest survive, usually thrive, even at the ex- 

 pense, and freiiucnlly to the utter extermina- 

 tion of the natives. "This fact, so amply sus- 

 tained by our experience with the Hessian (ly, 

 wheat midge, codling moth, currant saw-(ly, 

 etc., is no pleasing one in view of our 

 subject. I can only answer in the lan- 

 guage of one Patrick Henry, "ice iiiiu<t 

 fight,''^ nor can we hope to vanquish our 

 foe, even in eight years. This imported 

 species, when scarcely half a dozen years on 

 tins side the ocean, was .said to destroy an- 

 nually, about the single city of Quebec, $240,- 

 000 worth of cabbages. 



It was first observed and taken by a. Cana- 

 dian entomologist, in 185'.), at Quebec. From 

 this it has spread rapidly to the West, and 

 more rapidly to the south. 



The remedies .suggested are the catching of 

 butterflies— which are lazy— in a net ; children 



should always liave these. He says they will 

 do the work cheaply and greatly enjoy it. 



As the insect propagates, or goes into the 

 chrysalis form, under some projection of 

 building, fence or tree, keep the garden free 

 from ridibish, and place? boards horizontally 

 about three or four inches from the ground, 

 between the cabbage rows, and the insects 

 suspended beneath may Ik- collected. He 

 also says " Paris (ireen and AVliite Hellebone 

 will kiil the caterpillar, but they will also kill 

 any oni? who eats the cabl)age ; esiiecially as 

 th(? Paris Green cannot be washed off .so as to 

 remove the danger." In re|)ly to this, I may 

 refer to my experiments of last year with 

 Paris (Jreen, as reported to yon, fellow-mem- 

 liers of the Liimaan Society. If ajjplied early 

 it will nip the insects iu the biiil, and lie 

 washed off by the rains before the cabbage 

 matures ; at least it injured no one in our 

 family, although it was aiiplied a number of 

 times. Still, I recoinmeiid caution. — I'liebe 

 I'J. Gibbons, March 2:i. 1877. 



Lanca.stkr, March 14th, 1877. 



Professou MKTUSOS. — Diur Sir: 1 en- 

 close a copy of a letter of Henry Clay, the 

 original of which is in my possi-ssion. It has 

 occurred to ine that you miglit be plea.sed to 

 publish it in TliE FAit.MEit, as illustrative of 

 the great interest which the great statesman 

 continued to take in his farm and cattle while 

 engaged in important affairs of the State. It 

 is also somewhat curious that Mr. (-'lay .should 

 write from Wasliingtoii to his son in Ken- 

 lucky without saying anything about his own 

 health, or making inquiries aliout that of his 

 family. Yours truly, ./. If. D. 



Unpublished Letter of Henry Clay. 



Wasiiinotox, Jan. 2, 183(5. 



'^jifi/lMu- Thonins: I received your letter of 

 Ihe 2otli ultimo. You may say to Mr. Head- 

 ley that I have no wish to rent the house at 

 Mansfield. I could get no price for it that 

 would compensate me for the iiiconvenience 

 of having tenants there. 



"1 have two Durham bulls; one that is gone 

 out is an imported bull, and he is an uncom- 

 monly line animal, showing high blood, and 

 good at all points. His pedigree I have not 

 yet received. His name is Orozimbo. The 

 other, nearly white, named Hector, was got 

 by Malcolm out of Delight, an imported cow 

 purchased iu England by Mr. Wliitaker and 

 selected by the "editor of the Herdsbook. 

 Hector was raised by Col. Powell and pre- 

 seiiled to me. 



"They are both fine bulls.and each would be 

 preferred by different people. Hector having 

 got his feet very tender in traveling from 

 Philadi Iphia to "Shepherdstown, I have de- 

 tained him until February or March, by which 

 time he will, I hope, recover. 



"I wish if, as I lequestAl, you offer to Major 

 Smith one-half of l)on Manuel, you would 

 say to him that the price at which I offer the 

 half must be regarded as confidential between 

 us. I have a prospect, if he declines, of get- 

 ting more for liim. 



"You will tell iMr. Ileadley to let you have 

 one of the stacks ot oats, if he thinks we 

 can spare it. 



"I wish you would inform me how Magnum 

 Uomim is attended to by Aaron. Your affec- 

 tionate father, H. Clay. 



"Mh. Thomas H. Clay." 



Answers to Correspondents. 

 IL M. E.^Mnriettn, Pa. The little green 

 "hoiiiier" which you say you caught on the 

 nth of February' last, is a juvenile specimen 

 u( Tragocejihida'ciridij'aciata, or the "green- 

 faced, goat-headed locust," and is very com- 

 mon in pa.sture lands, from June to Septem- 

 ber, but never to our kiuiwledge, numerous 

 enough to be jiarticularly destructive. This 

 individual is still in that developmental con- 

 dition which corresponds to the larrtrof other 

 orders of insects— beetles and butterflies for 

 instance— and is one of those late broods 

 which are overtiiken by cold weather Ijefore 

 they have had time to complete their full 



