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THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[July. 



ECHOES FROM THE PUBLIC PRESS. 



If we were to treat with entire silence the 

 flattering recognitions of our cotemporaries, 

 we should only exhibit that want of apprecia- 

 tion which savors of sullen indiflerence; and 

 therefore, eschewing the selfish and unchari- 

 table attitude that — 



"I care for nobody, 



And nobody cares for me," 



it yields us a becoming pleasure to illustrate 

 in a public manner the friendly notices that 

 have been taken of us, and to record our 

 acknowledgments of them, not only on our 

 own account, but also on account of the solid 

 class of men in Lancaster county, of whom 

 our journal is the responsible representative. 

 If it is true that "A i)rophet hath honor save 

 in his own country and among his own kin," 

 it is incumbent on us to illustrate how far it 

 may be true, in order that those concerned 

 may render "Honor to whom honor is due," 

 for many only need the opportunity to make 

 the amendment at the proper time. That 

 sterling weekly, the Mount Joy Herald, is 

 pleased to speak thus of us : 



"Lancaster Farmer for June. Here are 16 

 large, closely printed, three-columned pages of choice 

 reading matter, such as is wanted for the farm, gar- 

 den and household, including one illustration. Some 

 numbers are more fully illustrated. No advertise- 

 ments except on the cover sheet, which is exclusive 

 of the 16 pages. No blowing and puffing of itself, 

 offering of long premium lists and other matter in 

 the special interest of the journal itself, is found on 

 the 16 pages of reading matter. The Lancaster 

 Farmer is decidedly the best and cheapest household 

 and agricultural journal of which we have any 

 knowledge. To subscribers in Lancaster county. 

 Pa., 81.00 a year, or 6 copies for $.5.00; single num- 

 bers 10 cents. Prof. S. S. Rathvon, Editor; Linnoeus 

 Rathvon, Publisher, 22 South Queen street, Lancas- 

 ter, Pa. 



Our young and ably conducted local journal. 

 The JSTeiu Era, with that intelligenfdiscrimi- 

 nation which it is so competent to make, has 

 this to say of us : 



The Lancaster Farmer for June has been re- 

 ceived, and we find as the months roll around, our 

 friend, the editor, is abating nothing of the energy 

 and industry that have been so visible since this 

 journal has been under his charge. In addition to 

 the many able original articles, the selections are 

 admirably adapted to the needs of the farmer who 

 desires to keep abreast with everything that pertains 

 to his calling. There are not many good farmers in 

 the county who are not subscribers, and therefore we 

 can't see how the poor ones are to get along without 

 it. Price only §1.00 a year. Address S. S. Rathvon, 

 Lancaster, Pa. 



The Editor of The Journal of Forestry 

 (England) is pleased to say in his June num- 

 ber — in alluding to his American exchanges — 

 "among the numerous newspapers and maga- 

 zines representing almost every department 

 of agriculture and rural economy tliat we have 

 received from various parts of the world, we 

 may mention — the Lancaster Farmer, an ex- 

 cellent farmer's paper; the Albany Cultivator 

 and Country Gentlemen, covering somewhat 

 the same ground as our Field, and full of use- 

 ful intelligence." 



It may be our vanity, or our weakness, but 

 we confess we feel complimented at being 

 placed in such good company by one so disin- 

 terested, and so capable of exercising an in- 

 telligent discrimination. If our American 

 readers would only vouchsafe the necessary 

 support, we would like to show how good a 

 journal we could make of the Farmer. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Jenkintown, Montgomert County, Pa., ) 

 June 2,5th, 1877. | 



Mr. S. S. Rathvon — J/y Bear Sir: Knowing 

 your willingness to contribute of the valuable stock 

 of information you have acquired in the important 

 branch of natural history, to which you have devoted 

 60 much time and careful research, I take the liberty 

 of addressing you some questions in regard to some 

 of the habits of that vexatious pest, the " Color.ado 

 potato beetle." 



In the summer of 187.5, these bugs had become so 

 numerous in this locality as to almost entirely destroy 

 the crop — very few farmers having learned how to 

 destroy them eflectually. In the fall of that year 

 the bugs were so numerous they could be seen every- 

 where by thousands. It was impossible to walk the 

 roads without treading on them at almost every step. 



All winter they could be found everywhere in 

 the soil, and in the following spring they devoured 

 our tomato and egg plants in the hot-beds. So de- 

 structive were the bugs in the spring of 1S76 that 

 few potatoes were planted. Of these, some were de- 

 voured by the bugs, and others were saved by a 

 liberal use of Paris green, and the consequence was 

 that the bugs either starved for scarcity of their 

 natural food or were killed with poison, so that in 

 the fall there was scarcely a bug to be seen, and not 

 one was to be found in the soil last winter — nor did 

 one make its appearance on the plants in hot-beds 

 this spring as they did the spring before — so that 

 farmers were eucouragcii to believe that we would 

 have a year, at least, of comparative exemption from 

 the pest, and, consequently, a large breadth of pota- 

 toes were planted. But, strange to say, as soon as 

 the young potato plants Ijegan to show above ground, 

 the bugs put in an appearance in innumerable num- 

 bers, worse, if anything, than they had been before. 

 Now, what puzzles me is, to know where they came 

 from so suddenly ; certainly there were none or next 

 to none that hibernated here as they did the winter 

 before, and I don't see where they could have come 

 from in such vast numbers, less than one hundred 

 miles distant. Could it be that they have migrated 

 from the potato regions of New York, w^here they 

 were as numerous last fall as they were here the fall 

 before? Are they capable of such long (lights ? Can 

 it be that the very warm days we had in May, 

 brought them out there, and there being no potatoes 

 yet above ground in that locality, they took their 

 flight south ? 



We have now learned pretty well how to manage 

 them. One part Paris green to about one hundred 

 parts land plaster, dusted on the vines, is efi'ectual 

 with the young bugs; but I am afraid the old ones do 

 not eat enough to be killed with the poison, so 

 diluted, and as these still keep about and seem to be 

 all the time depositing more eggs, the dose of poison 

 has to be frequently repeated. This is troublesome 

 and expensive. I would like very much to know 

 if any remedy more efi'ectual or less expensive has 

 been discovered. Do you think lime would do as 

 well as plaster? It would be much cheaper. 



I have noticed this summer a beetle similar in ap- 

 pearance to the potato bug, but smaller and darker 

 colored, and with longer legs, attacking furiously 

 the potato bugs. Sometimes three or four would be 

 on one potato bug, and have him completely sur- 

 rounded and struggling desperately to get away . Do 

 you know what this is ? Please excuse t*is too long 

 letter. 



Yours, with 'great regard, 



E. Satterthwait. 



In regard to the sudden disappearance and 

 reappearance of tite "Colorado Potato- 

 beetle, " people often mistake the semblance 

 for the reality. We have known people to 

 congratulate themselves with having extin- 

 guished these insects by mere hand-picking, 

 when lo, a few weeks thereafter they would 

 reappear in greatly increased numbers. There 

 are in reality two broods of these insects in 

 this latitude in a season, but farther south no 

 doubt there may be three broods. But as 

 each female will deposit from one thousand 

 to twelve hundred eggs, and as these eggs are 

 deposited generallj' on the undersides of the 

 leaves, at different places, and at diflerent 

 periods, within the space of thirty-five to 

 forty-five days, and as the young are excluded 

 from tlie eggs at correspondingly different 

 periods, develop and reach their larval matu- 

 rity, and hence burrow into the ear.th and pu- 

 pate there at different periods, there is the 

 ap^jearance that there are many broods; and 

 hence it also sometimes appears as if all had 

 been destroyed, or had deserted the premises, 

 when in fact they were only enjoying their 

 pupal sleep, either in the loose eartli, under 

 some convenient rubbish, in some old wall, 

 in some old unfrequented out-house, or in 

 some dark cellar. We have seen them enter 

 cellars through the grates, and creep under 

 door steps in the fall, and we have seen thera 

 issue from the same places in the spring, and 

 we also knoic them to have been discovered 

 under heaps of rubbish in the fields, in the 

 months of January, February, and March. 

 They differ in their habits according to their 

 developmental conditions. Tlie matured lar- 

 vfe, as a general thing, will go into the ground 

 to pupate, and if they go in late in the season, 

 they will liibernate tliere until next spring; 

 and it may also occur tliat many of the larva;, 

 on account of sudden autumn coldness, would 

 not have the necessary energy to pupate, in 

 which case they woulil hibernate as laryie and 

 pupate the next spring; and therefore would 

 emerge from the earth as beetles, some days 



or weeks later than others. But this is not 

 necessarily the case with those that are over- 

 taken by the cool autumn, in the beetle form. 

 These wander away from the potato fields in 

 thousands, after there is no more succulent 

 vegetation. If the weather is cool, they will 

 seek a convenient cover to pass their winter 

 hibernation, if warm, they will seek other 

 food than the potato. 



In addition to the potato, the tomato and 

 the eggplant, these insects have been known 

 to feed upon henbane, nightshade, jimson- 

 weed, spinage, thistles, plantain, cabbage, 

 lettuce, lambsquarter, mullein, strawberry, 

 current, and other species of vegetation, as 

 well as the potato tubers, so that the idea of 

 "starving them out" at any time, is a mere 

 hallucination. It is true, on some of these 

 plants they feed but sparingly, and only in 

 cases of dire necessity, but this is sufficient to 

 illustrate that they are capable of adapting 

 themselves to almost any circimistances, in- 

 volving their self-preservation and perpetua- 

 tion. It is also very evident that they are 

 migratory in their habits, but how far they 

 may be able to fly has not yet been ascertained 

 with accuracy. They must have flew across 

 the Mississippi and Missouri rivers years ago. 

 In the summer of lS75 we found them strewn 

 in great lumibers for six or seven miles along 

 the Atlantic beach— from the Lighthhouse to 

 the extreme point of Cape Ilenlopen — and not 

 a potato field within from two to foiu- miles. 

 How far they had flew out into the ocean, be- 

 fore they had dropjied in and were borne Ijack 

 and thrown upon the beach by the waves, it 

 would be difficult to estimate. If in their 

 flight they should come into a current of 

 wind they might, no doubt, be caiTied to a 

 great distance. It is difflcidt to account for 

 their presence on the shore of the Atlantic, 

 far from any potato field on the 20th of July, 

 when most potato vines are still green and 

 succulent, unless by making a temporary 

 change of locality, they were caught in a cur- 

 rent of wind, or were obeying their eastward 

 migi'atory instincts. The best tiling now is 

 to regard them as a "fixed institution" and 

 provide for them as we do for other contin- 

 gencies. 



Paris green is the best and only reliable 

 remedy to destroy the Colorado jiotato beetle 

 — to tliosc who do not care aljout resorting to 

 traps or handpicking — and tlie farmers of 

 Lancaster county mainly rely ui)on it. We 

 will have, according to present prospects, a 

 larger and better, as well as a cheaper, crop of 

 potatoes the present season, in this county 

 than we have had for some years. The beetles 

 apjieared as usual in the spring, but the peo- 

 ple regard them as a matter of. course, and 

 they "dosed" them from the beginning with 

 Paris green. But — homeopathically speak- 

 ing — we consider our corresiwndent's dilution 

 entirely too "high." One part of the poisou 

 to onehimdred parts of the diluting substance, 

 we have no recollection of having before .seeu 

 recorded. Our farmers here u,se one pound of 

 the green to from 20 to 30 pounds of wood- 

 ashes, sieved coal ashes, pulverized gypsum, 

 cornmeal, shipstuff, slaked lime or tloiu'. 

 Some prefer the different kinds of meal on ac- 

 count of their adhesive qualities; and, .so far 

 as the larvje of these insects are concerned, 

 this remedy is entirely effectual, if the green 

 is of a good quality. Upon the bodies of the 

 adult beetle, however, it has little efl'ect. We 

 have known the lieetles to live thirty-six hours 

 corked up in a bottle of Paris green. It does 

 not penetrate their hard integument, nor will 

 they eat it, because being more perfectly en- 

 dowed with the powers of locomotion than the 

 laivre, they can more easily change their 

 positions. But after the female beetles have 

 once deposited all their eggs, they never be- 

 come refertilized — tliat is the end of their al- 

 lotted functions. After the male exhausts 

 his procreating energy, that is also the end of 

 him. Those that hibernate and survive the 

 winter, are either gravid females, or virgin 

 males and females. The spent stock invari- 

 ably die off. 

 In conclusion, we think there is no just 



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