114 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



August, 



greatei' Icngtli than any reader at this peculiar 

 sensational ptniod would care to read, and 

 which, we fear, has already exceeded the limit 

 of a daily ])ai)er. 



What shall we do then? Shall we throw 

 down our arms, and let the insects riot in and 

 on the productions of our labor; or, shall we 

 buckle on our armor, and "at the head of our 

 remaining troops attack the foe?" I would 

 reply, by no means succumb, but "whatsoever 

 your hands tind for you to do, do it with your 

 might;" for "neither repentance nor forgive- 

 ness" will avail anything iu the grave dug by 

 insect devastation. 



You may have often seen the picture of an 

 "old fogy" coming down stairs iu great 

 alarm, with a lighted candle in his hand, 

 and the pendant tassel of his uight-cap ignit- 

 ed by his own candle, protesting that there 

 must be a lire in the house, as he smells 

 something burning. There are insect infesta- 

 tions as oltvious as this, and as easily extin- 

 guished, which people never apprehend, be- 

 cause they will not condescend to make the 

 observation. In destroying one gravid female 

 potato beetle early in the spring you destroy 

 the developmental possibility of twelve hun- 

 dred, and so on of an almost infinite variety 

 of otjier insect pests. Birds and other insect- 

 iverous ani\nals perform an immense amount 

 of labor of this kind, but because they do not 

 do (dl of it, and also appropriate a little fruit 

 occasionally, they are voted as humbugs. — R. 



A MUDDLED "TOBACCO LEAF." 



The Horn-Worm — Facts Concerning it which 

 Every Tobacco-Grower Ought to Know. 



"Deatu AND Destruction : Awail comes 

 uii from the tobacco-fields in tlie Clarksville 

 and Ilopkinsville, Tennessee, districts. It is 

 the despairing cry of the horn-worm, as the 

 news is imparted to him that war is declared 

 and proclamation hath been made. All the 

 forces are under arms, but upon the infantry 

 will be the task of bearing the brunt of the 

 battle. Into the fields pour the soldiery 

 (male and female Grangers of all ages) ready 

 for the fray. The junior cohorts are armed 

 with the paddle — whose potency they may 

 have learned liy parental application — and 

 the seniors with a seductive compound of 

 honey and cobalt. There is no hope for the 

 horn-worm or his progeny. Let him turn as 

 he may, death meets him on all sides. Let 

 him climb the Jamestown weed, and within 

 its Ijlossorns he finds a delicious morsel of 

 honey; tnit alas ! imder its sweetness is the 

 sting of destrviction. Perhaps he has escaped 

 the dangers of the chrysalis state and has as- 

 sumed his wings, and then comes the danger 

 of meeting the noisy boy or sunburnt maiden 

 — his direst foes — ;irmed with the paddle, and 

 his chances are small indeed. Verily, the 

 horn-worm's existence is in great peril. 



"Tiie cause 'of the conflict is the announce- 

 ment that our valued correspondents, Messrs. 

 M. II. Clark & Brother, of tUarksville, Tenn., 

 have announced that they will give to the 

 Grange, who, through its members and others, 

 causes to be killed the largest number of to- 

 Tiacco dies this .season, two hundred and fifty 

 dollars ($250.) To the Grange who, as above, 

 causes to be killed the next largest number of 

 tobacco files, one hundred and fifty dollars 

 ($150). To the third Grange on the list seven- 

 ty-five dollars ($75). To the fourth Grange 

 twenty-five dollars ($25.) Over and above 

 these piemiums the planter (Granger or not) 

 who shall kill or cause to be killed the largest 

 number of tobacco files, shall ride in a fine 

 saddle at their exi)ense, made to his measure. 

 The premiums will be paid the first day of 

 next November, the judge being the Hon! M. 

 D. Uavies, Master State Grange of Kentucky. 

 These gentlemen arc to be commended for 

 their public sjiiritedness, and we hope their 

 example will lie followed by other memljers 

 of the trade in other parts cit the country. 



"Messrs. Clark & Brother oiler another 

 premium— a handsome silver cup, to be given 

 to the editor of the newspaper that shall in- 

 sert their notice the greatest number of times. 



Do these gentlemen cater to any little peculi- 

 arity of taste that our brothers in their section 

 may have ? We admire their judgment in 

 selecting for the delectation of the fortunate 

 scribe that masterjiiece of Virginian art, the 

 mint-julep. But we shall advise the editor 

 to beware of the fate of the Georgia innkeep- 

 er, whom a Virginian, while traveling, taught 

 the science of compounding mint-juleps. A 

 few years after the traveler stopped at the 

 same inn, but fouiul the sou of its former pro- 

 l)rietor installed in his place, and on inquiring 

 what had become of the old man, received the 

 reply that 'a feller from Virginny had come 

 along and taught the old man how to take 

 grass in his licki'r, and the durned old fool 

 never let uj) until he drank hisself to death.' " 

 We cliii the foregoing from the editorial 

 columns of the 4th of July number of the 

 Tobucro Leaf, not only as a suggestion to our 

 tol)acco growers as to the course they might 

 profitably pursue in order to destroy the 

 "horn-worm," but also to show how exceed- 

 ingly muddled the writer is in regard to the 

 history, the kabits, and the transformations 

 of that same horn-worm, about which he so 

 wittily discourses. Who ever heard tell of 

 (we feel sure no one ever saw it,) a horn-worm 

 (tobacco-worm) climbing up a Jamestown 

 weed, and finding within its blossoms that 

 delicious morsel, under whose sweetness is 

 the sting of destruction; that "seductive com- 

 pound of honey and cobalt?" That seduc- 

 tive compoimd was never intended to trap the 

 horn-worm, buttheparent of it. If the trum- 

 pet flowers of the Jamestown weed are 

 charged with the poison alluded to, tliere is lit- 

 tle use in resorting to the paddles in the hands 

 of "noisy l)oys and sunbiu'nt maidens;" the 

 poison itself will be an effectual extinguisher, 

 without expending so much physical labor. 

 It is only in the "fly" or moth-form, that this 

 insect coidd or would extract the poisoned 

 honey; and for the purpose of probing the 

 flowers to the bottom it is provided with a 

 long tube, winch it can roll up like the main 

 spring of a watch and conceal between its 

 maxilla', a pair of appendages on the lower 

 side of its head, in front. The fact that these 

 large moths (commonly called "hawk-moths") 

 are partial to the honey in the flowers of the 

 Jamestown weed, first suggested the idea of 

 poisoning it, and thus destroying the m(3th. 

 For noisy boj's and sunburnt maidens to be 

 standing around these plants with paddles 

 in their hands, after the flowers had been 

 charged with poison, would only have a ten- 

 dency to prevent them from sipping the poi- 

 son. The paddle plan is no doubt a good one, 

 but it would be a waste of time and labor to 

 do that which if left alone would do itself 

 without a peradventure. 



'•'There is no hope for the horn-worm or his 

 progeny." Although this is very desirable to 

 the growers of tobacco, it involves a misaj)- 

 prehension. The horn-worm is not capable 

 of begetting a progeny while it is worm. That 

 procreative function is oidy acquired after it 

 becomes a fly, or moth, which is its adult 

 state. People seeing different sized worms on 

 the plants at the same time imagine them to 

 be old and young, or parent and offspring, 

 and although the larger ones may be older 

 than the smaller ones, they are all mere 

 youths — the oflspring of the same mother, 

 perhaps — in their various stages of worm or 

 larval development. Now these things are, 

 or ought to be, well known to any practical 

 tobacco-grower, and therefore such reflections 

 as those in the foregoing article nnist be 

 valueless to tliem, except its a witticism or an 

 amusement. The tobacco-worm, or horn- 

 worm (although seldom used in books, we 

 consider horn-worm not inapjiropriate, be- 

 cause it has a conspicuous horn projecting 

 from the top of the hind end of the body) is 

 not noted for feeding on the honey, the flowers 

 or the leaves of the Jamestown weed (Datura 

 stramoniuw,) if ever it has been seen so occu- 

 pied at all. While it is a worm it is provided 

 with jaws, and is a masticating animal ; ^.nd 

 although it may occasionally be found feeding 

 on the potato and tomato when no tobacco is 



near, we have never known it to feed on the 

 Jamestown weed. But when it makes its 

 final metamorjjhosis, and assumes the moth 

 form, its tastes undergo the same change that 



all belonging to its order— Lepidoi)tera do. 



It ceases to be a masticating animal, and be- 

 comes suctorial, and then it would naturally 

 resort to some honey-bearing plant. Down iu 

 Tennessee the predominating species, it not 

 the oidy species that infests the toV)acco, is the 

 fJarolina horn-worm {Sphinx Carolina), but 

 up in the North the predominating species, if 

 not tlie only species infesting the tobacco, is 

 the five-spotted horn-worm (Sphinx ^-mam- 

 lata), but here in the Middle States we have 

 both species, the northern and the soutliern 

 territory seeming to overlap each other. 



Before we conclude, we would suggest to 

 tobacco-growers that if they would destroy all 

 these worms that remain in their fields when 

 they take in their crops, they would save a 

 arreat deal of labor the following season. 

 Many of them merely sliake them ofl' the plants 

 and let them lie on the fields to mature them- 

 selves on the young shoots that spring up 

 from the stumps that are left standing, and go 

 into the ground, and are thus canied over to 

 the next season. We hiwjw this to have been 

 largely the case in Lancaster county, and we 

 presume it is also the case elsewhere. The 

 fields are never so clean but what they will 

 find enough to feed upon until the young 

 shoots grow up. This is suicidal and ought 

 to be abated at once. 



THE ICHNEUMON FLY. 



We find the following, says the Clarksville 

 Tobacco Leaf, in the question and answer 

 column of the Courier-Journal : 



MoNTEUEr, Owen Co., Kv., May 21,1877.— I saw 

 an article in tlie Weekly Covrlrr-./otiritnl November 

 1.5tli, 1.S76, conecrning the Ichneumon fly and tobacco 

 worm. Please give name anrl address of the parly 

 writinij; upon the subject in answers to correspondents 

 in Weekly Conrier-Joif.nial. A Subscriiier. 



Note by Editor. — The writer of the article will 

 please respond, as we possess no information at this 

 late date, except what has been printed in the i,ss\ie 

 referred to. We reqm're name and aiUlress of our 

 eol-respondents, but we do not preserve them unless 

 on special occasions. 



The article referred tif first appeared in this paper 

 and was written by Mr. Joshua M. Kice, of Clarks- 

 ville, Tennessee. Mr. Rice has experimented a great 

 deal with the ichneumon fly, and tinds that llicy are 

 a certain destroyer of the tobacco worm. Farmers 

 should know this and preserve every worm found 

 with the eggs of the ichneumon fly on it. 



Mr. Wm. M. Di'ane and several other farmers 

 have otjserved Mr. Rice's experiment and found 

 great benefit from the few flies raised by preserving 

 the worms. The flies are very numerous on Mr. 

 Rice's ]ilace from a few years cultivation, and last 

 season they destroyed the eggs of the tobacco fly he- 

 fore hatching. At least late iu the season Mr. Rice 

 noticed a great many tobacco flies depositing their 

 eggs and could not find a single worm from the re- 

 sult, and he is confident that the ichneumon fly de- 

 stroyed them. The tobacco worm is entirely harm- 

 less after attacked by the fly^ It lies perfectly dor- 

 mant, never moving or eating, and dies after the 

 flies are hatched from the pretty little white eggs de- 

 posited on its back and sides. A number of farmers 

 might stock their farms with the ichneumon fly by 

 cultivating a few plants of tobacco in Mr. Rice's gar- 

 den and bringing in w'orms to receive the Gggs, and 

 carrying thera back to the farm before hatching. 



Wo are glad to see that tobacco growers are 

 beginning to attach some importance to econ- 

 omic entomology, although it makes us .smile 

 when "The Ichneinnon fly" is referred to by 

 those who attempt to enlighten them on the sub- 

 ject; especially since there are certainly not 

 less than fifty distinct species that belong to 

 the genus Ichneumon — as at present restricted 

 — all of which are parasites, ami the one that 

 infests the tobacco worm don't hapiien to be- 

 long to it. At least one of the species of the 

 ])arasites that infest the tobacco-worm is 

 Microgasler ronyreyata, but that which infests 

 the eggs of the tobacco moth, is doubtless a 

 species of Clutlci.^. 



Although for .all practical purposes the re- 

 siflts given in the above extract are correct 

 enough, yet in point of fact, the writer is en- 

 tirely mistaken when he says "the flies are 

 hatched from the pretty little white egys de- 



