130 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[ September, 



future occasion, should it be desirable and 

 useful. 



In conclusion, we desii-e to say that wc do 

 not think the popular use of cucumbers is the 

 right use. They come into season at a period 

 when it is most dangerous to partake of them 

 as a salad or a pickle, and therefore, as they 

 will be cultivated, they ought to be jn-epared 

 for the table by a culinary process. We have 

 heard of them being stewed and fried, and 

 we believe, by a little art in their preparation, 

 they might become fashionable and popular 

 as the tomato has become. But when we 

 think of the long lapse of time smce their 

 first cultivation by the human family, and the 

 slow development of their healthful use, we 

 are unable to anticipate for them a future 

 differing very materially from the past. 



Tlie genus Cucimiis contains twenty-one 

 distinct and well-defmed species, including 

 the watermelon, cantaloupe, muskmelou and 

 cucumber, and these run out into almost end- 

 less variety. The last named alone ( Cucumis 

 sativus) has many varieties, of which those in 

 the following list are the most prominent : 



1. Early short green prickly 4 inches long. 



2. Early long green prickly, 7 inches long. 



3. Most long green prickly, 9 inches long. 



4. Early green cluster, 6 inches long. 



5. White Dutch prickly, 6 inches long. 



6. Long smooth green turkey, 10 inches long. 



7. Large smooth green Roman, 10 Inches long. 



8. Flanegans, 15 inches long. 



9. Russian, 12 inches long. 



10. White Turkey, 15 inches long. 



11. Nepaul, 17 inches long. 



12. China fluted, 9incheslong. 



13. TheSnake, 12 feet long. 



14. Brownstown hybrid, 15 inches long. 



15. Victory of England, 21 inches long. 



16. Ringleader, 15 inches long. 



17. Pratt's hybrid, 18 inches long. 



18. Sion House, 9 inches long. 



19. Duncan's Victoria, 28 inches long. 



20. Allen's Victory of Suffolk, 24 inches long . 



21. Victory of Bath, 17 inches long. 



22. Prize Fighter, 16 inches long. 



Besides the long early frame, the Manches- 

 ter prize, the early white spine, the extra 

 early Kussian, and a few otliers, of which the 

 lengths are not specially recorded. Some of 

 the species of the genus Cucumis and their va- 

 rieties — for instance the watermelons, the 

 muskmelons and tlie cantaloupes (cantelopes) 

 — are luscious and pleasant summer refresh- 

 ments, and need no preparation to make them 

 edible; but when we look at the size of many 

 of the varieties of sativus, we cannot help 

 thinking they must have been intended for 

 some other purpose than the merely convert- 

 ing of them into condiments. 



THE STING OF INSECTS. 



Their Nature and Treatment— The Best Rem 

 edy of Thirty Years Experience. 



Bad Bees, Bugs or Beetles: A week or two 

 ago. Rev. J. B. Soule was stung or bitten on the 

 hand by an insect. He brushed it away without 

 seeing it, and paid little attention to the matter until 

 the wound began to swell and become very painful. 

 His hand is now iu a terrible condition, and he has 

 been unable to sleep day or night. 



Day before yesterday a little daughter of D.avid 

 Roth, West Marion street, was stung on the right 

 forefinger by wh.it she called a " white humbler." 

 Last evening her hand was more than twice its natu- 

 ral size, ami still swelling, the pain continuing to in- 

 crease. 



We clip the above from the columns of a 

 cotemporary, and our object in doing so is 

 to suggest the remedies we usually have ap- 

 plied, with good results, wlien stung by in- 

 sects. As a preliminary, we may say that 

 the stings of all insects are more or less poison- 

 ous, whether that sting is inflicted by a caudal 

 appendage, as iu bees, wasps and hornets, an 

 anterior proboscis, as in those properly de- 

 nominated "bugs " — squash bugs and bed- 

 bugs, for instance— or by their mastieatoi-y 

 organs (maudi))les or jaws) as in solue beetles, 

 spiders, etc. The best remedy — and almost 

 the only one — we have found m an experience 

 pf thirty years, dm-ing which time we have 

 often been stung or bitten, is the immediate 

 application of volatile ammonia (spirits of 

 hartshorn) either bathing the wound or laying 



on a clean white rag or a piece of paper satu- 

 rated with the liquid. When out in the fields 

 and ammonia was inaccessible, we have found 

 reUef in clay or common earth, mixed with 

 water, or even spittle, to the consistence of 

 of putty. 



On one occasion our left index finger was 

 pierced by the proboscis of a Hemipterous 

 insect, (a true "bug") the pain of which was 

 so intense that wc almost fainted, the per- 

 spiration raised in drops upon the whole upper 

 portion of our body, and we were affected 

 with nausea for half an hour afterwards. We 

 were destitute of both ammonia and alcohol, 

 therefore had to resort to clay and spittle, 

 which removed the pain within half an hour, 

 but a hardened whitish tubercle, with a small 

 red spot in the centre, where the proboscis had 

 entered, only gi-adually disappeared after 

 eight or ten days. To illustrate the virulence 

 of the poison ef this msect, on placing it in a 

 bottle with some living predaceous beetles, it 

 grappled with them, and penetrating a soft 

 part between the thorax' and the head, it 

 killed them almost instantly. 



These effects, however, do not invariably 

 follow the bites or sting."? of insects. Some- 

 thing depends upon how much of its poison 

 has been previously voided — as in venomous 

 reptiles — something must be attributed to the 

 physical constitution of the person who has 

 been stung, and something also to the peculiar 

 constitutional state of the same person at the 

 time he or she is stung. It is well known that 

 persons are diflerently affected by the bites or 

 stmgs of moschitos, (mosquitos) and also by 

 coming in contact with vegetable poisons — 

 poison sumac {Bhus) for instance. 



We once knew a man who was almost inva- 

 riably poisoned by handling or eating paw- 

 paws, of which he was very fond. Injudicious 

 subsequent exposure, through which inllam- 

 mation is excited by what is commonly called 

 "taking cold " in the wound, has also an un- 

 friendly effect. 



We cannot even guess what insect is re- 

 ferred to m the above extract under the name 

 of "white humbler." If it was a white- 

 faced wood-borer, he is destitute of a sting. 

 .No male species, the female of which is armed 

 with an abdominal sting, has' a sting at all; 

 that pernicious implement is peculiarly the 

 endowment of the female. The mouth parts of 

 the female mosquito are prolonged into a thin 

 proboscis with which she penetrates the liuman 

 body and pumps up the blood, but the mouth 

 parts of the male are entirely wanting, and 

 therefore he never stings or partakes of any 

 food. But in hemipterous insects (bugs) both 

 male and female are provided with a proboscis, 

 and,' therefore, if they choose, both of them 

 can inflict a sting. In addition to our simple 

 remedies, we subjoin the following, partly as 

 a corroboration and partly as suggestive of 

 other remedies, which, no doubt will be equally 

 efficacious. 



How to Treat Insect Stings. 

 The pain caused by the sting of a plant or insect is 

 the result of a certain amount of acid poison injected 

 into the blood. The first thing to be done is to press 

 the tube of a small key firmly on the wound, moving 

 the key from side to side to facilitate the exjiulsion 

 of the sting and its accompanying poison. The sting 

 if left in the wound, should be carefully extracted, 

 otherwise it will greatly increase the local irritation. 

 The poison of stings being acid, common sense 

 points to the alkalies as the proper means of cure. 

 Among the most easily procured remedies may be 

 mentioned, soft soap, liquor of ammonia (spirits of 

 hartshorn), smelling salts, washing soda, quicklime 

 made into a paste with water, lime water, the juice 

 of an onion, tobacco juice, chewed tobacco, bruised 

 dock leaves, tomato juice, wood ashes, tabacco ash 

 and carbonate of soda. 



If the sting be severe, rest and*toolncss should be 

 added to the other remedies, more especially in the 

 case of nervous subjects. Nothing is so apt to make 

 the poisou active as heat, and nothing favors its 

 activity less than cold. Let the body be kept cool 

 and at rest, and the activity of the poison will be re- 

 duced to a minimum. Any active exertion whereby 

 the circulation is quickened will increase both pain 

 and swelling. If the swelling be severe, the part 

 may be rubbed with sweet oil, or a drop or two of 

 laudanum. Stings in the eye, ear, mouth or throat, 

 sometimes lead to serious consequences ; in such 

 cases medical advice should always be sought as 

 soon as possible. — London Garden. 



THE CODLING MOTH. 



The Grape Procris and the Grape Leaf-Folder. 



Some time ago an attachee of the Intelli- 

 fjfnctr presented to Prof. S. S. Rathvon, the 

 eminent entomologist, a box of insect-infested 

 apricots and a few grape leaves, with a re- 

 quest that he would examine and report upon 

 them. Following is his reply, from which it 

 will be seen that a hitherto received theory 

 that the codling moth will not attack stoned 

 fruit, is refuted : 



Mr. J. M. J. : The "batch" of insects sub- 

 mitted to me by you, on the 20th of July last, 

 consisted of three distinct species, belonging 

 to as many ditterent genera : namely, the lar- 

 va of the "Codling Moth," the American 

 "Grape Procris" and the grape "leaf folder." 

 I examined all the apricots — about twenty 

 in nimiber — and found five larva of the cod- 

 ling, (Carpocapsa 2)0 monella) the same species 

 that infests the apples, the pears and the 

 peaches. These, with some of the fruit, I 

 confined in a small box witli a glass lid to en- 

 able me to observe thek operations — retain- 

 ing one specimen for identification, which I 

 immersed in alcohol. They were of a pink 

 color, about J of an inch long, and possessing 

 all the characteristics of Lepidopterous laiwte. 

 On the 22d two of them spun themselves in ir- 

 regular cocoons, in the angle at the bottom 

 of the box, and the remamder of them died. 

 On the 30th they evolved from the cocoons in 

 the perfect moth form, beautiful, lively little 

 insects, with their wings deflexed, and wrap- 

 ped so closely around the body as to almost 

 form a cylinder. Their color is a gray ground, 

 dappled with iiregular bauds of brown, and a 

 large brown spot near the ends of the anterior 

 wings. They are a little over a quarter of au 

 inch iu length, and expand over half an inch. 

 The entomological record that the codling 

 moth confines Ttself to pip-fruit, and never at- 

 tacks stone-fruit, becomes discredited, for we 

 have now bred them from the apricot and the 

 peach. 



The second is the "Grape leaf-folder," the 

 larva of which is a glass green m color, over 

 an inch in length, and the head and three an- 

 terior segments blotched with dark patches. 

 This larva was exceedmgly active, wriggling, 

 jerking and jumping backward or forward at 

 the least disturbance. We confined this larva 

 in a box, a short time after which it returned 

 to its leafy ceU and changed to a pupa; and, 

 on the 2d of August the moth appeared. It 

 is a beautiful insect, expanding over an inch 

 from tip to tip of its wings. The ground 

 color is blackish, with a pearly reflection, the 

 wings fringed with white, two large white 

 spots on each of the wings, and two white 

 bars across the abdomen. This moth is dou- 

 ble brooded; the first brood appears about the 

 1st of June, and the second about the 1st of 

 August. It is the Dcsmia inaeulaiis of ento- 

 mologists, and when numerous — which fre- 

 quently occurs — it is very destructive to the 

 foliage of the grape vines. Of course, the 

 only remedy is to clip off all the folded leaves 

 and burn them; but, tliis should be done when 

 the insects are in pupa% between the 20th of 

 July and the 1st of August, but particularly 

 before the leaves fall in autumn; because the 

 last brood hibernates in the pupa form during 

 winter, and emerges about the end of May or 

 beginning of June, and lays the foundation 

 for the first brood. If the leaves are cut off 

 while the insect is still in the larva state, it 

 will wriggle itself out of its cell and escape, 

 and your object would be defeated. 



The third species is the "American Grape 

 Procris," (Procris americana,) little pale 

 yellow larva, with black heads, and a trans- 

 verse row of black spots on each dorsal seg- 

 ment of the body. These, after about the 

 third moulting, arrange themselves side by 

 side, hke the knives of a mowing machine, 

 and cut a clean swath across the grape leaves, 

 devouring all except the larger nerviires and 

 midribs. These larva> did not feed in concert, 

 in confinement, as tliey do in the open air. 

 They were rather discontented, and always 

 retired to the sides of the bell-glass to moult. 



