1877.J 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



179 



in tbe class Insf.cta, but all arc olijccls of 

 more or less concern, to cither the animal or 

 the vPKf'tfi'jle world. Tlie first, the simplest, 

 and tlic most general division of the insect 

 world tluit can be made, is to divide it into 

 two great suh-elasses, namely: the masticat- 

 inj;, or chewini^ insects, and the suckini:;, or 

 drinking, insects; technically named MutuH- 

 hiihiUd and llnnstflbilid. To tlio latter all 

 the various kinds of lice belong, because thny 

 subsist by sucking animal 1)1()0(1, or vegetaldo 

 sap. Jku-k-Hcc, in a general sense, are those 

 that infest vegetation, and in a i)articular 

 sense, those that infest the bark of dies-, as 

 contradistinguislied from those that infest 

 swnihiit vegetation — or plants, and hence 

 called pJant-lifc. 



]5ark-lice telong to the order IIojioptera. 

 Tins term is a Greek compound, from omos 

 the same, and pkron a wing; because of the 

 liomogeneitj-, or sameness, of tiicirni)per and 

 lower wings. Tliey are among the most de- 

 graded of the order to wliich they belung, 

 nevertheless the males have wings, and one 

 siiecics at least, is extensively cultivated on 

 tiic Cactus plants of Mexico, and produces 

 that brilliant crimson or scarlet dye, known 

 as "Cochineal." The two most pernic^ions and 

 widespread si)ecies which infest the fruit trees 

 of tins country, are what are comnioidy 

 called, the "oyster-shell bark-louse," and 

 "Harris' bark-louse." The former is the 

 Aspidiotnt: concliiformis of entomologists, be- 

 cause the scale or scab wliich invests the 

 insect, has tlie form of a minute oyster-shell. 

 They are also sometimes called the "scale- 

 insect," or "scab-louse." Tlie latter species 

 is the Aspidiot^ts Ilnrrisii liecause first discov- 

 ered by Dr. Harris of ^Massachusetts. The 

 former is a foreign insect, which has been in- 

 troduced into this country from Eui'ope; and, 

 like foreign importations generally, it is the 

 worst of the two; infesting not only the apple 

 tree, but also the pear, the cherry, the quince, 

 the apricot, the crab, the plum, the currant, 

 the gooseberiy and the ro.se. The latter is a 

 native of our own country, and is not so in- 

 jurious as the former, being mainly found on 

 the apple, the pear, and nionutain-ash. There 

 are many other sjiecics. which occur on (he 

 pine, the orangc>, the maple, the grape, the 

 bireli, the walnut, the hickory and othertrees. 

 The notorious plujlhi.rn-a, which is <levastat- 

 ing tlic vineyards of Euroiie, and esiiccially 

 of France, is a grape-root liark or gall-louse; 

 and as the Government, and the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of that country have, for 

 the past three years, offered a reward of 1110,- 

 OfM.) francs for a remedy to ' destroy it, which 

 has not yet lieen claimed, we may have some 

 apprehension ot the dilliculties we may en- 

 counter in attempting to overcome these pests. 

 The particular siiecies I am considering, how- 

 ever, are more accessible, inasmuch as they 

 conline their oiierations to the lesser bi"auclies 

 and twigs of trees, unless the trees are young; 

 for they mu.st have a smooth and tender sur- 

 face, where the sap tlows within the length of 

 their licaks. The mode of circumvent ing 

 them is simple and certain, if men will take 

 the Ironhle to api)Iy it, and apply it at the 

 proper time. IVrliaps I should have said, 

 there are several remedies, and a remedy that 

 is ed'ectual at one pciiod may be ineffectual 

 at another. In order to apply a remedy with 

 effect, wc ought to know something about the 

 economies and habits of the insects we pro- 

 pose to destroy, else we may only be contend- 

 ing with tlii^ sliadow of the subject instead of 

 the substance: and even then we are, liable to 

 failure from our inelticieucy, or from causes 

 that arc wholly unknown to ns. Therefore, 

 when we succeed or fail in the apiilication of 

 a remedy, we should make a careful record, 

 not only of the subject and the mode of appli- 

 cation, but also of the time 



The month (jf .lunc — in some species earlier 

 and in others later — is the great period of 

 insect transmutation iu this latitude, for, 

 during that pt-riod, most of the species that 

 hibernate in the ^wyial state, come forth from 

 their long winter sleep, and scatter them- 

 eelves abroad ; and this is particularly the 



case with those that feed upon the sap or the 

 foliage of vegetation, in wliatevcr form they 

 may pass the winter season. I'Utnt-livr and 

 hurk-licr usually pass that period in thi? egg- 

 state, from which their young are. hatched as 

 soon as their normal food is provided by 

 liounleous nature, and the necessary heat to 

 stimulate incubation eupcrvencs. I cannot 

 positively say on what day of .Tune you may 

 find the young bark-lice traveling on the 

 trees, for this jieriod may be accelerated or 

 retarded by the temperature of the weather ; 

 but that is the most proper time to ajiply a 

 remedy. The young are very small, Ijut 

 their presence can be detected by tlui aid of a 

 common magnifier. Dilutions of carbolic 

 and crysilic acid, or solutions of common or 

 whale-oil soap, and decoctions of tobacco, 

 have been recommended by the highest au- 

 thorities, and 1 have no doubt that syringing 

 the trees with the.sc tlnids would be effectual ; 

 for, if even a heavy rain should occur when 

 they come forth from the eggs, millionsof them 

 will then be washed down and be destroyed. 

 " I'eck'.s Atomizku " 1 would consider an 

 excellent instrument to tiirow any liiiuid in 

 the form of siiray, on trees,* shrubs and 

 plants; but if the branches could, at the 

 same time, receive the niauipulatious of a 

 stiff brush, it would facilitate the good effects 

 of the application, in using a stiff brush, 

 however, there is a liability of rubbing off the 

 leaf or flower buds, excojit on the naked 

 trunks and larger branches, and I UKirely 

 mention it here, because it has been recom- 

 by the Entomologist in Chief at Washing- 

 ton.* 



Tlie late Mr. Walsh, of Rock Island, 111., 

 te.sted all the known remedies for bark-lice, 

 and found nothing so effectual as oH. This 

 can be applied early in the spring, during warm 

 days, before the leaf or flower Inids are swol- 

 len. A good instrument for its application is 

 a common paint brush. Before the eggs are 

 hatched, and whilst they are covered by the 

 scales, no liquid of any kind — except such as 

 might injure the trees — will have much effect 

 upon them ; for these scales are impervious to 

 liquids generally, else there would be no iiro- 

 tectiou to the eggs during the colds, rains 

 and snows of a long winter. Oil has, how- 

 ever, a different effect upon them. It does 

 not evaporate so rapidly as other liquids, and 

 it penetrates and loosens the scales, and sub- 

 seiiucut showers of rains wash them off, and 

 leave the trees and liranches clean. I have 

 applied oil on several occasions with entire 

 success, and I have recommended it to 

 others, who have been ecpiaily successful. Of 

 course, it would involve a great deal of lalior 

 and trouVileon large trees, and W'herea whole 

 orchard was infested with these injurious 



p !StS. 



If the question should be asked, " What 

 kind of oil V" I should feel comjielled to 

 answer it with some (pialilication. When I 

 stated in the columns of Tlii': Fakmeh, about 

 a year ago, that I would not reconiineiul lin- 

 seed oil, I received communications from two 

 citizens of the county, stating that they had 

 apjilied this oil with entire success; but I re- 

 cently saw a statement in one of our daily 

 papers to the effect that the writer had used 

 linseed oil and injured, if he did not entirely 

 kill, his trees. I used lard oil, and on one 

 occasion I used a piece of th(^ skin and fat at 

 the low(U' end of a boiled ham — what the Ger- 

 mans call a " .spheck-schward" — with good 

 effect. One of my correspondents used 

 " ueatsfoot oil" with entire success. Sweet 

 oil, I believe, would be equally good ; but this 

 would, perhaps, be two expensive, unless it 

 was rancid or of inferior tpiality. 1, however, 

 would not rceonimend caniphene, petroleum, 

 paratUne or coal oil. 



The reasons for my opinion adverse to lin- 

 seed oil are, because it dries up more rapidly 

 than other simjilo oils ; it coagulates and 

 leaves an insoluble film or coating on the 

 branches, and when it penetrates the pores 



■Whitpwaebing with lime has been BtrODgly recommend- 

 ert bv Horae. For a discusBiou on the subject, ;)»-.t and 

 <o', iiloise refer to the pre«ent yoltiQie of the Fabmeb, 

 May number, pp. 66-7i 



and hardens therein, it must be injurious ; 

 for this rciison, also, I would not afiply any 

 kind of oil late in the season, when the pores 

 are more open, and vegetable respiration is 

 more active than it is during winter and early 

 spring. There is a time and a season for 

 evc'rything, and success in any direction de- 

 pends on striking these times and seasous. 

 J'erhaps. bifore I close, I ought to mention 

 that within one week— sometimes within tlireo 

 or four days — after the young bark-lice come 

 from the eggs, they scatter over the branches 

 out to their remotest and tendercst ends, and 

 there they sink their beaks into the twigs, 

 and divest themselves of their antenna, feet, 

 and caudal ap]i(^ndages, and become degraded 

 into a "se;iIe"or "scab,"an<l immediately 

 coinmenee pumping the .sap out of said twigs, 

 to their great depUdionand con.sctpient injury. 

 This, at least, is the case with the females. 

 The males assume wings, fertilize the fetnales 

 anil then fly away and perish, if they do not 

 perish on the spot. After the females deposit 

 their eggs they also perish, but their dry and 

 shriveled bodies n main attached to the shell- 

 like covering with which they have invested 

 their eggs. If you take the back of a knife, 

 or your tluindi-nail, and draw them over the 

 small, white scales of these insects, the 

 " Harris louse" will produce a red, blood-like 

 streak, but the "oyster shell louse" will pro- 

 duce a yellowish or whrtish streak. There 

 are from a dozen to two hundred eggs under 

 one scale, it is said, and 1 have myself coimted 

 twenty-five or thirty. On my premises I havo 

 never found the oyster shell Ijark-louse, but 

 Harris' bark-louse I have had very abundantly, 

 and I am inclined to think that this is the 

 most abundant species wc have iu Lancaster 

 county. 



Now, all this may .seem too complicated, 

 and may involve more labor, thought and ex- 

 pense than you are wiUiug to bestow ui)on a 

 subject of such apparent insignificance. Well, 

 if so, the fault is not mine. It belongs to that 

 inexorable logic of creation through which 

 material dcvelopmeut can only be attained by 

 hutnaii labor. 



The Almighty did not ciiuse hats, and 

 coats, and boots, to grow on trees, that we 

 might possess them \\lien we needed them, by 

 merely iihicking them. He did not cause 

 jilows^ and threshers, and gold dollars to 

 spring up from the ground, spontaneously, 

 that we might ajiiuopriate them without per- 

 sonal effort. Ho gives us seed time and 

 harvest; genial sunshine and refreshing 

 rains ; summer's activity and winter's re- 

 pose. He creates the material elements, the 

 physical laws, and the intellectual forces 

 wliich combine and guide these, but all else is 

 the work of human hands. Wo hence con- 

 clude that "necessity is not only the mother 

 of invention," but that it is also, fundamen- 

 tally, the stimulant of all human progress, 

 and without it man would relapse into bar- 

 barism. Our children and our children's 

 children may become more deeply impressed 

 with this fact than we are. Our 'forefathers, 

 while the soil was virgin, the forests dense, 

 and the iiopulation sparse, bad little concern 

 about lhe.se things, whatever other hardships 

 they may have had, but a great change ha.s 

 overcome the spirit of our dreams and we 

 must lulapl ourselves to the economics of that 

 change. 



FROM NORTH CAROLINA. 

 Sai.isiuky, X. c:., Xov. 2(1, 1877. 

 Editoh LANtASTEU Eakmer— Dcrtr .Sir; 

 Farmers in this county, as a general thing, 

 have been well rewarded for their labor, in 

 return of wheat, oals, corn, cotton, tobacco, 

 Irish and sweet potatoes, &c., &c. There 

 was also an abmnlant crop of apples, peaches, 

 lilums, prunes, grapes, .so that there is jilenty 

 to eat, diink and wear. Onr farmers are 

 much behind in sowing wheat, gathering corn 

 and cotton. This is in part owing to the fact 

 that many devoted much time to making sor- 

 ghum molasses, when perhaps it would have 

 proved, in the end, more remimerative to 

 Lave sown ^yheat, and housed their corn and 



