i879.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



115 



ond their efforts, by a resonably active sup- 

 port. 



The state of agriculture, horticulture and 

 floriculture has never been so unpropitious in 

 Lancaster county but what a creditable dis- 

 play of its productions could be luade in any 

 season, if only the people were honestly to 

 will it. People should exhibit what they 

 have, no matter how favorable or unfavorable 

 the season may have been. If the season has 

 been unpropitious in any districts of the coun- 

 ty, or in the whole country, it may be as in- 

 teresting to witness the evil effects upon the 

 productions of the soil, as to witness the good 

 effects of a favorable season. 



We would therefore admonish the members 

 of the Society to ea.inestly go to work, and 

 get up such an exhibition as will do honor to 

 our "garden county,'' and we believe that 

 they can accomplish it in a far greater degree 

 than they may now suppose. We ought to 

 accept, appreciate and reflect the bounties of 

 natiu-e, just as she has.furnished them to us, 

 in order to show that 'we are worthy recipi- 

 ents of her gifts. The man or woman who 

 will not exhibit their productions of the soil 

 unless they can have the pre-assurance that 

 they are the very best among a display, may 

 be influenced by more self-pride and ambition 

 than is absolutely necessary to constitute 

 them good farmers, or farmers' wives. In 

 our view of the matter, a display that exhib- 

 its the average products of a county or a 

 State, is far more satisfactory botli to home 

 residents and strangers, than a few extraor- 

 dinary agricultural achievements that have 

 been the mere results of chance, and the pro- 

 duction of which it would be impossible to 

 communicate to another. 



In a favorable season anybody or everybody 

 may produce handsome and thrifty specimens 

 ©f vegetation, without hSving exercised any 

 more than ordinary skill or vigilance; but, if 

 under adverse circumstance, one man can pro- 

 duce better crops than another, it is of inte- 

 rest to the whole public— the consumer as 

 well as the producer— to know from ocular de- 

 monstration that such an effect has been pro- 

 duced, and the manner in which it was ac- 

 complished. The agricultural, horticultural, 

 and tioricultural products of the country lie 

 at the very base of our physical, social and 

 financial structure, and through these exer- 

 cises a corresponding influence upon our men- 

 tal and moral being, and instead of being 

 merely subordinates in the body politic, they 

 are absolutely primitives. 



There has hardly ever been an exhibition of 

 the agricultural, horticultural, and floricultu- 

 ral produce of Lancaster, that scores of tliose 

 who visited them, have not remarked: "Oh, 

 had I known it beforehand I could have ex- 

 hibited "—this, that or the other thing— "su- 

 perior to anything I see here." Doubtless 

 they have felt gratified, on the whole, but still 

 have been compelled to make the confession 

 that they could have contributed something 

 that would have been eciually gratifying to 

 some other person had they bt en willing to do 

 it. Now, these are the people who should 

 compose the company of an agricultural dis- 

 play. Of course there are hundreds who are 

 so situated that it would be impossible for 

 them to be anything else but auditors, but as 

 an exliibition without auditors would practi- 

 cally render the whole thing void, therefore 

 their presence in goodly numbers is also ne- 

 cessary, in order to make it a success, and to 

 difluse its benefits among society. Through 

 these channels also those social streams flow 

 which are the medium of friendly intercourse 

 between the diflerent elements of society. 

 "Freely ye have received, freely give," is an 

 inculcation that cannot be ignored with profit 

 in an era of humanizing progress. 



By reference to page 124 of this number of 

 The Farmer, it will be seen that the Soci- 

 ety has obtained the Xorthern Market House, 

 and have adopted Wednesday, Thursday and 

 Friday, the 10th, 11th and 12th of September 

 next, as the time on which to hold the exhi- 

 bition. 



Queries and Answers. 



PEACH BEETLE. 



Lancastek, July 23, 1879. 

 Dear Sir : These beetles were found on a poach 

 tree on the farm of lauae L. Landfs, In Manhcira 

 township. They puncture the bark and enter Into It 

 endways, and then work cavities underneath and 

 between the wood and outside bark. The tree was 

 full of them at the trunk or stem up to the limbs. 



Is there anything new or not in their appearance 

 as peach tree borers. I never saw them before. — 

 Yours truly, Israel L. Zoniii*. 



Your insects are not new, although so far as 

 my knowledge of them extends, they are not 

 very frequent. During the last six years 

 small infested branches of the peach tree have 

 been sent me, on two occasions from the 

 Southern part of Lancaster county, and once 

 from Cecil county, Md. In this last case the 

 branch was over an inch in diameter, and 

 three inches long, in which were at least a 

 dozen of the insects developed, besides those 

 that had escaped before I had received it. It is 

 a small, black, roughly punctured and striated 

 insect, and belongs to "the order Coleoptera, 

 and family Scolytid<e, and catalogued by 

 Dr. Harris as Tomicus liminaris. Dr. 

 Leconte, in a footnote, p. 88 of "Harris' 

 Treatise" of 18C2 says: This species differs 

 from the others known in this country, by 

 having the last three joints of the antenna; 

 tfilated laterally, forming a lamellate club 

 like that of the Scarabid^, it therefore 

 belongs to the genus Phloiotribus. I notice 

 that these specimens possess this characteristic 

 very distinctly. 



Miss Morris, late of Germaniown, Pa., I 

 believe was the first to bring the notice of this 

 insect to the public as a depredator upon 

 peach trees, and as the trees were affected 

 with the yrllmcs, she hence attributed the 

 malady to this cause. Dr. Harris found the 

 same insect under the bark of a diseased elm. 

 As I have never found the insect on peach 

 trees, I am unable to say whether the trees 

 from which my specimens came were healthy 

 or diseased. 



This whole family of beetles make excava- 

 tions under the bark of various trees, includ- 

 ing apple, pear, plum, quince, cherry, peach 

 elms, oaks &c., &c., and from the many 

 eccentric channels they cut, they have been 

 called " Typographer Beetles. " 



They are so small, both in the larvae, the 

 pupa and the mature state, and are so com- 

 pletely domiciliated in the tissues of the bark, 

 that it would be impossible to apply a remedy, 

 other than than that of cutting off the infest- 

 ed limbs, or the whole tree, before the de- 

 velopment of the beetle, and submitting it or 

 them to a heating or charring process; or if the 

 wood is no object, burning it at once. Of 

 course as forest trees become fewer, these 

 wood and barkboring insects will be trying 

 their hand on the cultivated trees, whether 

 fruit or ornamental. Like the Colorado Potato 

 Beetle, the Curculio, the Striped Apple-tree 

 Borer (Saperda), they are partial to the culti- 

 vated objects of the vegetable world— in short 

 as the human species profess to be, they are 

 progressive, and "that's what's the matter." 



Barbville, p. O., July l~th, 1879. 

 Prop. S. S. Rathvon— 2)cor ,S»)-: This season 

 the contrast between the cultivated and uncultivated 

 wheat was much larg:er in favor of the cultivated 

 (side by side, in the same field, the same quantity of 

 grain to the acre, and sowed the same time) , than 

 anytime heretofore. I was sorry that A. B. Groff, 

 the patentee, had been in the West all summer, and 

 I had been so very busy that I neglected to invite in- 

 terested persons to come and see the great difference 

 before them, in the growing of larger and better 

 crops. But I am happy and well pleased to state 

 that quite a number of gentlemen, some that saw It 

 last year, and were so well pleased with the improve- 

 ment that they were anxious to see it again ; and 

 others that had heard the many favorable reports 

 last year, came this season to see and judge for 

 themselves. Among said parties was a committee of 

 four gentlemen appointed from the Grangers of East 

 and North Coventry twps., Chester co. These gen- 

 tlemen are very much interested in the many 



improvements concerning farming. I enclose you 

 the Montgomery Ledger containing their report, and 

 If you thmk It proper to copy It Into Tnp Fakmbr, 

 all right, if not I hope there Is no harm, and beg to 

 remain, — Yours truly, Levi W. Oroff. 



We cheerfully comply with our correspond- 

 ent's request ; not only because he recjucsts it, 

 but because we are in sympathy with •any- 

 thing that tends to agricultural progress, and 

 promotes the welfare of the people, no matter 

 whether it culminates in our own personal 

 interests or not. We also feel a natural 

 pride in the progressive modes, systems, and 

 general institutions of our native county, and 

 imagine that if i( has no light to slicd upoa 

 agriculture — occupying the financial, social, 

 aiid geographical position it does— then we 

 arc at a loss to know where we might reason- 

 ably look for such light. We are confident 

 that our own county possesses many resources 

 within itself that it may be vainly looking 

 abroad for a realization of ; and many people 

 may also discredit things purely because they 

 originate at home. 



The following is the report alluded to 'in 

 Mr. Groft''s communication : 



Coventry Farmers in Lancaster County. 



One day last week four prominent farmers 

 of North and East Coventry, Chester county, 

 Messrs John 15. Keill', David W. Jones, John 

 Ellis and William Davis drove to Bareville, 

 I^ancaster county, to examine the process of 

 cultivating wheat, practiced by Mr. Levi 

 Groff of tliat place. One of their nimiber has 

 written for the Ledger the subjoined interest- 

 ing account of what was seen by the party at 

 Bareville : 



"Mr. Groff has two fields of wheat, lying side by 

 side, each having half the grain put in by the ordi- 

 nary drilling plan, and the other half drilled in, 

 leaving a sufBcient distance between the rows to 

 allow cultivation with a cultivator gotten up 

 expressly for the purpose. 



Though the wheat planted by the old method is In 

 a very promising condition, and may yield '.iO bushels 

 per acre, the cultivated portion of the fields will 

 exceed this yield at least 50 per cent. In the opinion 

 of our party 45 bushels is a low estimate per acre for 

 the production of the cultivated wheat. 



The observer Is especially Impressed with the 

 marked contrast between the two halves of each of 

 the two fields. The cultivated portion stands upon 

 strong straw, at least six inches above the uncultivat- 

 ted wheat, presenting a very luxuriant mass of 

 uniform heads, well filled, and from four to six 

 inches long. 



In the drilled portion we saw many small heads 

 upon short straw, striving among the growing crop 

 for equality, as it were, and so common in ordinary 

 wheat fields. 



Mr. Groff's plan of cultivation is to pass between 

 the rows of wheat with a cultivator as soon as the 

 ground is in condition to work in spring, and con- 

 tinue to do 60 until about the 10th of May, at which 

 time, and after the last cultivation, he sows the 

 grass seed (clover and timothy), and owing to the 

 mellow condition of the ground it grows quickly and 

 surely, as was demonstrated by the two fields shown 

 us, in which he had wheat last year, and cultivated 

 as described. 



We left for home after having spent about three 

 hours more than we Intended, and having enjoyed 

 the cordial hospitality of our host, and feeling, too, 

 that we had gained not only In pleasure and satisfac- 

 tion, but had seen and learned by our visit to Mr. 

 Groff's farm what an industrious and intelligent 

 farmer can do to promote his own interest, and that 

 of agriculture generally. Mr. Groff's son has 

 Invented a drill with cultivator attachment, suitable 

 for his method of raising wheat, which Is patented, 

 for which every farmer should obtain a farm right, 

 to raise wheat in the same way, as we feel confident 

 it will pay to do."— Montgomery Ledger, June 2i, 

 1879. 



WHITE GRUB WORMS. 



Dr.S. S. Rathvon— i>ear Sir: Will you please 

 give a description of the worm which I have to-day 

 sent to your address. 



You will notice that It feasted upon a potato,having 

 eaten out and lodged itself In a hollow In the potato. 

 There was another worm of the same shape, and 

 probably of the same variety, but of a brown tinge, 

 feasting upon potatoes. This Inclines me to think 

 that the one I sent you has not yet reached its 

 maturity. Please answer through the columns of 

 The New Era.— Yours, etc., J. A. Hhaar, liothsvilU, 

 Pa.,July:M,\S,Vi. 



Your "worm" came to hand, dead, and 

 partially crushed. Things sent through the 

 mail shoidd be inclosed iu a stout paper, tin 



