The Lancaster Farmer. 



Dr. S. S. RATHVON, Editor. 



LANCASTER, PA., OCTOBER, 1879. 



Vol. XI. No. 10. 



Editorial. 



THE WEATHER. 



Has the "oldest inliabitaiit" ever before 

 noticed sixteen consecutive days in tlic month 

 of October, durinr; whieli the temperaturo was 

 elev.ated to the BU's and 90's of the thermom- 

 eter ? We confess that wo never liave, and 

 we are now as old as AVashington was when 

 he died. We have seen one or two days, 

 rarely three, but never seventeen as has been 

 the case the present season, including tlie last 

 day of September, which was nearly as warm 

 as the sixteen following days. 



The southern portion of Lancaster county 

 is, and has been for some weeks, very dry, 

 and the water in the streams and wells very 

 low; indeed some of them have been compelled 

 to "dry up," a contingency very inconvenient 

 and uncomfortable to domestic life, especially 

 on farms which have no running streams flow- 

 ing through them. A good long "soaking 

 rain" would now be desirable, but not accom- 

 panied by such warm weather as we have had 

 for two weeks or more. 



Such weather is a great breeder of the Hes- 

 sian-fly, midge and other noxious insects. It 

 also heats the ground and invigorates the 

 "grubs" and other insects hidden therein. 

 Even plowing them up during such weather 

 would hardly compass their destruction. 

 First, because during warm weather they 

 have sutticieut vital energy to rebury them- 

 selves. Moreover, the birds are now about 

 leaving us and many of them have alre.ady left 

 for the sunny South, although, perhaps, had 

 they known it would have continued so warm 

 they would not have been in such a hurry. 

 This being the case, few birds except crows 

 will be on hand to eat up the grubs and other 

 insects that may be turned up by the plow. 

 On the 18th of October, the hot spell of weather 

 was, in a measure, broken, but still it con- 

 tinued warm and murky, good weather for 

 the growing crops, but with warm rains likely 

 to bring them too far forward to bear the 

 winter well. 



Up at Lancaster, N. 11. , the heat was 100 

 on the 9tli, and from many other poiiits simi- 

 lar reports come in. On the 15th the large 

 and beautiful butterfly {Danaus archippes,) 

 was flying about the streets of Lancaster as 

 gay as in midsummer, and the "White Cab- 

 bage Butterfly" (Pitrcs rapm,) was quite 

 plenty on the 14th and 15th. TheJSusquehanna 

 is now quite as low as it was in 1803, which 

 is the lowest on record. The mill streams are 

 getting hnv and flour is getting high. Many 

 wells and springs have become dry that have 

 not been in that condition for half a century — 

 and still no rain. 



"COMMON SENSE." 



We have received a very handsome little 

 volume purporting to be a common sense 

 treatise on the treatment of asthma, con- 

 sumption and catarrh, and especially nasal 

 catarrh, or "cold in head," (or any other nose, 

 throat or lung disease,) by Dr. N. B. Wolfe, 

 of Cincinnati, Ohio. The doctor has made 

 the' treatment of the organs of respiration a 

 special practice for over thirty years, and has 

 put his varied experiences and reflections in 

 this little monograi)li, which he offers "a 

 free gift" to any person suffering from any of 

 the above diseases. Tiie book is very hand- 

 somely printed and illustrated, and not the 

 least conspicuous is the portrait of the doctor 

 him.self. He invites all to send for it by all 

 means, especially if suffering from sore throat 

 or lungs, cough or disease of the nose, &c. 



Dr. Wolfe was formerly a citizen of Colum- 

 bia, in this county, and we think w.as born 

 there or at Wrightsville, immediately oppo- 



site, in York county. We knew him, or knew 

 of liim, "long, long ago," when, as a little 

 "Nap," he commanded a company of juvenile 

 volunteers in the borough of Columbia. AVe 

 have peru.sed his book, aud we tliink that 

 in the abstract he is on the right track in the 

 treatment of nasal catarrli and bronchial in- 

 flammations. We have suffered many weary 

 years with nasal catarrh, and if we could 

 Iiave had access forty years ago to treatment 

 akin to his system we believe we could have 

 saved our hearing, which now, alas, we fear, 

 has departed forever. We have long been 

 using medicated fumes, vapors, infusions and 

 deturgents, and without pretending to say 

 that these alone have arrested tlie chronic 

 character of our case, yet it is chronic no 

 longer, and in acute attacks we invariably re- 

 sort to inhalations, and generally with good 

 results. A physician who makes this mode 

 of treatment a specialty would, no doubt, be 

 preferable to one who only employed it inci- 

 dentally. Without intending to forestall the 

 judgment of our readers we think we can 

 commend the perusal of this book to their 

 favorable consideration. 



OUR LATE LOCAL EXHIBITION. 



The Fair of the Lancaster County Agricul- 

 tural and Horticultural Society, at the North- 

 ern Market House, on the 10th, 11th and Idth 

 of September last, was, under all the circum- 

 stances, both financially, and in respectabil- 

 ity of display, a success. It illustrated fully 

 that with the proper time and effort, Lancas- 

 ter county can and tuill get up an exhibition 

 that will rival successfully any other district 

 of the "Keystone State. " With a liberal and 

 systematically detailed premium list, an early 

 and energetic beginning,and a more extensive 

 advertisement, we feel confident that the so- 

 ciety in future will be able to accomplish its 

 end with credit to itself and the community. 

 The present season has been peculiarly a pro- 

 lific one in the getting up of exhibitions all 

 over the country, and so far as we are able to 

 learn, they have been generally successful. 

 As long as they do not involve a financial loss 

 to the societies getting them up, or to exhibi- 

 tors participating in them, we may regard 

 them as successful, for there are compensations 

 accruing to the participants in them and tlie 

 public at large that are beyond immediate pe- 

 cuniary calculation — like bread cast upon the 

 ■waters that will return after many days. 



MAPLE COCCUS. 

 A new insect, to this locality, made its ap- 

 pearance during the present season on two 

 "sugar maple " trees {acer sacharium) stand- 

 ing in East Orange Street, on the south side 

 of St. James' Church, which seems to be the 

 Pscudo-C'iccais aceris, of Europe, or an insect 

 nearly allied to that species, and is supposed 

 to have been, in some manner, imported from 

 that country. There are millions of them, 

 but it does not yet appear to what extent they 

 will be injurious to the trees they infest. 

 None have yet been noticed on the "silver 

 maple" (acer dasy carpunn); but there are 

 very few leaves on the sugar maple that have 

 not more or less of the white floculent or cot- 

 ton-like matter on the under sides, which 

 they secrete, and which covers them. All the 

 fissures in the bark, on both the trunks aud 

 the branches are filled with granulations of 

 the same white substance, and many of the 

 insects are secreted under it, and will thus 

 pass the winter. Those attached to the leaves 

 will probably perish; but as they are tolerably 

 active, although almost invisible to the naked 

 eye, and may crawl up the trunk, it would be 

 well to gather up the leaves as fast as they 

 ftiU and bum them, even though they may be 



as harmless as the famous "kegs," during 

 the revolution. 



THANKS. 

 It gives us more than ordinary pleasure in 

 having occasion to return our snicere thanks 

 to Messrs. William Weidlc, M. I). Kendig, 

 and Daniel Smeych, for generous donation.s of 

 Peaches, Pears, Grapes and Apples, of a lus- 

 ciousness and a flavor most grateful to the 

 "touch and taste." These gentlemen are 

 celebrated for the production of fine fruit, and 

 in that respect, may justly he ranked in the 

 class of Horticultural benefactors ; and in 

 nothing is this more manifest than in their 

 kind remembrance of the toiling editor. If 

 the man who causes two blades of grass to 

 grow wliere only one grew before may be es- 

 teemed a benefactor, how much more those 

 men, who, through thought and patient labor 

 of head and hand, have wrought such wonder- 

 ful improvement in the size, the texture, and 

 the flavor of the different varieties of fruit. 

 May they receive their reward. 



Queries and Answers. 



LARGE WATER-BEETLE. 

 A fine large specimen of Cf/bistcr fimbrio- 

 lalus — a chestnut-brown Water-Beetle — was 

 placed in my possession by Mr. Hiram Stamm, 

 that had been captured alive by Mr. John J. 

 Tripple, of Safe Harbor, Lancaster county, 

 Pa. Mr. T. captured this insect in his ram- 

 stand, and never having seen anything of the 

 kind before he is naturally anxious to know 

 what it is, aud how it got into liis rain-stand. 

 These insects breed in the water, and al- 

 though, other things being equal, it might 

 have bred in a rain-st^nd as easily as else- 

 where, still I do not think it did ; simply be- 

 cause in its larval condition it is a most 

 voracious feeder, and would not be likely to 

 find food enough there— indeed, they have 

 been known to be very destructive to the fry 

 of fish in fish-ponds. Although they are 

 aquatic in their habits, yet in the adult state 

 they arc provided with ample wings, which 

 lie folded up laterally and transversely be- 

 neath their elytra, or shield-like wing-covers, 

 and by the aid of these they are able to mount 

 into the air and fly a considerable distance, 

 and hence they often fall on the roofs of 

 buildings, from whence they find their way 

 into the gutters, down the spouting, and into 

 rain-stands and cisterns. I have found them 

 in the gutters of our streets, or in the street 

 itself, floundering about without being|able to 

 make much headway. They pass the winter 

 in the mud, at the bottom of ponds and 

 streams. This subject would probably have 

 been in the mud by this time had it not been 

 for the extraordinary warm weather now 

 pending, which doubtless has deceived it, and 

 should it continue much longer we may next 

 look for a return of the swallows. This in- 

 sect is nearly two inches in length and one 

 inch broad, elliptic in form, and a polished 

 chestnut-brown in color. Its hind limbs are 

 like a pair of oars, and it uses them as such. 

 It uses them very effectively in water— its 

 natural element— but it is an indifferent 

 pedestrian on land. 



SPECTRE INSECT. 

 Mr. L. H., North Queen Street.— The large. 

 gray, and long-legged and long-bodied insect 

 you sent me is the "Spectre insect," or 

 "Walking-twig," {Spectrum femoratum,) and 

 belongs to the order Okthopteba, section 

 Ambulatoria, family Phasmiadce. It feeds on 

 vegetation and is remotely allied to the 

 crickets, grasshoppers and trae lociusts. It 



