50 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[April 



man after such a labor might truthfully he 

 accorded the scriptural "«i'rn *jn«." These 

 statistics are veiT minute, giving the acreage, 

 product and money value of each particular 

 county, but they would be too voluumous to 

 transfer to o\u- columns. But, to exhibit to 

 our readers the .sfcidi.s of Kansas fertility as a 

 whole, we would call their attention to the 

 " summary for 1879 : 



U.r>M,'>m bn. $10,087,403.09 



Winter wheat 1,6.'0,0.)9 ac's 



Spring " 412.139 " 



Eye 43.616 " 



Corn 2,995.070 " 



Barley 45,SR1 " 



Oata ST3.9S2 " 



Buckwheat 2,817 " 



Irish Potatoes.... 02,601 " 

 Sweet " .... 2,728 " 



Castor Beans 68,179 " 



Sorgbuni 23 664 



Flax 



Cotton 



Herap 



Tobacco 



Broom Com 



Millet&HunKariaii 

 Meadow Timothy 

 Meadow Olnver.. 

 Meadow Prairie.. 



09,393 



197 



606 



752 



14,273 



174,890 



57,IS1 



14,709 



672,994 



2,990.0' 



660.409 



10S,704.927 



720.09-2 " 



13,326,037 " 



41,300 " 



3,324.129 " 



197.407 " 



766,143 " 



2,721,4ES gal. 



622,256 lbs. 



33.5SS " 



557,878 " 



.550.753 " 



8 095,145 " 



494,962 touB 



86.884 " 



26S22 " 



913,053 '• 



2,3li 1, 387,60 



204,103.43 



26,562,0:4.-10 



360,046.00 



3,397,416 33 



37,175.74 



2,177,664.66 



197,407.57 



706,143.37 



1,224,056.57 



622,266.02 



3.023,00 



33,472.72 



65,675,38 



283,330.15 



2,642,275.75 



483,812,15 



152,503.92 



3,017,412,43 



credit. As soon as the animals saw each 

 other they halted and began to reconnoitre, 

 the roach raising up on its legs as high as it 

 possibly could, keeping its head towards its 

 antagonist, which made a circle around it. 

 At length it pounced upon the roach with the 

 qnickiie.ss of lightning, and when the witness 

 approached it darted off as quickly, leaving 

 its victim dead upon the field, 



I had a similar experience as to locality, 

 in regard to R&luviiis novenarius, a IIemipte- 

 Kous insect. Here it is common, and is be- 

 coming more numerous every year, but there 

 I never saw it, and do not know that it is 

 there now. 



Besides 14,212 acres timothy pasture, 

 7,007 [acres clover pasture, ,S(i,lG(i blue grass 

 pasture, and 9.55,82(3 acres prairie pasture, 

 amounting in the aggregate to 7,769,926 acres, 

 valued at $00,129,780, omitting fractions. 



Tills only relates to the manipulations of 

 the soil and its productions, and does not 

 include stock, milk, Ixitter, cheese, garden 

 and orchard products, of which we shall have 

 something to say on a future occasion. Surely 

 there is a signilicance attached to tliese 

 results, when compared with the older states, 

 and especially with ' the "Sunny South," 

 When we see the coiniiaratively small acreage 

 devoted to tobacco it must surely be encour- 

 aging to those who fear our country is becom- 

 ing "one vast -'tobacco patch," In Kansas, 

 at least, the preponderenee leans towards 

 ivheat and corn. 



LONG-LEGGED CENTIPEDE. 

 Cerjiatia FoiiCEPS. — Noticing a para- 

 graph on page 711 (November number) of the 

 American Naturalist, in relation to the 

 "northern boundary" of this seemingly 

 unique myriopod, recalls some observations 

 of my own on its local habitat, and especially 

 the " sharpness " of its own boundary. For 

 instance, from 1812 to 1818 my residence was 

 at Marietta, on the banks of tlie Susquehanna 

 river, being the southwestern margin of Lan- 

 caster county. Pa. Although the last eight 

 years of my residence in tliat locality were 

 among the most active aud enthusia.stic of 

 my life, as an entomological explorer and 

 collector, yet, during the entire period of 

 thirty-six years I never saw a single specimen 

 of Cermatia forceps in or about that locality, 

 aud from the faci that I have been unable to 

 make any one from that place understand 

 what kind of animal I mean, when I inquired 

 about it, I infer that it is not there now. 

 But when I located here in 1848, I found 

 them in tolerable abundance in the centre of 

 the city, and in remote locjilities within its 

 boundaries, and I have seen them at various 

 times every year from that period down to 

 the present time. At first I only found them 

 in cellars, especially of old buildings, and I 

 was almost ready to conclude that they were 

 mere spectres they vanished so quickly from 

 my view, but at length a friendly spider's 

 web accompli.shed what I had failed in by en- 

 tangling several specimens. Now, liowever, I 

 find them on first, second and third stories, as 

 well as cellars, in stables and outhouses, and 

 often in my own sanctum and sleeping room — 

 indeed, they frequently come out of their 

 hiding-places at night and run across the 

 desk on which I am writing, and in one in- 

 stance across the very paper. Marietta is 

 about twelve miles west of Lancaster, but 

 whether this myriopod has been observed at 

 any intermediate point, 1 cannot say. And 

 here allow me to record a deadly conllict be- 

 tween a full-grown (Jcrmatia and a cockroach 

 {Blatta oriciitulis) as related to me by an eye- 

 witness of this city, of sufiicient intelligence 

 and veracity, in my view, to entitle it to 



AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT, 



The subject of this department, as a pros- 

 pective creation of Congress, is now looming 

 up, and the wonder is that it has not been 

 thought of and carried into effect at an earlier 

 period of our liistory as a nation— indeed, at 

 the very foundation of the government. It 

 is proposed to raise this department to an 

 pquality with the State Department, the 

 War, Treasury, Navy, Interior, and other 

 departments, with a secretary who shall be a 

 member of the Cabinet, and in all respects be 

 on an equality with the other presidential 

 advisers. It seems to us that this is eminently 

 proper, and should have been done long ago 

 for the simple reason that agriculture is, or 

 ought to be, the first interest of any civilized 

 nation— an interest of paramount value, and 

 upon which are based all other interests of 

 the nation. It involves the great question of 

 physical subsistence, and furnishes the sinews 

 for the practical operation of the whole ma- 

 chinery of government and the successful 

 existence of society. Without agriculture 

 and its products all other departments of the 

 government, as well as commerce, manufac- 

 tures, arts and sciences, and all other interests 

 pertaining to eivilization, must become en- 

 tirely extinguished for the want of a material 

 basis. Wliat would an army or navy be with- 

 out the subsistence which agriculture fur- 

 nishes ? When a being is born into this world, 

 whether it be the lowest or the higliest crea- 

 tion, or any intermediate creation, the first 

 impulse that it manifests tends towards sub- 

 sistence, and if this is not furnished at the 

 proper time, and in proper quantity and 

 quality, that being languishes or perishes. 

 So long as wo are in the body we are com- 

 pelled to provide for the comforts of the body, 

 and no man or animal, no individual, state 

 or 'nation, can be either comfortable or con- 

 tented so long as they are hungry or inade- 

 quately clotlied, and the material to assure 

 these comforts is drawn from the soil as a 

 tangible result of agriculture. Where the 

 necessity for agricultural labor does not exist, 

 the state of civilization is low and inferior. 

 In locating in and "settling up" a new 

 country the very first and all-absorbing ques- 

 tion is^ its fitness for agriculture, and if this 

 resource is wanting it is not regarded as a 

 place that is fit for human beings to live in, 

 simply because it does not promise the ali- 

 ment necessary to a continuance of human 

 life. If this, and much more that might be 

 said in behalf of agricultue be so, it seems 

 reasonable to assume that it ought to elicit 

 the fostering support of government in pro- 

 jiortion to the essentiality of its function. 

 There may be some objections to making 

 agriculture a co-ordinate department of the 

 government, but the most objectionable to us 

 would be its political snbordination to the 

 periodical changes in the administration of 

 the government, whereby it might become a 

 "plum" for politicians to intrigue and fight 

 about, but if its creators wouldthey could pro- 

 vide against such a contingency. 



discovered about the base of it quantities of 

 issuing gum, but never had found any insects. 

 FromTiis report we concluded tliat it was in- 

 tested by the common " Peach Tree Borer" 

 {^■Ej^eria exilosa), and that wlien he had made 

 his "examinations the insects had already 

 escaped in their matured form. Last -year 

 the tree was so much enervated that it scarcely 

 had power to leaf or blossom, and, of course, 

 produced no fruit. This spring he removed 

 it, and brought us a portion of tlie lower end 

 of the trunk. The whole interior of the 

 trunk to about the height of two feet was in 

 a state of decay, and this decay extended 

 down into the larger roots at least one foot 

 under the ground. A thin shell of living 

 wood here and there around the exterior was 

 all that was left as an avenue for the ascend- 

 ing sap. This dead wood was jierfectly 

 honey-combed with galleries, containing nu- 

 merous larvae, not of the JEyeria, but of a 

 species of Langicornia, (probably a clytus 

 or a saperda, or some of their cogeners), 

 From the fact that a number of young peach 

 trees had also been in a feeble condition, and 

 which on removal were found to be similarly 

 infested— some of them perfectly girdled at 

 the base— and the roots completely barked 

 for six inches below the surface— even to the 

 destruction of the woody tissue — we incline 

 to the opinion that these larvie are Saperdans, 

 based mainly upon the fact that we have fre- 

 quently found young apple trees in the same 

 condition, caused by Saperdans. One of these 

 young trees (about an inch in diameter) con- 

 tained a larva in the heart of it, working 

 upward. Mr. .Johnston says that some years 

 ago an old building stood very near this peach 

 tree, and that on its removal the lower tim- 

 bers were perforated similar to the trunk of 

 ■ihe tree, and were "full of worms," which 

 no care wa§ taken to destroy, and he supposes 

 that they found their way from thence into 

 the tree as the only place accessible to them, 

 for the surroundings are chiefly brick and 

 mortar, being in the very centre of the city. 



These larva: are perfectly white in most 

 cases, a few having a tint of pink. They are 

 of various sizes, the largest being \\ inches 

 long, and I in circumference around the 

 thoracia segments, whicli are larger than 

 those that follow, though not nearly so large 

 as they usually are in the Buprestaus. They 

 are altogether footless ; the liead small and of 

 a dark brown color, and the mandibles short 

 and sharp. 



Even if the peach escapes the cold weather, 

 it has yet a fearful gauntlet to run. The 

 peach-aphis, peach-coccus, peach- TomjcM.'?, 

 peach-borer, peach-codling, poach-curculio 

 and several other pests, including this last 

 one, all seem to be lying around— like the 

 aspirants to the throne of France— waiting 

 for an opportunity to possess it. 



We are in the effort to breed these larrm, 

 and if we succeed we shall in due time, we 

 hope, be able to determine the species. In 

 the meantime we would admonish our readers 

 to destroy all worms that they find in or on 

 their trees, and thus save themselves a world 

 of subsequent trouble. Especially when they 

 split up old wood or timbers and find worms 

 in them, they should see that they are killed 

 or fed to fowls. Fowls are very fond of them, 

 for they are a rich and savory morsel. ^Mr. J. 

 gave his chickens quite a feast when he re- 

 moved and split up the old peach stump. 

 We feel confident that this matter is not at- 

 tended to as it should be and cuuld be, if only 

 the people determine that it xooidd be. 



ANOTHER PEACH TREE ENEMY. 



For the past two or three years Mr. Jno. 

 M. Johnston, of I>ancaster, has been making 

 frequent complaints about an old but favorite 

 peach tree, alleging that it was gradually be- 

 coming weaker and weaker, aud that he had 



GARBERIA. 



An Honor Conferred Upon a Lancaster County 

 Botanist. 

 At the meeting of the Botanical Section of 

 the Aaidemii of Natural Sciences, of Philadel- 

 phia, held on the 10th of November, 1879, Mr. 

 Iledfield presented the following from Dr. Asa 

 Gray, America's distinguished botanist : "I 

 wish to secure an opportunity which occurs to 

 dedicate a genus of plants peculiar to Florida, 

 to Dr. A. P. Garber, of Pennsylvania, who 



