iOO 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[July, 



the rows of cabliage will induce the worms to 

 pupate beueath them. These should be made 

 of rough boards. This worm is attached bj' 

 a parasite [PUromalus puparum) which, in 

 some localities, keeps them in check. On one 

 occasion we received twenty of the pjupa^. from 

 Chambersburg, and seventeen of them were 

 infested with parasites. In some localities it 

 may be presumed the parasites do not exist, 

 and of course there the worm will increase 

 rapidly, unless artificial remedies arc resorted 

 to. 



Insects. 



Destroy the egps of the Tent Caterpillar, whieh 

 are to be found in small, closely-filtini^ riuss, or 

 bands, near the ends of the smaller twigs, and may 

 be cut away. Many insects harbor beneath the loose 

 bark of trees, and by scraping this off and washing 

 the trunk and limbs with a solution of soft soap 

 much good may be done. To prevent the ascent of 

 the wingless females of the Canker Worm, use heavy 

 brown paper bound closely aronnd the tree's trunk, 

 and then smear with cheap printer's ink or tar. The 

 bands will have to be re-coated at frequent intervals 

 through the season. 



Of course this paragraph alludes to an 

 earlier part of the season than the present 

 date ; but If every subscriber to The Farmer 

 was wise he would save all his numbers, and 

 have every one or two years bound in a 

 volume for future reference, and for that pur- 

 pose each volume is acoomp.anied by an index, 

 enabling any one to find what they want at 

 the pioper season. If those who subscribe for 

 The Farmer do iwt save it and have it 

 bound, they will be sure to regret it before 

 they become old men. We have every num- 

 ber from the 1st of January, 1869, to the 

 present day, and we would not take, and 

 really could get, five times the subscription 

 price for a complete set. 



Pests Along the Sound. 



Another plague, and a very troublesome one, in 

 Connecticut towns, along the shore of Long Island 

 .Sound, just at this time, is the rosebug. It attacks 

 not only the rose bush and other flowering shrubs, 

 but also fruit as well, both on vines and trees. At 

 Saybrook and Westbrook its ravages have been very 

 marked, and the apple, cherry and peach trees and 

 the grapevines are covered with them and the fruit 

 destroyed. On the grapevine the hug eats away the 

 fleshy tissue of the leaves and the cluster of youno- 

 fruit, leaving only the net-work of veins and the de- 

 nuded stalk as a memorial of the visit of the destroyer. 

 In the pe.aeh, apple and cherry tree they attack the 

 young fruit, and will eat out entirely one side of it. 

 At Oyster Kiver the bug has been as abundant, per- 

 haps, as at any point. There, on the Dennison 

 farm, are to be seen peach trees bearing fruit that is 

 now about an inch and a half in diameter. The 

 younger Mr. Dennison assured our reporter that on 

 the day before his visit he picked seventy-four of 

 these rosebugs from one small peach. They cover 

 the fruit three or four layers deep, and hardly a 

 peach can be found that does not have upon it a 

 score or two of these bugs. Rose bushes and the 

 peony bush are entirely rifled of their flowery treas- 

 ures. The edible vegetables appear to be entirely 

 free from their attack. In the shore towns the 

 potato crop has suffered much from the potato bug, 

 but this annoyance is reported to be less troublesome 

 this year than it was last. Everywhere Paris green 

 is reported to be effectual in killing the bug. — jVcw 

 MavetiRegiater . 



It would have been more satisfactory if the 

 writer of this last paragraph had mentioned 

 the scientific name of the insect referred to, 

 but we presume it is Mucrodacti/lus subspinu- 

 sus, a most pernicious insect, not only to 

 roses, but also to cherries, grapes, common 

 elder and many other plants. In any event, 

 "go for them" all. 



Essays. 



BATS.* 

 To many people bats are repulsive animals ; 

 a mongrel, between a "beast and a bird," 

 and many a household is frightened out of its 

 propriety when one enters an open window on 

 a summer evening ; and yet, in intermediate 

 use, organic structure, general harmlessness, 

 and relative position in animal classification, 



*Bead before the LiauEeuu Society, June 26th, 1880, by Dr 

 S. S. Rathvon. 



it stands above the lion, the horse and the 

 kine ; and no very remote distance from man 

 himself. Let us parse the bat in the Aiiimal 

 Kingdom, just to illustrate the position occu- 

 pied by that subject. Division 1. Verte- 

 BRATA — Structurally distinguished by an in- 

 ternal skeleton and a spinal column. Class 1. 

 Mammalia — Animals, the females of which 

 yield a lacteal fluid. Order 1. Bimana— Two- 

 handed. Order 2. Quadrumana— Four- 

 handed. Order 3. Carnaria — Teeth adapted 

 to flesh-eating. Suborder 1. Oheiroptera — 

 AVing-lianded. Suborder 2. Insectivora— 

 Insect eating. Family 1. Vespertilianid^ 

 — Bats. Genus 1. Vespertilio. Species 2. 

 Wovchorece iiiis — Northern Bat. Eight orders, 

 two suborders, and many groups, families, 

 genera and species follow these before we 

 reach the foot of the mammalian column, 

 from which it will appear that if the Bat is 

 not in the head, or neck of the systematic 

 man, it is at least in the region of the thorax, 

 and possibly the pro-tliorax. It is not neces- 

 sary to parse any farther as we have com- 

 passed the Bat, and that animal alone forms 

 the theme of these remarks. The Bat family 

 has a wide geographical distribution, includ- 

 ing the entire world, and the species are 

 numerous— seventy odd genera were in the 

 British museum twenty years ago — measuring, 

 in aler expansion, from five inches to five feet. 

 The specimens before us to-day are the "Red" 

 or "Northern" Bat ( Vesperlilio noveborecenus.) 



Bats are systematically divisible into two 

 great groups, namely, the Fntgivora and the 

 Insectivora, with an intermediate group of 

 Sanguinaria, including the " Vampyres.''^ 

 These groups are so diversified in external 

 structure and habit that they have been still 

 further subdivided into eighteen minor groups 

 or families; but our species, according to the 

 Cuvierian classification, belongs to the "first 

 family." In the fruit-eating Bats the molars 

 or grinders are flat on top like in other vege- 

 table feeders, but in the carnivorous species 

 the molars are surmounted with conical 

 points. The chest and the scapular and 

 clavicular processes of the Bat are largely de- 

 veloped and strong, giving them great winged 

 power, but the posterior members are com- 

 paratively small and weak, not deficient how- 

 ever in prehension, as by means of these they 

 a.e able to suspend themselves for many 

 months, in caves and other shelters, during 

 their winter hibernation. All the species are 

 strictly nocturnal in tlieir habits remaining 

 concealed during the day and flying abroad in 

 search of food in the evening, and their 

 peregrinations are often continued until late 

 in the night, especially when food is scarce. 

 The carnivorous species capture their prey 

 entirely on the wing and during their flight, 

 and the number of insects a Bat will destroy 

 during a single evening is almost incredible ; 

 and, in this respect, no phase of nature ex- 

 hibits more strikingly the adaptation of means 

 to ends, than the relation of the Bat to the 

 insect world ; and among the night-flying in- 

 sects are found many of the most destructive 

 kinds. Its operations are not a merely spas- 

 modic effort that is suggested by caprice, but 

 it is continuous and based upon the absolute 

 necessities of the aggressive animal. When 

 insects subside Bats also subside, for then the 

 winter is near. 



On the 15th of the present month (Jimc) 

 Mr. W. E. Lant, of 210 East King street, 

 this city, brought me four specimens of the 

 Red Bat — a female and three young ones — 

 which he captured on his premises ; the young 

 being more than half grown, which illustrates 

 the aflectioii of this animal for its young, and 

 how it continues to provide for them, even 

 when they seem large enough to provide for 

 themselves. Inasmuch as the female bat is pro- 

 vided with but two manume, like the bimana 

 and qnadnmiuna, the production of three at a 

 birth is as abnormal in them as it is in the 

 two orders named, or in the cow, the mare 

 and the sheep, and, perhaps, not more fre- 

 quent. The production of twins is more com- 

 mon, but more frequently they bring forth 

 but one. This female seemed to have a very 



strong affection for her oftspriug, being en- 

 tirely regardless of her own safety, hugging 

 them closely to her body, and covering them 

 with her membraneous wings. Two of the 

 young adhered firmly to her two teats, and 

 the third one seized a tuft of her abdominal 

 fur, and aided by its hooked thumb, and its 

 posterior claws, it adhered so firmly to the 

 mother that it was difficult to effect th-ir 

 separation without injuring them ; and as I 

 intended to embalm the whole family in alco- 

 hol, as a contribution to science, it was not 

 witliout some compunction that I accom- 

 plished my purpose. About twelve or four- 

 teen years ago a colony of bats located itself 

 behind a large sign-board against the front of 

 No. 101 North Queen street ; and, as they 

 increased rapidly in number, their presence 

 became exceedingly offensive to the tenants 

 of the building, and I was requested to have 

 them removed. Now the odor of a Bat-tery 

 of that kind js by no means as pleasan'- as 

 ripe peaches or "Araby the blest," hence I 

 was compelled to assatdt them in their cita- 

 del. On that occasion I pursued the most 

 humane course I could think of to dislodge 

 them, and I succeeded beyond my expecta- 

 tions. I merely drew out the sign about six 

 inches from the wall, and admitted the sun- 

 light, when all that were able to fly immedi- 

 ately took their departure, after only a slight 

 disturbance. They bore off many of their 

 young, but still they left many behind, and as 

 they did not return for these during the day, 

 I began to doubt their vaunted affection for 

 their offspring; but I was too precipitate in 

 my doubts, for on the following morning I 

 foimd that they had returned and carried the 

 remaining ones away during the previous 

 night, and as the sign was never placed back 

 in its former position, it was never reinhabit- 

 ed by the bats, and I was glad I was not 

 under the necessity of destroying them, so 

 fully was I imyressed with their usefulness. 

 The tall steeple of the Lutheran Church, ou 

 Duke street, is an ample shelter for bats, and 

 on one occasion I found a colony of some 

 hundreds located there, although the pre- 

 mises were also occupied by a family of Barn 

 Owls (Stric ptratincola.) Some years ago I 

 read a very interesting description of a bat- 

 cave in Texas, where these animals assem- 

 bled together by tens of thousands. An eye- 

 witness who visited the place one evening, 

 stated that it required more than an hour for 

 them all to issue from the cave, and that they 

 came forth in such a dense column that their 

 presence produced premature darkness. 

 Tliese distributed themselves over a vast area 

 of country, and it occupied nearly the whole 

 night for them to return and re-enter the 

 cave again. The benefit these animals con- 

 ferred upon that insect-stricken country by 

 their presence, and how utterly desolated it 

 might have become without them, can only be 

 imagined but not realized, for it far surpasses 

 merely human calculation. 



Ari-stotle defined the Bat as "a bird with 

 skinny wings," and Plinyspeaks of it as "a bird 

 that brings forth its young alive and suckles 

 them," and the mediteval naturalists mainly 

 confined themselves to copying the ancients. 

 Although Aldrovandus made some advance in 

 relation to these animals, yet yielding to the 

 prejudices of his time he placed them in the 

 same family with the Ostrich, on the ground 

 "that these two species of birds partake equally 

 of the nature of quadrupeds." Scalliger con- 

 sidered the Bat a perfect marvel, "because it 

 flies without wings, sees in the dark, and be- 

 cotnes sightless wlien light appears." "It 

 is," he adds, "the most singular of all birds, 

 because it has teeth and is without a beak." 

 But these old notions in relation to the Bat 

 have been dissipated by the illuminations of 

 ever advancing science, and hence it is found 

 that the Bat has two auricles and two ventri- 

 cles ; the right auricle and ventricle to throw 

 the blood through the lungs, and the left 

 through the general circulation of the body. 

 They have cellular lungs, suspended and sur- 

 rounded by a pleura, a muscular diaphragm, 

 interposed between the cavity of the chest 



