134 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[September, 



or third broods are always more numerous and 

 more destructive than first broods, for thejreason 

 that every female who survives the vi^inter is 

 capable of producing a brood of two or three 

 hundred ; therefore, it is of importance that 

 they should be destroyed early in the spring. 

 They are too small to'capture by hand— more- 

 over they are like the Irishman's flea, " When 

 you put your fenger on him, faith he's not 

 there." Neither can they be reached with a 

 liquid or dry poison, for the same reason. 

 Spraying them with a poisonous liquid early 

 in the morning or on a cool day, might have a 

 good effect. Little seems to be known of the 

 larva of this Flea-Beetle. They are never 

 found on the plants, and they probably pass 

 that period of their lives in the great matrix of 

 "mother earth," or feed upon some other 

 vegetation, but many of them are so exceed- 

 ingly small that their study would be at- 

 tended with many difficulties. Plowing the 

 tobacco ground late in the fall and bringing 

 the hibernating subjects to the surface, where 

 they would be exposed to tlie weather vicissi- 

 tudes of a long winter, would doubtless have 

 the same effect upon them that it has upon 

 other insects of similar habits in this respect. 

 But many insects that bury themselves in the 

 soil have the power of enduring an intense 

 degree of cold where it is uniform, but fre- 

 quently alternating, freezing and thawing, is 

 destructiye to them. They are, however, one 

 of those evils we must learn to endure if we 

 cannot cure. 



POTATO WEEVIL. 



A gentleman having written to us concern- 

 ing a bug that was infesting his potatoes, we 

 submit the following : 



The ash-colored insect that infests your 

 potato stalks is a true beetle, and belongs to 

 the great family Cueculionid^ or "Snout- 

 Beetles," of which the common CurcuUo is 

 the type. This insect is Baridiiis hinotatus, 

 the "two-spotted potato weevil." As you 

 say in your note, the eggs of this insect are 

 deposited on the stalks several inches above 

 ground, and where they hatch the young, 

 white footless, maggot-like grubs bore into 

 the stalk until they reach the centre, and 

 then continue their course downward until 

 they reach the end of it, under ground, where 

 they are transformed into a pupa, from which, 

 in due time, the perfect beetle is developed. 

 It is as a grub that this insect is most destruc- 

 tive, and as it works altogether inside of the 

 stalk, no remedy could reach it, therefore, 

 when the potato vines begin to show the 

 presence of the grub in them, the only way is 

 to pull them up, and immerse the parts con- 

 taining them into hot water ; or by throwing 

 them into the fire and burning them. This 

 may be slow and tedious work, but you may 

 have the satisfaction of knowing that for 

 every female you destroy, you prevent the 

 possibility of at least three hundred imme- 

 diate successors, which would otherwise be 

 developed. These beetles hibernate during 

 the winter, and are on hand for the crop next 

 spring, therefore, it would be well to destroy 

 all the beetles you can find from this time 

 forward. 



Mterstown, Leb. co., Pa., Aug. 9, 1880. 

 Ed. Lancastek Farmer — Dear Sir : I have just 

 enclosed a strange specimen in a email box and 

 mailed it to you. I found it growing upon the leaf 

 of a kind of exotic lily. They appear to belong to 

 some insect, and look like small cocoons, though 

 their marked regulariiy of position would seem to 

 me to indicate the fact of their being eggs. Would 

 you please examine them and oblige me by letting 

 me know what they are. — / ain yours reapectfully^ 

 Ayidrew Thomas G. Apple. 



Postal-card and box duly received. Our 

 correspondent is right in his surmises that the 

 specimens in the box were the eggs of an in- 

 sect. They are attached by one end to slen- 

 der, hairlike footstocks, and are the eggs of 

 a species of Chrysnpa, and| most likely of 

 occidata, although I could not determine the 

 species from the eggs alone, especially as 

 there are several species of tjiem. They are 

 commonly called " Lace- wings, " or "Golden- 



eyes," and belong to the family Hemerobii- 

 1)^, of which the " Ant-Lyons " are the type. 

 The Ant-Lion is known by the funnel-shaped 

 pit it constructs, the inner walls of which are 

 fmely granulated, and woe betide the strag- 

 gling ant that falls into it, for buried under 

 the granulations at the bottom, he will en- 

 counter his deadly foe, who has been lying in 

 ambush for him. The larva of the " Lace- 

 wing," however, does not form such a trap, 

 but prowls about and regales himself upon the 

 luscious juices of the plant-lice, {Aphids) and 

 when he has completed his larval development 

 he spins himself up in a small spherical co- 

 coon, and in due time comes forth a beautiful 

 pale-green fly with large gauzy wings and 

 golden eyes ; and it is the female of this fly 

 that deposits the little eggs found on the lily, 

 but not particularly on this plant, for they 

 are oftener found on the leaves of trees or 

 shrubs — perhaps in any suitable place they 

 happen to be in, when their time of oviposi- 

 tion supervenes. They belong to the order 

 Neuroptera, or net-winged insects. 



Dr. C. A. G.— The small, light-brown in- 

 sects submitted to my examination are 

 CoLEOPTEKA, and belong to the Tenebrio- 

 NiD^, or " meal-worm beetles," of which the 

 common "meal-worm," Ifeneferio molitor, is 

 the type. On examination I find they are 

 not at all what I supposed they were when I 

 first saw them. Those I found about the 

 grain stacks, in grain bins, and in mills, are 

 a species of sylvanus. Although, for the 

 matter of that, the meal-worms are also 

 found in mills, or wherever meal is kept. 

 Many of the species, however, live in decayed 

 wood ; others are found under circumstances 

 which render it doubtful what they feed 

 upon. The " Graveyard Beetle " — BJaps 

 mortisaga — belongs to the same great group — 

 Hetekomera— but to a different family. 

 On comparing this little beetle with its allies 

 in my collection I find I have not got it at all; 

 it is therefore new to me, although, 

 perhaps, not new to science. I, therefore, 

 cannot name it specifically, but as soon as I 

 learn its name I will inform you of it. Pul- 

 verized elmwood is akin to meal, and it is not 

 surprising that this insect should be found in 

 such an element. A wonderful change seems 

 to take place in the habits of insects as their 

 surroundings change. They seem to adapt 

 themselves to the conditions of advanced 

 civilization — educate themselves, as it were, 

 up to the standards suggested by necessity. 

 See how many different species are becoming 

 tobacco chewers that never chewed tobacco 

 before. 



Mr. G., Lititz. — The mealy and wooly in- 

 sects found clustering the branches of the 

 alder, at Lititz Spring, is no doubt the species 

 of Aphidid.* described by Dr. Fitch as Erio- 

 soma imhricator, which also infests the beach 

 trees. A strong stieam of tobacco decoction, 

 or diluted carbolic acid, we think would ex- 

 tinguish them. 



S. P. E., Esq. — Your deep purple larva, 

 with the pencil-like tufts on the first and last 

 rings of the body, and the orange-colored 

 tubercles on the back, is that of P(qAUo phile- 

 ctjior, of Say. Your singular green and gray 

 larva, with the speckled head and bifurcated 

 caudal segment is a Notodonto, and proba- 

 bly albifrons, as that species is usually found 

 on the oak. 



Mrs. P. E. G. — Your beautiful variegated 

 Lepidopterous larvJe, which you found feed- 

 ing on cherry leaves, corresponds very nearly 

 to Notodonto unicornis, as illustrated on plate 

 2, figure 8, of Harris' entomological corres- 

 pondence. It has gone into pupation, and if 

 we succeed in bringing out the moth we shall 

 have more to say aboiit it hereafter. 



Mr. L. L. D. — The yellow striped cater- 

 pillar, with a red head, a red band ground the 

 body, and with tail raised, which occurred in 

 a group on your dwarf pear, stripping it of 



its leaves, is the larva of Notodonto eoccina, 

 and is also found on the apple, the cherry, 

 and the plum. Your plan of saturating a 

 sponge with coal oil, fastening it to a pole, 

 igniting it and then holding it under the 

 group and " roasting them " is a very good 

 one 



Contributions. 



For The Lancaster Farmeb. 

 FORGETFULNESS OF BENEFITS. 



I am often surprised at the forgetfulness of 

 our agricultural writers and editors, when 

 referring to past operations of their own de- 

 partment in our nation. In your issue for 

 A..gnst, page 128, column 2, you— one of the 

 most careful and reliable men — say, speaking 

 of the Report (No. 24) for June and July, on 

 the condition of crops : "This is certainly a 

 great improvement on the old plan, when we 

 only heard from the department once a year, 

 and then only when half the succeeding year 

 had passed away." 



The monthly reports of the U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture were begun by Isaac 

 Newton, its first commissioner, I think in 

 1863, but certainly some 1.5 years ago. They 

 were continueu by every commissioner who 

 succeeded iiim, generally compiled and edited 

 by J. R. Dodge, one of the ablest agricultural 

 statisticians in our couutry, and so esteemed 

 in Europe. They were designed, and proved 

 very eftective to prevent those speculations in 

 grain which often defrauded both producers 

 and consuiBers by giving full and correct 

 statements of the condition of all kinds of 

 farm products, in advance of harvests and 

 markets. And in all those years they have 

 been constantly quoted from and referred to 

 by all the great leading newspapers of our 

 cities, as well as by most of our country 

 papers. Yet all this seems forgotten, and 

 they are now hailed as a quite recent insti- 

 tution. 



In the same manner we have read of tea 

 culture m our land as a recent affair; when it 

 was begun in South Carolina long before the 

 rebellion,- and the department of agriculture 

 has been distributing thousands of tea plants 

 every year all over the South, ever since that 

 war ended. 



Only a few days ago we read a gratulatory 

 that garden and farm seeds were now dis- 

 tributed to farmers direct from the depart- 

 ment, instead of being all given to M. 0. to be 

 distributed by them to political hacks and 

 trickster in the cities. The fact is that ever 

 since the department was established it dis- 

 tributed seeds to every agricultural society 

 and club whose address it could obtain, and 

 to all prominent farmers, gardeners and horti- 

 culturists known to it, as well as to any indi- 

 vidual who applied to it, whether prominent 

 or not. And that seeds and plants might have 

 the widest possible distribution, large quanti- 

 ties were given to merubers of Congress, to be 

 sent by them to such persons as would proper- 

 ly use them and report that use and their 

 success or failure. In many cases mem- 

 bers of Congress preferred sending lists 

 ot constituents most likely to use the seeds 

 rightly, and requested the Department to 

 send their quota to the persons directly, which 

 was always done. 



Immediately after the rebellion the Depart- 

 ment was informed that the entire South was 

 destitute of 'jood seeds of every kind, and 

 had but few even bad seeds. Commissioner 

 Newton immediately requested, and Congress 

 granted a large appropriation to purchase 

 seeds to supply the destitute in the Southern 

 States. But as there were no Southern mem- 

 bers of Congress, how distribute themV Every 

 clerk and many visitors were asked to give 

 names and post-ottices of acquaintances. 

 Masons and Odd Fellows furnished lists ot 

 prominent Southern brethren. Po.stmasters 

 and other civil officers were entered on the 

 lists, and thus an immense Southern area was 

 reached, and tens of thousands were prompt- 

 ly supplied with seeds, for gardens and fkrms, 



