THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[January, 



and inflamed, and iti:hed intolerably. Beef 

 gal/ ointment was applied, and two applica- 

 tions perfoiTued a cure. It was a habit among 

 some farmers then, when they slaughtered a 

 beef, to carefully cut out the gall and hang it 

 up for future use. There it would hang "tor 

 several months, until the liquid portion 

 evaporated, and the residue assumed the con- 

 sistence of a salve. If it became too hard or 

 '•stiff" to spread as an ointment, it was 

 softened with lard, sweet oil or butter. Some 

 time afterwards— two or three years— our feet 

 were frozen again, and on this occasion the 

 cold application was tried, and on the follow- 

 ing morning there was very little to evince 

 that they had been frosted ; but there being 

 no snow on the ground, a mixture of crushed 

 ice and water was used, accompanied by 

 friction. Years afterwards a gentleman in- 

 formed us that he nearly paralyzed his nether 

 limbs by immersing his feet in ice water to 

 draw out frost. But it was weeks, perhaps 

 months, after they had been frozen, and wlien 

 they were swollen and inflamed ; moreover, 

 he him-^elf was in a heated or feverish condi- 

 tion. Verily, circumstances alter cases. '-Pork 

 and saur-kraut, as an antidote, may be good 

 for blacksmiths, but its h — 1 on tailors." 



A FOREIGN GRAIN ENEIWY. 

 " The great cause of the failure of wheat 

 in Russia is a beetle plague. The beetle is 

 known as the "Couzka," or Anisoplia Austri- 

 aca, and first appeared in the Melitopel dis- 

 trict five years ago, but how it came no one 

 knows, as it had never been seen in any part 

 of Russia before. These insects appear to 

 live for several years, and although they take 

 two years to develop from the egg to full 

 growth, yet they increase so fast that in the 

 second year of their appearance so many as 

 ten bushels of them have been collected otf 

 one acre of land." 



The foreign genus Anisoplia is allied to the 

 American genus Anomala, which sometimes 

 becomes an inveterate pest, both in its larva 

 and its imago stages of development. It is in 

 the larva form, however, that these insects 

 are the most injurious to vegetation, although 

 in its perfect or beetle state" it often seriously 

 damages vegetation, especially the grape in 

 its blooming season, roses, and other flowers. 

 Its larval period is passed under ground, and 

 it then lives on the roots, and tender sprouts 

 of vegetation before they have pushed them- 

 selves above ground. They have a family 

 alliance with our "cherry-bug" [Macrodac- 

 tylus subspiiiosus,) and almost every farmer 

 and fruit-grower knows how destructive these 

 insects occasionally become in some localities. 

 Anisoplia belongs to the order Coleoptera, 

 the subsection Lamellicoisnia, and the 

 family Melolonthid^. The antenna are 

 terminated by a little fan-like appendage 

 which the insect can spread out and close up 

 at will. The larva is a white, fleshy, crescent- 

 formed worm, popularly known under the 

 name of "Grub-worm," but they are much 

 smaller than the common Grub-worm of the 

 "May-beetle." They are voracious feeders 

 and remain under ground, feeding all the 

 while, from two to three years. In Europe a 

 reward is commonly offered for the collection 

 of both the larva and the adult beetles, and 

 the work is done mainly by poor children. 

 There is perhaps nothing that would kill them 

 without also killing the grain. The only way 

 seems to be to loosen or dig up the soil, and 

 sift out the grubs, and sometimes the product 

 amounts to many bushels per acre. It is not 

 likely that we would import the insects in 

 wheat. We have analagous native species 

 that are bad enough. 



Stephens, inhis ^'■Manualof British Beetles,'''' 

 thus describes Anisoplia ausiriaca- blue- 

 black, glabrous : elytra dull red, with a square 

 black patch round the scutellum ; sides of the 

 abdomen with white facicles. Length, about 

 three-quarters of an inch, or 20 m. m. In- 

 troduced. The family to which they belong 

 have the antennae lor horns) clavate, the club 

 composed of three or more lamellie or pectina- 

 tions, the basal joint sometimes half the en- 



tire length ; legs slender and elongate, or short- 

 ish and stout, mostly ^formed for digging ; 

 tibia externally dentate and spinulous. In 

 the species here alluded to the legs are long 

 and moderately slender — not much unlike an 

 overgrown "Cherry -bug." liTow, it is within 

 the pale of possibility that we may ultimately 

 have to lament the introduction of this insect, 

 just as we now do the , introduction of the 

 "cabbage-worm," the "currant sawfly,"and 

 the "asparagus-beetle." 



The Lammellicornian Beetles, however, do 

 not all burrow in the ground and feed on 

 roots. Some feed on much decayed wood, 

 and we have succeeded in rearing the perfect 

 beetles— especially Passalus, Pelidnota and 

 Osmodernia— from larvae that we have taken 

 from decayed wood. Therefore, it seems to 

 us that it is not judicious firming to let old 

 logs (.f wood remain undisturbed "year in 

 and year out," until it is decayed and be- 

 comes the nesting places of these beetles. 

 The Pelidnota, especially, often becomes 

 numerous, and destroys the foliage of the 

 grapevines. On one occasion we saw them so 

 numerous on a Wild Fox grapevine, in the 

 vicinity of where they bred, that they stripped 

 it entirely of its foliage. 



A. cording to the "clipping" at the head 

 of this paper— sent to us by a friend— the 

 Anisoplia is destructive to the wheat crop of 

 Russia ; from which we infer that the larva 

 destroys the roots, and, perchance, the imago 

 may appear early enough to also destroy the 

 foliage or the bloom, and although it may not 

 be likly that we would import the larvaj, yet 

 it is not impossible we might import the 

 mature beetle or its eggs. 



ADDENDUM ET CORREGIENDUM. 

 We think Warwick, in his communication 

 in another page of this number of the Farmee, 

 has omitted one society that was the immedi- 

 ate predecessor of the present one, of which 

 we think Mr. H. M. Engle was President : 

 Messrs. J. B. Garber and J. M. Prantz, Vice 

 Presidents ; and Christian H. Lefevre, Secre- 

 tary, and perhaps Librarian. This society 

 met in a back room, and in an upper room of 

 the Cooper House, but it held no exhibitions, 

 ft was organized about, or a short time after, 

 the outbreak of the rebellion — in 1860 or 

 1861— but in consequence of that event it be- 

 came enfeebled, and finally disbanded. It had 

 a librai-y, kept at the office of Mr. Lefevre, 

 and we were one of a committee authorized 

 to make a disposal or distribution of it. It 

 honored us with the function of Entomologist, 

 and Mr. Staufier with tliat of Botanist. 



We regret exceedingly the misunderstand- 

 ing between Warwick and the management 

 of the late exhibition ; but to us the whole 

 matter is as transparent as glass. No one, 

 we feel convinced, meant any disrespect or 

 took any undue advantages. The whole thing 

 grew out of one of those informalities which 

 often disturb the harmony of societies where- 

 ever they exist. As societies increase in im- 

 portance and enter into larger enterprises 

 they become more complicated in their organi- 

 zation, and hence are under the necessity of 

 adopting certain rules for their government ; 

 and, the members, as exemplars, are as much 

 in duty bound to observe those rules as out- 

 siders are, if they have the success of the 

 society at heart. We had previously been 

 elected a member of the Board of Managers, 

 and under the .ules of the society all that re- 

 lates to public exhibitions is under the control 

 of that board. But, owing to unforeseen con- 

 tingencies, it was impossible for us to give 

 our personal attention to the matter during 

 the exhibition. It is true that Warwick came 

 to our place of business and donated to us 

 his fruit, we to take possession of it at the 

 conclusion of the fair, and also told us that if 

 it drew a premium it should be for the benefit 

 of The Lancaster Farmer ; for all of 

 which we felt exceedingly thankful, and still 

 feel so. But we supposed he had complied 

 with the rules (being a member of the society, ) 

 and therefore we paid no special attention to 

 the matter, feeling that all was right. Now, 



it is both a written and an unwritten rule in 

 all societies that hold exhibitions, where there 

 is a competition for premiums, for exhibitors 

 to have their exhibits entered upon the books 

 of the society at the office or department of 

 the secretary and his assistants, and any 

 entries otherwise made, of course, can't come 

 to the notice of tlie officers, nor under the ex- 

 amination of the judges. The judges are 

 usually men who do not covet the office, and 

 hence confine their labors to the entries in the 

 books placed in their possession by the officers. 

 If no entry at all is made in the books, no 

 matter how meritorious an exhibit may be — 

 even if it were "apples of gold" and peaches 

 of silver— it could not come officially before 

 the judges, nor have they any authority to 

 make an entry. 



All the judges have to do is to determine 

 the degree of merit among the articles recorded. 

 The judges do not even name the amount of 

 the premiums. They merely determine 

 whether it is entitled to a, first, second or third 

 premium, or whether tpecial, a diploma, or 

 honorable mention. The books are then re- 

 turned to the officers and they carry out the 

 amounts according to the published premium 

 list. If we clearly understand Warwick's 

 statement, he, no doubt with the best inten- 

 tions in the world, quietly but informally pro- 

 ceeded to arrange and place his own labels 

 upon his fruit, and then left the exhibition 

 without having reported it formally to the 

 secretaries. If this is so then his exhibit 

 could not be otherwise than neglected. There 

 may be a bit of " red tape " in this, but it is 

 necessarily so. Suppose a bloody revolt was 

 to occur in our county or State, and the suf- 

 ferers were to implore the President of the 

 United States to send on Federal troops to 

 quell the disturbance. What attention could 

 be legally given to such an appeal ? The 

 matter would have to be brought before him 

 officially, in due foi-m of law, before he couid 

 move in the premises at all. But suppose War- 

 wick did report it at the proper place, it might 

 even then be neglected without any one intend- 

 ing to disregard it. Every one who lias had any- 

 thing to do with the opening of a fair knows 

 how often "confusion becomes worse con- 

 founded" on such occasions — when every one 

 wants to be served first. Under such'circum- 

 stances, it is very plain to see how such 

 omissions may occur, without intentional dis- 

 respect to any one. 



In regard to the demand of an admission 

 fee from Warwick, merely for going in to get 

 his baskets to take them home ; the act was 

 hardly warranted by the circumstances of the 

 case, if it was not discourteous. But perhaps 

 the doorkeeper did not know that that was his 

 only purpose, or, he might have acted too 

 literally under his instructions as to admis- 

 sions. We think, however, that Warwick 

 misapprehends the import of the rule he 

 quotes. That rule relates to exhibits and not 

 to exhibitors, and if any one was charged a 

 fee for an entrance of his goods, it was clearly 

 against the rule, or was done in a misunder- 

 standing of the rule. As to '■'■exhibitors' 

 tickets,'" that had been agreed upon by the 

 Board of Managers weeks before the fair was 

 opened. This is the usual custom where 

 there are liberal premiums ofliered, a large 

 number of exhibitors, and heavy expenses. It 

 seems necessary to draw such'a line, else a 

 person might carry an apple in on a plate, 

 have it entered, draw an exhibitor's ticket, 

 and go in and out for a whole week gratis. 

 We vvere not present when this rule was 

 adopted, but having accepted the position of 

 a manager, we do not hesitate to bear our share 

 of the responsibility. So far as the reporters 

 are concerned, in order to take the "shortest 

 cut," they make their reports from the entries 

 on the books of the clerks. If an exhibit does 

 not appear there it is not likely to appear in 

 their printed reports. We have volunteered 

 these remarks, because we believe the whole 

 thing was one of those fortuitous events that 

 may occur among the best of friends. 



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