134 



rH£ LANCASTER FARMER. 



[September, 



stinctively going below the frost line, and 

 there it is transformed into a large oval pupa, 

 black or very dark brown in color. It forms 

 an earthen cavity, but spins no cocoon ; and 

 there it hibernates during the winter, and its 

 next evolution is a large and splendid moth 

 at some period in the mouth of June in the 

 following year, according to the meteorologi- 

 cal condition of the weather. The colors of 

 the moth are ashen, yellow and reddish brown. 

 It is by no means a rare insect, but is none 

 the less curious. The loorm is associated with 

 the earlier recollections of my boyhood. More 

 than sixty years ago, in company with other 

 boys, we made a premature raid on a walnut 

 tree, and while we were engaged "hulling" 

 the walnuts a very large specimen of this larva 

 fell from the tree in our midst and caused a 

 precipitate stampede. It is very formidable 

 looking, but is entirely harmless. Its formid- 

 able actions are all a sham and it can be 

 handled with perfect impunity. It is found in 

 almost every State of the Union. 



Contributions. 



THE SPECTRE INSECT. 

 Mr. J. V. Campbell, tobacco dealer of 

 Lancaster city, brought us lately a specimen 

 of ths "Spectre Insect," or "Walking Twig," 

 {Spectrum femoratum) which he captured on a 

 tobacco leaf in the vicinity. These insects 

 have never been very numerous in Lancaster 

 county, and have been heretofore usually 

 found on trees and shrubbery, notably .the 

 sassafras ; and that it should have been cap- 

 tured on a tobacco plant, in a situation where 

 no trees or shrubbery were in proximity, in- 

 dicates that it is, or probably may become, an 

 enemy to the plant, just as has been the case 

 with the "Tree-Cricket" {CEdicanthus niveiis) 

 and a dozen other species of insects. This in- 

 sect belongs to the order Orthopteea, the 

 section Amdulatoma or Walking insects, 

 and the family Phasmiad.e, or spectres. As- 

 sociated with them in the same order, are the 

 crickets, grasshoppers (katydids), and the true 

 locusts, all of which are ravenous vegetable 

 feeders. In regard to the spectre insects, the 

 question is one of quantity only and not of 

 quality. 



Two or three years ago they became so nu- 

 merous in a certain locality of New York 

 State, that they entirely defoliated a forest of 

 trees, and caused no little alarm. Possessing 

 these posibilities, it is not unreasonable if 

 their advent in a tobacco field should be con- 

 templated with surpicion. The specimens be- 

 fore us is about two and half inches in length, 

 slender in body, light green in color, six slen- 

 der legs and two long filamental antennae, or 

 feelers. It is perhai)s half-grown— when ma- 

 ture they often attain to six inches in length. 

 They are entirely wingless in both sexes. The 

 males have a spine on the posterior and inter- 

 mediate femers, from whence comes the spe- 

 cific name femoratwn, and perhaps also from 

 its enlargemtint. 



As this insect is only a walker, rather 

 conspicuous, and the crop is usually gathered 

 before it attains its mature and most vora- 

 cious stage of development, it perhaps would 

 not be likely to become a Very formidable 

 enemy, unless through some inadvertent con- 

 tingency its development should be acceler- 

 ated and tlie crop retarded. Still it may be 

 well to be "posted" on the subject. 



NOXIOUS WEEDS. 

 Farmers cannot be too careful and watchful 

 in preventing the spreading of noxious weeds. 

 The "Ox-eye Daisy" {Leucanthemum vulyare) 

 is not thought injurious by some people, but 

 in traveling from Philadelphia to New York, 

 through New Jersey, you can see whole fields 

 that are overspread from one end to the other, 

 so that nothing else can possibly grow in 

 them at the same time. 



In New York State, the "Yellow Butter- 

 cup," {Ranimculus) is also monopolizing every 

 nook and corner of the fields. Those two 

 pernicious weeds vie with each other, seem- 

 ingly to see which is greatest in destroying 

 other useful grasses. Fields in abundance 

 can be seen that are as ycUow witli buttercups 

 from one end to the other, as the Jersey fields 

 are white with the ox-eye daisies. But these 

 noxious weeds are usually found in pasture 

 grounds. These noxious weeds, however, are 

 no comparison to;the "Canada Thistle," (Oir- 

 sium arvense). That is the weed of all weeds 

 for injuring a piece of ground, of which west- 

 ern New York State is full througli one-half 

 of the State, east of the Niagara river and 

 southeast of Ontario. There is nothing can 

 destroy it but a general revolt of all the west- 

 ern counties against it,and the co-operation of 

 all the railroad companies against it, in that 

 district. 



It was the railroad* that caused the in- 

 crease and spreading of this weed more than 

 anything else. They are growing everywhere 

 all along these railroads and are now going 

 into seed. In going from Syracuse to the 

 Niagara Falls you can see almost continuous- 

 ly how they have spread from the railroad 

 tracks into the middle of the fields. So thick- 

 ly indeed, that nothing but tliiatle can be seen, 

 occupying the groimd. 



In traveling over that railroad I saw acres 

 upon acres of it— indeed it is seen so often, 

 and in such vast abundance, that it became 

 tiresome to have the attention called to it, and 

 sometimes it only elicited a motion of the 

 hand, or a nod of the head from my partner 

 on the same seat,- to look again at the "splen- 

 did crop" of thistle. 



This hateful weed is continually increas- 

 ing, and will continue to increase, unless a 

 general law is passed, compelling railroad 

 companies, as well as land owners, to destroy 

 them. The reason why there has been such 

 a rapid increase of Canada thistle along the 

 railroads, is because the plants have been per- 

 mitted to ripen their seeds, and these seeds 

 have been blown far and wide by the winds, 

 and hence have been carried in time into the 

 county of Lancaster, and elsewhere, and thus 

 are becoming one of our local pests. 



Another cause of the spreading of this this- 

 tle is the habit of its roots— like the roots of 

 the locust— to continue growing under ground 

 and throwing out sprouts, even after the 

 plant is pulled up or cut down, not by the 

 foot only but by the yard. We hear some- 

 times how the Canada thistle has been de- 

 scroyed ; but there are three or four varieties 

 of this plant, and it may have been one 

 those varieties not so obnoxious asarroise. I 

 know of an instance where they existed, and 

 people thought they had destroyed them, but 



on examining the ground several years after- 

 wards, they found them again on the increase. 

 They require not only yearly but monthly and 

 weekly attention in order to entirely eradicate 

 them. They require continual hoeing, with 

 the assistance of salt. When a .stalk is cut 

 down or pulled up, apply a small handful of 

 salt, and by perseverance that will finally de- 

 stroy them. On one occasion I found the 

 Canada thistle at a country meeting house. 

 The first year a single stalk ; the next year 

 half a dozen or more, and by the aid of the 

 hoe and salt it took me four years to eradicate 

 them. It was my opinion that the seed had 

 been brought thiiher by a horse that had been 

 fed on hay brought from New York State. 

 No doubt the grass that is cut after the grain 

 harvest, and then made into bales and sent 

 into our county, and elsewhere during the 

 winter, contains the seeds of the Canada 

 thistle, and in this way is propagated where- 

 ever such hay may find a market.— i. S. R., 

 Oregon, Se/;«. 10, 1881. 



[Tlie family of thistles is a large one, and 

 all are more. or less noxious, and spread 

 rapidly by rootlets ; but more particularly by 

 the dispersion of seeds, each seed being borne 

 on the winds by the aid of a Mttle parachute, 

 and carried to the remotest corners of con- 

 tiguous domains. They belong to the order 

 Composite— which means practically a com- 

 pound flower, or the flowers in a close head, 

 upon a common receptacle— the sub-order Tu- 

 BULi FLORAE— the simple meaning of which is 

 that the corolla in the perfect flower is tubular 

 —and tribe Cynaee^. This tribe is com- 

 posed of the genera Centaicrea, or "Star Tliis- 

 tles," with four species-: Cnicus, or "Blessed 

 Thistle," with one species: Circisum, or 

 plumed, common, swamp, pasture, yellow, 

 and others, with 10 or 11 species: Gardnus, 

 a "Plumeless Thistle," with one species, On- 

 opordon, or "Cotton Tliistle" with one species: 

 and Lappa, or "Burdock," with one species. 

 As contradistinguished from the Blessed Tliis- 

 tle, the Canada is also called the Cursed This- 

 tle; as much, perhaps, on account of the 

 curses it receives from those whose lands it 

 infests, as the curse it itself inflicts on any 

 soil in which it gets a foothold. Many di- 

 verse forms, useful, beautiful, and noxious, 

 are grouped together in the order Compositce. 



Essays. 



*A LIBRARY PEST. 



There are several species of insects which 

 pierce holes through old and unused volumes; 

 but we know a book-worm of another order, 

 whose ravages are far more destructive. It 

 is not a burrower, but a borrower. You have 

 gathered a library that suits your especial 

 purposes. Every volume was selected, and 

 to remove one is like tearing a leaf out of a 

 dictionary. Possibly you have a fondness for 

 rare editions and fine bindings. You do not 

 like to be called a bibliomatic, but you point 

 with pardonable pride to a rare Aldus, a beau- 

 tiful Elzevir, or it may be a few choice 

 "Americana." Now the destroyer appears 



*Thc following article, which was published anony- 

 mously in the Boston " Literary World " for July 2d. 

 was written by Prof. J. H. Dubbs, D.D., of this city. It 

 constitutes a part of the esssay read by the author at the 

 May meeting of the Liima^an Society. 



