The Lancaster Farmer. 



Dr. S. S. RATHVON, Editor. 



LANCASTER. PA.. NOVEMBER, 1881. 



Vol. Zin. No. 11. 



Editorial. 



RAISING THE PRICE OF SOUR KROUT 



An insidious little creature known as the 

 cabbage worm is causing the farmers and the 

 house- wife considerable annoyance. His habit 

 is the centre of the cabbage, where his secu- 

 rity from observation gives him opportunity 

 to do the most mischief without detection. 

 The strangest study of this latest plague in 

 the rural districts is how the worm gets into 

 the cabbage. There is no hole visible through 

 which he could have worked his way, and the 

 first intimation had of his presence is when 

 the vegetable begins to decay ; a knife is ap- 

 plied, and the destructive little worm is laid 

 bare, surrounded by the ruin he has caused. 



There are many reasons assigned for the 

 presence of the worm, the most potent of 

 which seems to be that the dry, hot weather 

 depriving tlie cabbage of moisture, the heart 

 is affected, and the first form of decay is do- 

 developed in the worm. There is never bui 

 one found in a cabbage, and the wliole heart 

 is eaten away before' the evidences of decay 

 are manifested upon the outer leaves. There 

 are no firm heads of cabbage this season, and 

 the kind offered are small, and hardly fitted 

 to domestic use. Philadelphia draws her 

 supply of cabbage froin Bucks, Montgomery; 

 Chester and Delaware counties, and the 

 garden spot across the water known as tlie 

 state of New Jersey. 



It has been estimated that in a prosperous 

 season for cabbage not less than 12,000,000 

 heads of this succulent vegetable find sale in 

 Philadelphia markets, and at least 5,000,000 

 of these :ire made into sour krout. 



Our reflections on the above paragraph re- 

 late mainly to the " reasons assigned " for the 

 presence of the worms in the cabbage-heads, 

 and especially the one which is regarded the 

 "most potent," which we arc disposed to 

 consider no reason at all, not because it in- 

 \ohes spontaneous generation, but because there 

 is no reason to doubt that an egg may have 

 been deposited in or on the head of cabbage, 

 and a young worm may have worked its way 

 into the head notwithstanding no hole could 

 be seen on the outside. The holes through 

 which the young larvne of the different species 

 of curcuHos enter the seeds of peas, beans, 

 chestnuts, and many other kinds of seeds and 

 nuts are not visible to the naked eye either, 

 especially after the fruit is fully developed, 

 and yet, it is quite certain they are there, and 

 must have been bred from eggs deposited 

 there by the female parents of the worms. 

 The reason the holes cannot be seen is, be- 

 cause the young worms are very small when 

 first e.xcluded from the eggs and make an ap- 

 erture of entrance into the nut or fruit when 

 it is immature, and its subsequent develop- 

 ment entirely obliterates the aperture. 



The Pea-weevil (liruchus pisi) has been ob- 

 served by different authors depositing her 

 eggs on the outside of the young pea-pod; the 

 eggs have been seen and described, and so 

 have also the infant larvae; and by the aid of 

 the microscope the apertures into the pods 

 and into the seeds have been seen. We our- 

 selves have frequently seen the Chestnut- 

 weevil [Balaniits nasicus) depositing her eggs 

 iu the embryo chestnuts, by first making an 



aperture with her long nasal appendage, or 

 proboscis; and then and there i.s where the 

 necessity for such a long nasal i>rocess first 

 flashed upon our mind— namely, to enable 

 the insect to penetrate the hall of the nut, 

 between the barbs or spines which compose 

 the burr. If the young chestnut is examined 

 immediately after ovipositiou the aperture 

 can be seen in the base of the young nut, but 

 afer it is matured and ripened, nothing of it 

 can be detected; but stow such chestnuts 

 away, and look after them about Christmas 

 time, and in many of them will be found a 

 big fat worm, from which, in the following 

 spring, will evolve a very long-nosed "chest- 

 nut weevil " of which we have, on several oc- 

 casions, had occular demonstration. 



The case is the same with the Iloney-loeust 

 weavil {Spermophagus robinia). See page 148 

 October number of the Farmer, and approxi- 

 mations to it, in the common "Curculio," 

 {Comtrachelus nenuphar) especially when it 

 attacks the apple, the pear, or the quince. 

 There doubtless must have been spontaneous 

 generation at some period, or periods, or no 

 living organism could have been brought from 

 chaos into visible existence; and there prob- 

 ably is noMJ, and may be in all time to come ; 

 but there is no occasion of attributing such 

 phenomena as those above alluded to, to such 

 a cause, because they are all explicable on 

 other and more rational grounds. It is a very 

 convenient process for people to refer such 

 phenomena to spontaneous generation, who 

 are too indolent, too indiffereut, or too much 

 occupied otherwise, to investigate, or exam- 

 ine for themselves. Spontaneous generations 

 are doubtless effects depending upon pre- 

 existing causes, culminating in ulterior ends, 

 and hence arc governed by organic laws,and not 

 disorderly and irresponsible in their outward 

 manifestations. If the writer of the forego- 

 ing paragraph, or the person who furnished 

 the information upon which it was written, 

 had taken the trouble to collect .some of the 

 worms, and had sent them to an entomologist, 

 he might havcjdone more for the advance of 

 popular science, than by indulging in such 

 guess-work speculations as decayed cabbage 

 "developing in worms." 



It is a grave mistake to say that "there are 

 no firm heads of cabbage this season." We 

 saw thousands of heads of fine solid cabbage 

 sold at the northern market house in Lancas- 

 ter city, within the pa.st week. It is true, it 

 was not Lancaster county, nor yet Pennsylva- 

 nia cabbage, but it was nevertheless there, of 

 excellent quality, and sold readily for more 

 than its intrinsic value. 



It would be interesting to us to possess 

 some of the cabbage- worms aforesaid; we 

 would like to know what they are— their size, 

 color, structure, and general appearance. We 

 have on several occasions found the common 

 angle-worm (L?(m?>ri'ci(.s) and a white thread- 

 worm (GordtiiA or P/(!7aria;) very far within 

 the solid head of a cabbage, but they were 

 not affected with decay, but on the contrary, 



were as solid and a.s sound a.s those heads 

 that were free from worra.s. It is said the 

 common green cabbage worm (Picrli rapce) 

 has been found penetrating the cabbage 

 heads, but these, of course, cut a hole which 

 can be ea.sily seen. In conclusion, we would 

 like to see those Kpontaneoiis cabbage-worms. 



COTTON MANUFACTURERS AT THE 

 ATLANTA EXPOSITION. 



A telegram from Atlanta says that Edward 

 Atkin.son and fifteen other giiillenieii connect- 

 ed with cotton industries that em|>loy S4.5,- 

 000,000 capital and run l.'Ji),O0<J sitindlea 

 arrived there On Supday, and will remain 

 South about three weeks. On Wednesday 

 next Commissioner Loring, of the Agricultu- 

 ral Department, will meet the cotton" growers 

 requested by him to assemble in convention 

 on that day. lie will address the convention 

 on the subject of Southern agriculture, and 

 Prof. Riley, the entomologist, will explain the 

 new method of destroying the cotton worm, 

 which causes an average annual lo.ss to plant- 

 ers of $1.5,000, OiX). Thursday next will be 

 "manufacturers' day '" at the ExhiOition, and 

 Mr. Atkinson will deliver an addre-ss. A dis- 

 play of blooded cattle and mules will be given 

 from Monday until Saturday. 



Although it might p'ossibly be inferred from 

 our editorial commencing on the first page of 

 the Fakmei: for October last, that the Inter- 

 national Exposition, now being held at At- 

 lanta, Georgia, is limited to the sole exhibi- 

 tion of cotton, in its various forms and combi- 

 nations, we would here beg leave to state that 

 this is by no means tlie case. It is true, that 

 cotton is the great factor in the make up of the 

 Exposition, but it also includes a multitude of 

 other objects and industrial productions. 



For that matter, however, so conspicuous a 

 part does cotton now play in the role of human 

 industry, that if everything were e.xcluded 

 from an exposition that contained, or was in 

 any way related to cotton, the exposition 

 might be a meagre one indeed, unless enriched 

 by the products of the mineral kingdom. 

 From the above quoted paragraph, and from 

 various othei-s that have appeared in the 

 public press,it will be perceived that the vari- 

 ous departments of industry have their set 

 times successively, during which certain spe- 

 cialties will be brought prominently and at- 

 tractively before the people, and these times 

 will be adapted to the advancing season. 



Since the date of our last issue we have re- 

 ceived a copy of the Southern World, a jour- 

 nal of industry for the farm, home and work- 

 shop, issued, at Atlanta, Georgia, October 15, 

 18Sl, in which is portrayed the history and 

 origin of this International Cotton Ipxposi- 

 tion, with illustrations of the Main-building ; 

 Department of Minerals and Wood; .Judges 

 Hall; and portraits of President Colquitt, Di- 

 rector-Gen. Kimball, Secretary Ryckman and 

 Executive Chairman Crane, all very live look- 

 ing men, and two of whom are "Carpet- 

 baggers," as the world goes, on matters of 

 local birth. The SoiUhern World may be 

 called a demi-folio of 16 pages, and is publish- 

 ed semi-monthly, at the very low price of one 

 dollar a year, tmd the Agricultural and In- 



