18S3] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



9 



bpinR breathes, there iirc no elements in the 

 oiitaloRuo of nature that are more friendly to 

 the human family than (ire anil water, and 

 yet from the very founilation of luinum soci- 

 ety, through all the changing cycles of ages, 

 down to the present time, there are no two 

 elements that have been more destructive to 

 human life and human property. They have 

 loni; since been (Vcnomiuated "good servants, 

 but bad masters." This .'itate of things has 

 its parallel in the insect world. If we could 

 keep them within legitimate bounds, as \vc do 

 fire and water in their ordinary uses, and 

 avoid a redundancy of them, as we wonld 

 avoid a conrta^jration or a Hood, it would be 

 all that we could rationally hope to achieve. 

 Their total extinction isiiuite out of the ques- 

 tion, and on the whole, not at all necessary, or 

 perhaps not at all desirable. Essays and trea- 

 tises on destructive insects are as old as Aris- 

 totle and Pliny, and Xenophon aud Colum- 

 ella. They regarded tbenl as enemies, and 

 treated them as such. Possibly they may 

 have known nothing about them as friends, 

 but under any circumstances, we have the 

 insects still with us, and are likely to have 

 them until the millenium. The conditions 

 of the earth's surface have become changed 

 through what we terra improvement and pro- 

 gress, aud in making these changes we have 

 had only regard to pleasure and profit, and if 

 insects were thought of at all, it was only as 

 objects beneath our notice. We must learn 

 to practically know them by the same intelli- 

 gence and energy that we bring to bear upon 

 any other subject of human knowledge. We 

 must jirovide for them as we do for any other 

 contingency within the sphere of human 

 effort. And above all, we must learn to what 

 extent they are our friends, aud in what 

 manner they befriend us. Of course, when 

 they come in direct conflict with our material 

 interests we must learn how to "fight" them; 

 but this warfare must not be indiscriminate, 

 and perhaps no men in the world have better 

 opportunities to make this discrimination 

 than those who.se occupation and whose 

 interest is iunnediately connected with the 

 cultivation of the soil. 



The acquisition of practical entoniulogical 

 knowledge is, however, iuconipatible with 

 many secular occupations, and the process, 

 slow, tedious and perple.King, in many cases. 

 It seems to be experimentally developed, and 

 in the field rather than in the closet. The 

 scientific, description of species and their 

 classification according to their organic struc- 

 tures, is quite a different study from that of 

 their life-habits, and the benefits or injmies 

 to human interests that may he connected 

 with those habits. But the successful pur- 

 suit of either branch of entomology requires 

 more time than can be devoted to it by one 

 who is compelled to depend ui)on the precari- 

 ous profits of a secular occupation. What it 

 really requires to pursue; it, and the progress 

 of that pursuit, perhaiis, caimot be made 

 raanifcst, even to a mitid that may be intelli- 

 gent on ordinary subjects; and through this 

 non-appreciation it mainly occurs tliat those 

 who make it a specialty arc so reluctantlv 

 and so sparingly comiiensated, both by 

 governments and people. An experiment 

 may, through unforeseen contingencies, be 

 suddenly interrupted, frustrated, or entirely 



defeated ; and thus the same experiment may 

 he for months, or years, or forever, suspend- 

 ed. A well paid monthly or weekly journal 

 needs to be sustained for the diffusion of en- 

 tomological knovvledgc, jmt as other Journal- 

 istic interests are sustained. As long as we 

 grow wheat, or corn, or cotton, or fruit, we 

 need journals that are the representatives of 

 those interests, and entomological literature 

 is no more an exception than are those of 

 dallying, cheesemaking, and tobacco culture. 

 As every man cannot be a miinite observer of 

 nature, and is not likely to be any farthiir 

 than he can recognize his immediate interest 

 in ob.servation, it therefore becomes necessary 

 for him to "readuji" the observations of 

 others, but this knowledge should come before 

 him frequently, and in such portions as he 

 may be able to understand, appropriate, and 

 digest. Perhaps a knowledge of his in.sect 

 friends obtained in this way, would be as 

 great a benefit to him as any he could <lerive 

 from a knowledge of his insect enemies. One 

 great difiSculty in the way of obtaining a prac- 

 tical knowledge of our insect friends arises 

 from the fact that the greater number are too 

 small to elicit special observation, and mag- 

 nified illustrations are often misleading to 

 the masses, because they never recognize such 

 things through natural sight, in the realms of 

 nature. This magnifying power is proper, 

 however, for the sake of illustration, but it 

 cannot niake as indelible an impression upon 

 the mind, as .seeing, handling and studying 

 the character of the insect in its normal form 

 and size, and under the circumstances in 

 which it is usually found. 



Selections. 



THE "JAMES VICK STRAWBERRY." 

 Originated by Samuel Miller, Bluffton, Mo. 

 A few Rochester horticulturists were in- 

 vited to see the new strawberry James Vick, 

 in bearing. The day being rainy we gave up 

 hopes of their coming, but the noon train 

 brought W. C. Barry, late president of the 

 Nurserymen's Association, P. C. Reynolds, 

 long secretary of Western New York Horti- 

 cultural society and horticultural editor of 

 the " American Rural Home," the Yick 

 Brothers, representing the firm of James 

 Vick, John Charlton, the disseminator of 

 the Pocklingtou grape, and the veteran fruit 

 grower and propagator, .losiah Salter. 



They were first shown rows of the new 

 strawberry from plants set late the previous 

 fall growing in the same bed with Afanches- 

 ter and Bidwell. The new berry showed 

 twice the fruit of either Bidwell f>r Jfanches- 

 ter, and more vigor of plant. The party 

 were next shown a plat of about one-fourth 

 acre, not manured for many years, common 

 farm .soil in the midst of a field of twenty 

 acres of fruit, on which the new strawberry 

 had been i)ermitted to form wide and thick 

 matted rows for the purpose of multiplyin"' 

 plants, from the whole of which plants had 

 been dug a few months previous, tearing and 

 loosening the roots of those remaining. The 

 soil was ]),icked hard and very weidy, show- 

 ing evidence of neglect, yet under such ad- 

 verse circumstances, which would lead one to 

 expect no fruit worth gathering, the plants 



were thickly studded, and the rows fairly 

 ablaze with large, beautifully and evenly 

 colorc;d, firm and shaiiely berries of superior 

 (pialily, and from the bed was subsequently 

 picked the largest yield of fruit ever gathered 

 from any variety on our fruit farm. Mr. W. 

 C. Barry said that of all the new strawberries 

 he had tested this was the most promising, 

 lie described the color as bright scarlet turn- 

 ing to crimson, surface glazed, seeds on sur- 

 face, sea.son medium, tpiality good. All the 

 party expressed themselves as highly pleased 

 with the display of fruit, and ate it with a good 

 relish. We heard no critrcism, and indeed, 

 there could be none. The plant was vigorous, 

 with large glossy dark green foliage, the blos- 

 soms hermaphrodite (or perfect), the fruit 

 handsome, large luscious, firm, and in great 

 abundance. We tested them under this 

 rough treatment purposely. A nur.sed plant 

 in a manure heap is no test of a variety- 

 place it under hardships and see what it will 

 accomplish has been my theory. 

 A Surprise. 



The party returned to Rochester and were 

 invited to visit a small plantation there of the 

 "James Vick" fruiting under hill culture, 

 the rows lying between bearing grape vines, 

 not the most desirable position as the grai)e 

 roots must have occujiied the entire soil. 

 Here a sight met their eyes that they could 

 not have anticipated, and such a display as 

 probably was never before made by any 

 strawberry on earth. The stools were large 

 and vigorous, and around each was a pyra- 

 mid of ripe berries piled one on another like a 

 walled fort, and so thickly together a bug 

 could hardly have crawled into the enclosure 

 made by the fruit without climbing the bar- 

 ricade. Berries on every plant were " uni- 

 formly of good size," as was remarked by 

 Secretary P. C. Reynolds. The fruit stems 

 were long and stout, but could not sustain 

 the great burden imposed upon them, (often 

 1-2 to 18 ripe berries on one fruit stem) thus 

 the fruit rested one berry on another in a cir- 

 cle about the plant. ;is is shown in the en- 

 graving made by a careful artist. 



The news soon spread among the lovers of 

 fruit of the city of nurseries, aud early next 

 morning our leading pomologists, men whom 

 we all delight to honor, cam.; to inspect the 

 newest wonder. After these came the young- 

 er enthusiasts, the foremen, and others who 

 desired to see fin- themselves if halt were true 

 that had been told them. It W;i8 known that 

 we intended to introduce the " .lames Vick" 

 this season, but a gentleman who has jhar"e 

 of one of the largest nurseries of the countrv 

 said we would not have enough plants to 

 suiiply the demand, as he thought the large 

 firms could sell 1U0,000 plants of the " .lames 

 Vick." Mr. Vick and Mr. Charlton also 

 thought the supply of plants would be wholly 

 iiiadi-quate, aud advised holding the "James 

 Vick" over until another season. Mr. Charl- 

 ton .said that as soon as the Norfolk (Va.) 

 and other large strawberry planters learned 

 of the value of the ".James Vick" for market, 

 and shi[)ment, the demand would be some- 

 thing wonderful. But as our plans had been 

 made we thought it not best to change them. 



We received the following from the Geo. 

 A. Stone nursery, Rochester, N. Y.:— " Dear 

 Sir: I saw the "James Vick" to-day at 



