THE LANCASTER FARMER 



[January- 



year's horrors by the loss of life and property 

 that attended the fierce persecution of the 

 Jews within her realm. Altogether 1883 

 ranks well with 1666, which gained the name 

 of ' annus rairabilis ' from the many disasters 

 crowded into its small compass." 



We cannot tell what 1S84 may bring forth. 

 "We were already, on the second day of the 

 New Year, admonished of a dreadful railroad 

 disaster which occurred in Canada, destroying 

 the lives of twenty-seven people and wounding 

 thirty others, some of them considered fatally. 

 These things are almost universally regarded 

 as accidents; and, by way of eminence, una- 

 voidable accidents ; but it might be profitable 

 to look a little farther and consider whether 

 they do not occur in pursuance of the laws of 

 cause and effect — the same laws which rule 

 the universe in general. In the present "pell- 

 mell" and "helter-skelter" progress of the 

 world, its habitants, in the realms of Chris- 

 tian civilization, have not time to ponder 

 causes or appreciate effects, and perhaps no 

 two persons could be found whose views would 

 exactly harmonize on either phase of the con- 

 tingent problem. 



Whatever weals or woes betide us during 

 1S84— which is yet in its pristine infancy — let 

 us not forget that two solid physical sub- 

 stances of the same size and density, cannot 

 occupy the same vacximn at the same time and 

 place. And this law does not 'only govern 

 matter, but correspondingly, mind and soul 

 also. 



The same violations of moral, physical, and 

 civil law which now characterizes humanity, 

 would run the universe "into the ground," 

 if perjietrated there, and plunge the suns, and 

 worlds, and stars, into a vast mass of undis- 

 tiuguishable chaos. There is a spiritual at- 

 mosphere as well as a physical one, and the 

 convulsions of the latter are but reflexes of 

 the former, which is a constitution of the ad- 

 verse spheres which are carried over from this 

 "wanton, woeful, wicked world." There 

 will be no tranquility /leje, until there is tran- 

 quility there, and there will be none there 

 until it is initiated and perfected on this pro- 

 bationary plane ; and we had better believe it 

 and shape our courses accordingly. 



There are those who disparage resolves, and 

 turning over " new leaves" in our books of 

 conduct, but these disparagements ought to 

 be regarded as mere moral eructations, left to 

 dissipate themselves in ambient air. There is 

 virtue in a firm and rational resolve — there is 

 wisdom in turning a new leaf. From the 

 cradle to the grave, man's life is a physical 

 and moral struggle, and none know it better 

 tlian those who are parties to the conflict. 

 We should have a goal, and keep our energies 

 and our aflections airected to that, and if we 

 fall a thousand times, it is better to press 

 onward and upward, than make no attempt 

 to rise again. Be not discouraged ; let this be 

 the ruling principle of the present New Year. 

 Come now — come as you are — 



" If you tarry till you are better 

 You will never come at all." 



Come out of that damaging atmosphere 

 which ever suggests, I will do this, that, or 

 the other thing, at a " more convenient 

 season" — the prolific projenitor of that pro- 

 crastination, which is so eminent^ the "thief 

 of time." 



It does not require any special amount of 

 brains to do this, for it relates more to the af- 

 fectional or will principle, than to that of the 

 understanding. Of what avail is an enlight- 

 ened intellect, if the affections are corrupt, 

 but to multiply the pains of perdition ? 



Time at its best, and its longest tenure, is 

 only the threshold of eternity, and all that 

 men feel, and think, and do, ought to relate 

 to that as an end ; because all aims, ends and 

 objects have their final culmination there, 

 whether we see it or not— believe it or not— 

 heed it or not. 



However vaulting our ambition, however 

 high our hopes, and however earnest our aspi- 

 rations, young 1884 is only the harbinger of 

 possihilities. More may be realized during its 

 advent than is anticipated, but the chances 

 are at least equal that we may realize less ; 

 but, iu any event, we should not withhold 

 our co-operation because things have not 

 transpired according to our wishes. Our de- 

 sires may be wrong, dwarfed and selfish, in 

 which case our moral success may be best sub- 

 served by their " ganging aglee." We are not 

 mere animals, whose highest function is mere- 

 ly to thrive and grow fat; nor are we inde- 

 pendent factors in creation's plan ; we are in- 

 tegral parts of a grand, social, civil, and eco- 

 nomic whole, and there is a use for every one ; 

 and the object of the most worthy culture is 

 to discover that use and perform it. We may 

 not be better than we were a year ago, we 

 may be no better a year hence, nor may we 

 be worse ; that fact furnishes no reason for an 

 abatement of human effort. The farmer 

 tills his soil, scatters his seed, and cultivates 

 his crops. If they bring forth sixty or a hun- 

 dred fold he rejoices. If they yield nothing 

 he tills, and scatters, and cultivates again. 

 The example of the farmer in this respect is 

 one of the noblest that obtains among men. 

 It is different with the manufacturer ; as soon 

 as his profits diminish he "shuts down," just 

 as if the world had come to an end, and had 

 no further need of him. and he no further 

 need of anybody else— Anally, 



The pains, the penalties, and the external 

 restraints of 1884 may suoordinate us to the 

 powers that be — may drive the devil back into 

 the secret recesses of our souls ; but there 

 will never be a reform in human aflfairs until 

 each individual begins with/wmself or /jerself, 

 and in "freedom according to reason " drives 

 the devil out. 



That all our patrons and readers may en- 

 sage in this moral and " civil service " during 

 the pending year, and take courage from the 

 declaration. " Behold ! I make all things new," 

 is the very summit of our wishes, and the 

 very best " recipe " we can suggest to secure 

 a Happy New Year. 



FOREWARNING AND FOREARMING. 



Of course, no one is particularly annoyed 

 just at this time by "horseflies," " cater- 

 pillars," " rose-slugs" and "curculios;" but 

 just "wait-a-bit." These "fellers" are 

 "laying low" at this season of the year, ap- 

 parently dead, but only conveniently sleei)ing 

 the while. On half a dozen occasions, and from 

 half a dozen different localities, within the 

 past two or three weeks, we have had the 

 follicles of the "sack-worm" (Thyridiypteryx 

 ephemcereformis) sent to us, and in each par- 



ticular case the question has been asked 

 "What is it?" "What shall we do to get 

 rid of it?" "What is its history?" etc. 

 " One thing we know about it, and that is, it 

 defoliates our trees and shrubbery, and 

 especially our arborvitses. " Just so, and that 

 is enough to know about it to suggest its un- 

 qualified destruction. There is not a more 

 accessible and easier vanquishable insect 

 enemy than the' sack-worm, if it is approached 

 at the proper season, and that season is from 

 now on to the leafing of the trees and shrubs 

 in the spring. Many of the follicles now 

 dangling from the twigs and branches contain 

 nothing— they are the emjbty habitations of 

 the males of last season, and vegetation would 

 sustain no farther injury by letting them re- 

 main. But, unfortunately for the careless or 

 indifferent husbandman, many of these 

 spindle shaped follicles are but the nests of 

 the last years females, and shelter the 

 possihilities of from one to three hundred 

 young sack-worms, that will, if permitted, 

 make their appearance about the twenty-fifth 

 of May next. This insect has a considerable 

 geographical range in the United States, and 

 its history and habits haye been more thor- 

 oughly "ventilated," perhaps, than any 

 other of the noxious kinds ; and it is, there- 

 fore, rather astonishing that the question 

 should still be asked, "What is it?" and 

 that too by those who are neither ignorant 

 nor illiterate. 



Let us admonish all who are interested in 

 arborculture and horticulture — whether they 

 know its history and development or not, or 

 whether they ever know it— that in one thing 

 they cannot go far wrong, and that is, its un- 

 qualified destruction, whenever, or wherever 

 they may encounter it ; but, there is no better 

 opportunity presented for its destruction than 

 the winter or early spring season, before trees 

 and shrubbery put forth their foliage ; for 

 then these follicles become conspicuously visi- 

 ble on the naked branches, except iu the case 

 01 evergreens. 



Our attention was first called to this in- 

 sect in the summer of 1849, by a gentleman 

 then residing in the city of Lancaster. He 

 had for a year or two previously noticed some- 

 thing wrong with the foliage of a fine apricot 

 tree that stood near his dwelling in a back yard. 

 The leaves were brown and crisp, and hung in 

 small bunches, which did not fall in autumn 

 and winter, as in other trees, and each return- 

 ing summer showed a rapidly increasing num- 

 ber of them. After observing these bunches 

 of dry leaves for a short time, we found they 

 moved slowly from place to place, and occa- 

 sionally would let themselves down by a flue 

 silken cord, and then draw themselves up 

 again. About the same time we observed 

 that a Linden tree near the side of tne house 

 was similarly infested, only more numerously, 

 and as some of the infested branches hung 

 close to a third story window, we took pos- 

 session of the window and there studied the 

 animals for two or three years, before we 

 were enabled witness all the phases of their 

 development. We published our observa- 

 tions on it in the Pennsylvania Farm Journal, 

 ihen published in West Chester, Pa., and 

 named it Oiketieus j^ennsyhanicus. This was 

 we think in 1851 or 1852. Our observations 

 had been long previously in manuscript ; 



