1884.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



23 



except Locust and Front streets, the jury 

 were all of one mind, that it was a necessity, 

 and we all importuned tlie owner that it 

 would be a great pecuniary benefit to him, as 

 he could tlien sell off lots at a high figure. 

 But he had Thad Stevens at the helm and 

 to this day has prevented the opening of the 

 street. Though in time it will undoubtedly 

 have to be opened. There were several views 

 and reviews over the ground, and all reported 

 for the street to be opened. 



I might mention a number of other cases, 

 where I was on the juries, and where great 

 ditliculties were in our way, wishing to make 

 good roads for the public, and yet in regard 

 to our duty as jurors not to damage private 

 property too mucli for the public good. 



Thus, you see friend P. S. R. and others 

 who want good roads, that it is not such an 

 easy matter to make good roads through your 

 neighbor's private property, as it Is to make 

 them on paper.— J. B. G. 



THE "PEACH SCAB." 



Hakishuko, Feb. 14th, 18S4. 



De.4r Sir : 1 find this scale on peach trees 

 in our city ; also this one on the rose-wood. 

 Mr. Stitzel, of Heading, stated in our late 

 horticultural meeting that they were numer- 

 ous in Reading, and he brought some infested 

 twigs with him. No person knowing of it 

 but myself I went out where I found it last 

 year, and found it there again. What is it ? 

 Governor Pattison is interested in it, so please 

 answer me and oblige yours, &c.—T. A. 

 Woods, 915 Sixth street. 



P. S. Does it increase fast, and how? 

 Please answer soon. — T. A. W. Ifurseryman. 



At no period more frequently than during 

 the past autumn and present winter have we 

 received branches of the peach tree infested 

 with the "scale" referred to in the above 

 note of inquiry, and at no time were said 

 branches more numerously infested. From 

 Reading, from Columbia, from Marietta, 

 from Lititz, from Mount Joy, and elsewhere, 

 and now from Ilarrisbuig. They are also 

 abundant in some localities in and about Lan- 

 caster city. 



The peach twig sent us by the writer of the 

 above was infested by the "peach scab," (or 

 scale) namely, the Lecauium perskiim, an in- 

 sect that belongs to the Coccus family (Coc- 

 dihr). If the sample he sent us is one of his 

 worst ones then we have still room to con- 

 gratulate him, for it was not one-fifth as 

 badly infested as some brought to us by our 

 neighbors in Lancaster city. Some of these 

 insects are invulnerable to the application of 

 remedies that readily destroy other insects. 

 These scales are very con vexed— almost hemis- 

 phetical— and of a light, or chestnut-brown 

 color, and those found on the trees now are 

 the dead bodies of the females of. last season. 

 The whole internal cavity is usually filled 

 with eggs, which at a later season will be- 

 come more distinctly visible than they are in 

 the month of February— sometimes to the 

 number of two or three hundred under one 

 scale. These eggs become incubated in the 

 end or during the month of June, or later, 

 according to the temperature of the weather, 

 and the young come forth in millions and 

 scatter over the branches, especially on the 

 new and tender wood. If a drenching shower 



1 of rain happens at the time, millions are wash- 

 ed off and perish. This suggests that if the 

 trees were artificially drenched at the proper 

 time the effect would be the same. But the 

 young are almost microscopical, and cannot 

 be seen at all when the trees are in foliage : it 

 would therefore be better to attend to them 

 no«), while the branches are naked. But 

 drenching would be of very little effect nmc : 

 the scales are impervious to liquid remedies ; 

 no degree of cold or moisture seem to effect 

 them in their present embryotic condition. 

 On examining them wo find they possess the 

 germs of vitality— wc doubt whether 'J.'j'^ be- 

 low zero would have killed them. Therefore, 

 where the trees are only of medium size, ac- 

 cessible to approach, and the variety worth 

 preserving, we would recommend the use of a 

 stiff-bristled brush, about the flexibility of a 

 good hair-brush, or tooth-brush, dipped into 

 a solution of whale-oil soap, or other alkali- 

 nous compound, and a brisk manipulation of 

 said brush wherever the scales are located ; 

 and the work should be geiieral and thorough 

 for the escape of a single scale may involve 

 the existence of one or two hundred insects 

 next summer. The young insects are very 

 minute, and are slow travelers, but the winds 

 waft tl>em from branch to branch, and from 

 tree to tree. When the young are excluded 

 from the eggs they travel foi- the tender new 

 wood ; they seldom attack the leaves ; some- 

 times a few are found on the midribs, but this 

 is their mistake, for when the leaves fall, 

 they of course perish. When they find 

 a favorable locality they pierce the twigs 

 with their probosces and immediate- 

 ly commence to pump out the vital juices and 

 depletion and enervation follow in proportion 

 to their numbers. The young insects are of a 

 whitish color, have six feet, two anteniui; on 

 the head, very dark eyes, and two terminal 

 bristles attached to the posterior end of the 

 body. Towards autumn they become de- 

 graded, and divest themselves of theiranteima?, 

 feet and sette, and then rapidly become a 

 scale, with no appendage but the rostrum or 

 proboscis. The males are winged, and after 

 they impregnate the females, they fly off or 

 are blown ofl— in any event, they soon perish, 

 and none of them survive the season. 



Perhaps the most prolific species of Lecanium 

 is the one that infests the oak. Last year we 

 bred many millions of these from two or 

 three oak-twigs, aggregating about two feet 

 in length. 



When trees are too large for the manipula- 

 tion of a brush, all the infested twigs should 

 be cut off and burnt— even if it should in- 

 volve a whole branch, or a whole tree ; and, 

 whatever is done, should be done hij all, who 

 know their trees infested. 



The "Rose-twig" inclosed in the above 

 note, contained no Lenanians when we re- 

 cieved it. The oblong, flat, and greyish object 

 which was firmly fastened to the bark, was 

 the egg of a species of Plntncrnptcra — a slender 

 green grasshopper, allied to the " Katy-did," 

 {PhylHum concamm) if it was^not the latter 

 itself. It is difticult to determin species from 

 a single isolated egg, especially when none are 

 accessible for comparison. Some of these in- 

 sects deposit from 25 to 50 eggs at a time, 

 and although there is some distinction in the 

 form of them, yet the defferentiation is greater 



in the mechanical arrangement. Moreover, 

 these insects never become destructively nu- 

 merous. When they are young and feeble, 

 they are conspicuous objects to insectivorous 

 birds, being delicate in structure and very 

 lender; out of flfty, perhaps not more than 

 half a dozcB reach maturity. They generally 

 feed on the foliage of trees and shrubbery. 



There arc, however, some individuals in the 

 family (GuYLLiDG':) that are pernicious pests, 

 notably the "snow cricket" or "tree cricket," 

 {(Jicanthus wrcca) which frequently occupies it- 

 self iu cutting off the clusters of grapes where 

 they are yet green. Of late years this insect 

 has also became a "tobacco chewer," and 

 has considerably annoyed the tobacco-growers 

 of Lancaster county. 



IS WHEAT A PAYING CROP.' 



Wheal is the king of the cereals. Unbolted 

 wheat flour is said by chemists to contain the 

 elements of nutrition in more nearly the 

 proper proportions than any other article of 

 food iu extensive use. The common consent 

 of civilized man the world over places it at the 

 head of grain foods. It is truly called the 

 "Staff of Life." The average yearly allow- 

 ance for each person is put at four and three- 

 fourths bushels. At present prices of wheat 

 the average coat of each person's bread, or 

 rather the raw material out of which his 

 bread is made, is about one and one-third 

 cents per day. This does not seem an ex- 

 travagrant price to pay tor the material out of 

 which our brain and bone and muscle are 

 elaborated, and would not seem exorbitant at 

 two cents per day, and yet the city papers 

 keep up an everlasting outcry for cheap bread. 

 It would be a relief to their readers if the 

 papers would sometimes raise a clamor for 

 cheap meat or cheap butter or cheap potatoes 

 by way of variety. 



The fact is that wheat at present prices is 

 the che.ipest commodity on the face of the 

 earth. Matches at a cent a box, or muslin at 

 six cents per yard are extravagantly high in 

 comparison to it. The Oleo soap-grease but- 

 ter and " suene " that the New Yorker 

 spreads his bread with costs more than the 

 bread itself. I have never heard smokers de- 

 mand cheap cigars, although tobacco costs the 

 people of this nation more money than their 

 bread. 



With the exception, perhaps, of tobacco, 

 wheat is the most exhaustive on the land of 

 any crop grown by the farmer. The fact that 

 it is the most nutritious of grains ia proof 

 enough of this and the rapid deterioration of 

 the soil in grain growing sections confirms iti 

 The question naturally arises whether it is 

 worth while to impoverish our land, raising 

 wheat and go begging to Europe with our sur- 

 plus crop at about one dollar per bushel. It 

 certainly does not pay us here in the East to 

 export the fat of our land for such a miser- 

 able pittance. It is generally thought that 

 the great northwest where the first cost of the 

 land is less than the fertilizer we apply here, 

 can place wheat at the seaboard cheaper than 

 wo can, and perhaps it can, but it is doubtful 

 if even they can grow wheat for 60 or 65 cents 

 per bushel, the present price in Manitoba. 

 The winters are long and severe, and wheat 

 is about the only saleable crop they can raise. 

 Labor is high and machinery expensive. 



