50 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[April, 



branches of many of them wore broken down | 

 with the weight of the snow. We cannot 

 locate the day of the month— nor yet the 

 month itself— when that snow fell, but infer 

 that it was in April. On Friday, the 12th of 

 April, 1P32, the last public execution took 

 place in Lancaster county. We were in at- 

 tendance as one of the "Volunteer Guard." 

 As we wended our weary way homeward on 

 foot, the day after the execution, the most 

 remarkable feature in our wayside observa- 

 tions, was the profusion of peach and cherry 

 bloom. It was not the earliness, nor the 

 lateness of the bloom that rendered the oc'ca- 

 sion conspicuous, but the abundance or pro- 

 fusion. A snow at that time, like that of 

 April 9th last, would have, made sad havoc 

 among the peach and cherry trees. 



The earliest date at which Easter can occur 

 is the 22d day of March, and the latest date 

 the 2.5th of April, so that the great spring 

 snow of 1S20, must have been between those 

 two dates, but most likely in April, not far 

 from that of the present year — a meteorological 

 phenomenon repeating itself. 



Entomological. 



STRIPED APPLE-TREE BORER. 



iSaperda hiviltftln.i 



The personale of this insect may be readily 

 recognized by the illustrations, hence it 

 will be unnecessary to go into a lengthened 

 description. Perhaps, however, it may be 

 necessary to say that the colors are a mealy 

 white, and a light brown. 



From all the observations which have been 

 made upon the history and habits of this in- 

 sect it seems manifest that it requires three 

 years to complete its transformations from the 

 egg to the perfect beetle which deposits tlie 

 egg, and that the deposition of eggs occurs 

 late in June and during the entire month of 

 July ; therefore, the preventives employed to 

 defeat such a contingency, should be applied 

 before or during those periods named. Whale- 

 oil soap, or other alkalinous solutions, applied 

 from the roots up to the branches, or nearly 

 so, will prevent the females from deposiiing 

 her eggs on trees that are so treated. As tlie 

 eggs are usually deposited about the bahc, 

 near the ground, it has been recommended to 

 protect that part of the tree, from the first of 

 June to the first of September by heavy siilT 

 paper-painted— oil-cloth, tin, or sheet-iron, 

 old cloth or canvass, and the earth heaped up 

 a few inches about the bottom. If, however, 

 the insect is present, and finds no apple trees 

 iu a condition to form a nidus for its eggs, 

 they will resort to pear trees, quince or haw- 

 thorn, and it is said also cherry and ash. 

 Long before we had identified them as de- 

 structive to the apple (forty years ago at 

 least) we took our first specimens from a short 

 experimental piece of hawtboin hedge, and 

 we found them there at each returning season 

 (July), and vve did not then think of looking 

 for them elsewhere. 



If the appliances alluded to above have not 

 been utilized, and the eggs have already been 

 deposited at the bases of the trees, the ditti- 

 culty of counteracting their destructive ten- 

 dencies greatly increases. If tlie liquid reme- 

 dies were applied before the eggs were hatched, 

 and the young had not yet penetrated the 



ture. 



bark, the application just then would be more 

 effective than, perhaps any other time ; but 

 not so, if the base was only then protected by 

 bandages, for that would only favor their de- 

 velopment by shielding them from danger. 



When the trees are very large and the bark 

 is very rough their presence is not very ap- 

 parent, even in their earliest periods of de- 

 velopment ; moreover such trees could sup- 

 port a limited number without sustaining any 

 very serious injury. But when the trees are 

 young and the bark relatively smooth, the 

 presence of two or three larva for two or three 

 years would perfectly girdle them- and their 

 death would be sure— indeed we have seen 

 trees two and three inches in diameter at the 

 base killed outright tlie second year. One ad- 

 vantage in young trees, from the discoloration 

 of the bark, is that it can be seen where the 

 larva is operating beneath 

 it, for during the first year 

 they do not penetrate far- 

 ther than the sap-wood. 

 The larvse can then be. cut 

 out with a sharp knife, or if 

 such mutilation is objection- 

 able tliey may be drawn out 

 with a barbed steel wire 

 through an artificial aper- 

 But if we are quite sure that all the 

 " worms " have been dislodged the scarifica- 

 tions of the tree will soon be healed by the 

 vital energies inherent in it. Their presence 

 may also be detected during the first year by 

 their "castings" accom- 

 panied by gummy exuda- 

 tions, which after a few 

 hours rain oecome often 

 conspicuous. In the winter 

 they go down into tlie 

 roots, below the surface 

 line, and become torpid. 

 An examination of the 

 roots of trees infested, in 

 the autumn after the worms have gone down, 

 or in the spring before they have come up, 

 might furnish an oportunity to destroy them 

 with less dis fignrement to the tree than if 

 made above ground. Tlie 

 third year they have gained 

 sufficient cutting power to 

 enable them to penetrate 

 to the very heart of the tree. 

 We cut down a tree on 

 one occasion over six in- 

 ches in diameter that had 

 become enervated through 

 O the attacks of the Saperda, 



and found it penetrated by both perpendicular 

 and transverse galleries for a space of nearly 

 three feet up from the surface and down into 

 the roots, and yet externally there was little 

 visible to indicate that the insect was present 

 at all. On another occasion a neighbor 

 brought us the stump of a small apple tree, 

 which had been sawed off about eightetn 

 months previously, because "it was sick." 

 Out of it we took fully a dozen of these larviB, 

 and the stump itself had a resemblance to a 

 piece of coarse spouge. The larvce were about 

 two-thirds developed and had access to nothing 

 but this stump. 



If we have not succeeded " by hook or by 

 crook," in dislodging this worm during its 

 first or second year, nor have prevented the 



beetle from depositing its eggs at the base of 

 the tree, then the case involves additional 

 difliculties. It is lodged in too deeply, and 

 exposes no castings; therefore its locality is 

 hard to find, and we are compelled to grope 

 in the dark. If we can gain access to its 

 gallery c(&owe the worm, and through a small 

 tunneled pipe were to pour in coal oil, or even 

 hot water, we could effectually destroy all 

 that these liquidte reached. But many have 

 been destroyed by this latter remedy, and also 

 by the barbed steel wire. 



The letters a, 6 and c represent the larva, 

 the pifpa and the imago, or perfect beetle, 

 about their natural size. The first is a dirty 

 white in color, the second not quite so dirty, 

 and the third nearly a silvery white, with two 

 brownish stripes, reaching from the "head to 

 the tail." Look out for the living beetle 

 from the first of June to the first of September 

 — we took a living specimen as late as Sep- 

 tember—they bore a hole from the inside to 

 the surface of the bark, and make their es- 

 cape therefrom in the form of No. 3, within 

 the times specified above, although we have 

 seldom captured them before the fourth of 

 July. 



We regard the preventive aieasures the 

 most effective ; but, of course, if these have 

 been neglected or abortive, we must "go for 

 them" by the best means we may be able to 

 secure, although we will have to work com- 

 paratively in the dark. 



The larva of the " Two-striped saperda " is 

 however not the only worm that infests the 

 trunk of the apple tree. Eighty-three species 

 of insects have been described and recorded 

 as injurious to the different parts of the apple 

 tree, from the roots to the mature fruit. 

 Seven of which attack the trunk in the form 

 of borers. Some of them— perhaps all of 

 them — are, however, subject to the attacks of 

 parasites, and this affords some consolation. 



These insects, however, differ so much in 

 their histories, their characters, their develop- 

 ments and their injuries, that each separate 

 species would require a separate article, to 

 properly "show them up." 



FLORIDA WHIP-TAIL. 



Mr. Benjamin Snably, of Florida, who is 

 now on a visit to his native county, a few days 

 ago very generously presented to us a splendid 

 specimen of the above-named animal, and 

 gave us some account of the dread with which 

 it is regarded by some of his friends and neigh- 

 bors in Florida, and especially those of Afri- 

 can descent. It is known by dift'erent local 

 names, wherever it happens to to exist. Per- 

 haps the most appropriate common name is 

 "whip-tail" or "whip-tailed spider," as it 

 belongs to the family Tarantulidm, the typical 

 genus of which is the Tarantula, which is 

 nothing more or less than a large, brown, 

 hairy, pulmonarial spider (Mygale Ilewtzii). 



In and about Mr. Snably 's locale in Florida, 

 the above named animal is known by tlie 

 popular names of " Grampus " and " Mule- 

 Killer "—one man, at least, alleging that its 

 bite killed bis mule. The term Grampus, as 

 applied to this animal, as a popular name, 

 docs not seem to he at all appropriate. The 

 Grampus is a cetaceous mammal, belonging 

 to the Dolphin family, and lives altogethe in 

 the water (Delphinorymhas orca of Lin.) In 



