82 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[June, 



times called " soldier beetles ;" they belong 

 to the Lamijyridce, or "fire-fly" family, in 

 the order Coleoptera. They are carnivorous 

 in their feeding habits. The larvse live under 

 ground and feed on the larvte of other small 

 insects, snails, worms and whatever else of an 

 animal nature they can capture there. 



They are the Tdephorus colaris of Le Conte, 

 and appear every spring and summer, especi- 

 ally during the months of May and June. It 

 is their nuptial season, when the sexes meet, 

 prolificate and lay the foundations for the 

 next year's brood. See how deftly they run 

 over vegetation and manipulate their anlennm, 

 in search of each other, or animal prey of 

 some kind. We have seen numbers of them 

 attack a pretty large garden snail, and eat 

 him out of house and home. Chinch-bugs do 

 not act so ; they maliciously stick their beaks 

 into vegetation and suck out its juices. They 

 difiEer most from bed bugs, in habit, from 

 prefering vegetable juice to animal juice. In- 

 dulge in no prejudices or anxieties about these 

 Telephorans ; they will do no harm and may 

 do good. 



THE COLD WAVE. 



The cold wave from the Lake Regions, pre- 

 dicted in the "Weather Predictions" of 

 Wednesday, May -J.Sth, came all too soon. 

 We tried to sound a note of warning, by call- 

 ing special attention to the fact ; and, while 

 we happen to know that some saw the warn- 

 ing in time and heeded it, others were not so 

 fortunate, and will consequently very likely 

 suffer. 



At and in the vicinity of New Holland 

 water was frozen not only in small vessels, 

 but on water troughs and on small bodies of 

 still water. 



At and in the vicinity of Quarryville frost 

 was visible in many places, and there, too, ice 

 was formed on vessels. 



A report comes from Pequea that tobacco 

 plants were badly frozen in that township. 

 Certain it is, nothing is much more suscepti- 

 ble to the damaging effects of frost than 

 young tobacco. 



In the northern and western sections of the 

 county, while there were slight frosts in some 

 low lying lands, as a rule there was less frost 

 than in other portions of the county, the land 

 lying higher and dryer for the most part. In 

 the tobacco-growing regions of the county 

 (they grow it everywhere, but in some sec- 

 tions to a greater extent than in others) there 

 must have been considerable damage, if there 

 was any considerable amount of frost. 



How completely the meteorological pheno- 

 mena of certain districts of country repeat 

 themselves is strikingly evinced by " the cold 

 wave " above alluded to which we clip from 

 the New Era, of Thursday (29th) since it re- 

 calls a sudden and intense " cold snap " we 

 had in Eastern Pennsylvania just fifty years 

 ago, in the month of May. 



Early in the month of May of that year (we 

 cannot recall the precise day, but feel very 

 certain it was between the first and the four- 

 teenth), we were a passenger in a "horse-car" 

 on the Pennsylvania Railroad, from Philadel- 

 phia to Columbia, the then terminus of the 

 said railroad. We left Philadelphia about 

 sunrise, and arrived at Columbia about 5 

 o'clock in the afternoon. Relays of horses 

 were in waiting about every ten or twelve 

 miles, and at every horse-station, during the 

 early part of the day, we found considerable 

 quantities of ice, and the people making loud 

 complaints about frosted garden vegetation. 

 The weather was exceedingly cool, and trav- 



eling in unheated carriages very uncomfort- 

 able, and there was a heavy frost on the suc- 

 ceeding night, which conspiculously manifest- 

 ed itself wherever there was shallow water, 

 and at dripping pump-beds, necessitating 

 much replanting of field and garden products. 

 Subsequently we had sundry cold snaps — one 

 at least as late as the 4th of July, but we can- 

 not recall one of the same magnitude nor yet 

 that occurred in the month of May. It came 

 and went again without leaving any very 

 deep impression upon human memory, and it 

 no doubt will be the same in this case. 



THE COMING AGRICULTURAL FAIR. 



The premium list for the agricultural fair, 

 to be held at MoGrann's Park, on September 

 1, -2, 3, 4 and 5, is now in the hands of the 

 printer, and from a hasty glance at it in the 

 job department of the New Era we have 

 reason to believe that, if the fair is not a suc- 

 cess, it will not be because of the absence of 

 liberal inducements to exhibitors. Horse 

 racing and bicycle racing will be among the 

 features of the occasion, and it looks now as 

 though Lancaster county might win back 

 some of her old-time glory in the direction of 

 big agricultural exhibits and all the other 

 features going to make up a successful fair. 



Let it come and go, if the people will have 

 it so— and it seems that they will—tor good or 

 ill, (indeed we could not help those rhymes, 

 they just came of themselves.) There is a 

 certain something in the mental and physical 

 organization of the average man and woman 

 that annually needs ventilization, and agri- 

 cultural fairs and other kindred gatherings 

 furnish the necessary safety valve to blow 

 that something off. We have been too inces- 

 santly engaged in our secular occupation for 

 the past six months, to take a hand in any 

 outside enterprise, however creditable it may 

 be, hence we are not as well informed on the 

 subject as we perhaps ought to be ; neverthe- 

 less the above paragraph, which we clip from 

 the -Bra, seems to indicate that the event al- 

 luded to is a foregone conclusion. Projecting, 

 concocting, programmising and conducting 

 those exhibitions, uncompensated, demands a 

 little more patience, self-denial and perse- 

 vering energy than those who practically cul- 

 tivate the soil can well afford to give. Hence 

 those who care nothing for fairs feel no loss by 

 their absence, and those who do interest them- 

 selves can enjoy such gatherings all the better 

 by feeling none of the responsibility devolv- 

 ing upon them. 



Perliaps the subject of agriculture would 

 be best subserved by dividing it into two 

 branches — agriculture in fun and agriculture 

 in earnest ; or, in romance and reality, or 

 poetry and prose. There are preponderating 

 masses of the funny, the romantic and poetic 

 sides of the question involved ; and these, per- 

 haps, will be on hand in the greatest and most 

 liberal quantity. 



GRAPE-LEAF FLEA-BEETLE. 



Strasburg, June 4, 1884. 

 Dr. Rathvon.— Dear Sir: I mail you to- 

 day an insect that is entirely destroying my 

 grapes, and as yet I have failed to destroy it. 

 Please give me his name and some method of 

 destruction, and I shall be inexpressibly 

 obliged. Yours, A. M. Herk, 



Strasburg, Pa. 

 The infested grapeleaves came safely to 

 hand by mail, and the insects were alive and 

 healthy. 



They are the larva of the "grape-leaf flea- 

 beetle" (Crepedodera chalyhea) and when very 

 numerous, perhaps the most destructive to 

 the foliage of the grape of any that is known. 

 Early in spring, before there are any grape- 

 leaves to feed on, the beetle comes forth from 

 its winter hibernation, and then feeds upon 

 the leaf and fruit buds of the grape, and is 

 therefore capable of doing much damage. 

 Jarring the vines of a cool morning, and gath- 

 ering the blue and green beetles, at that season 

 of the year, is then the only remedy. Scat- 

 tering unslaked lime under the vines early in 

 spring is said to kill them in the ground. 



Their nuptial season having come they 

 busy themselves about prolification and per- 

 petuation, after which the females deposit 

 their yellow eggs on the under sides of the 

 young leaves, and from these eggs are hatched 

 the grubs which are now destroying the 

 foliage of your vines. An application of 

 whale oil soapsuds, liquid Paris green, (a tea- 

 spoonful of good green to a gallon of water) 

 or a decoction of tobacco, thrown on the 

 vines by a garden syringe, are now the most 

 effective remedies. After the brown worms, 

 now on the vines, mature, they will go into 

 the ground and become changed to beetles 

 which will come forth later in the season and 

 attack the leaves again, but these are not quite 

 so bad as the larvce. When autumn approaches 

 they will go into the ground or elsewhere and 

 hibernate until next spring, as stated above. 

 When ihey are in the ground lime, lye. or 

 some other eorosive substance are the only 

 remedies that can be applied to the soil. 

 They may be usually found in the debris 

 under the vines, but they also are found in 

 other contiguous places. From causes not 

 clearly known they are more abundant some 

 seasons than others, and are capable of serious 

 injury. 



Philadelphia, May 29, 1884.^^ 

 Dear Sir : I have received from my place, 

 in St. Mary's county, Maryland, a specimen 

 of a blight, which attacks, apparently, only 

 where taere is young fruit, and the whole of 

 the young orchard. Under the leaves may be 

 found many o^ the insects I enclose. As 1 am 

 recently a member of the Horticultural .So- 

 ciety, I consulted Mr. Satterthwait. He re- 

 commended you as one who would probably 

 be able to give some information, as he did 

 not know anything about the matter himself, 

 never having met with the disease. If you 

 will be interested, would you kindly give some 

 information. Yours, 



Jas. S. Gillian, M. D., 

 6008 Belmont street, Philadelphia. 



Letter and contents duly received, but it 

 would be difticult to convince us that the 

 three large black and yellow Hymenopters, 

 are the insects which you have to fear. 



AVe found half a dozen specimens of light 

 brown " plant-lice " (Aphids) on the young 

 fruit, but whether they were the cause of the 

 " blight " we cannot say. Ordinarily, these 

 insects are capable of blighting anything they 

 attack in large numbers. ' 



Usually where plant lice are located there will 

 be found more or less " honey dew," and this 

 attracts ants, bees and wasps, and it often oc- 

 curs that the presence of these insects in great 

 numbers work an injury to the leaves and 

 fruit, upon which this honey dew is dis- 

 charged ; because, the insects feeding upon it, 



