98 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[July 



have no o'ltbirth in acts and facts V And, if it 

 ^as, who SL fit to rationally enjoy it as intel- 

 ligent beings V And among such intelligences 

 none so appreciative as man. Of cour.se, care 

 should be taken that innocent amusement 

 should not be perverted or allowed to run into 

 abuse ; but because the illiterate, the ignorant 

 or the vicious may a6u.se it furnishes no argu- 

 ment against its use. In a " land of liberty " 

 it seems impossible to legislate morals into 

 the human mind. The fact is, without free- 

 dom there can be no such thing as good morals. 

 Allliough, for the safety of society and for 

 personal decency's sake, it may be politic to 

 restrain man from evil, through pains and 

 penalties, but it may not make him a better 

 man "at heart." If we prohibit the exhibi- 

 tion of certain amusements at fairs where are 

 we going to fix the limitation ? for utility and 

 amusement are not divided by discrete de- 

 grees — but rather by continuous degre^ — and, 

 that being the case, their boundaries will 

 more or less blend or overlap each other ; and, 

 therefore, it would be difficult to draw a line 

 of demarcation or separation without invad- 

 ing or doing violence, unnecessarily, to that 

 wliich is not only harmless but absolutely 

 legitimate and useful. 



In saying this we feel it incumbent to add, 

 that we have not witnessed a race, or a trial 

 of speed, for more than fifty years ; because 

 such exhibitions, somehow, never afforded us 

 any amusement, and certainly no moral or in- 

 tellectual edification. Still we would not com- 

 pel other men to abstain any more than we 

 would have other men compel us to induhje in 

 these and kindred recreations. We abstain 

 from such amusements in peifect freedom, 

 and we accord the same freedom to others. 

 Even if such exhibitions consist of " wheat 

 and tares " we are admonished by high 

 authority to let them grow together until the 

 time of harvest comes. 



THE MIDGES. 

 These delicately formed, and slender-limbed 

 insects, are not a mere "fudge," simply be- 

 cause they are only a miihje, for their strength, 

 and hence their ability to do evil, lies not in 

 their individual prowess, but in their num- 

 bers. They all belong to the great family 

 TiPULiDiE, of which the common mosquito is 

 the type, nevertheless, the species are so 

 numerous, and their transformations so 

 Taried, that it has become necessary to refer 

 a restricted number to a new family— 

 CECiDOMYiDyE— of which the "Hessian Fly" 

 —Cecidomyia destructor— is the type. Proba- 

 bly none of them do much good, if any, al- 

 though some of them may not do much harm. 

 The -wheat crop of our country, at intervals 

 and in many places, has been greatly injured 

 if not totally destroyed by the ravages of the 

 " Ilessian-fly " and the "wheat-midge"— 

 they are both, to all intents and purpo.ses, 

 viidgcs And a.\so flies, being dipterous, or two- 

 winged. For the past five or six years the 

 " clover-seed midge," (Cecidomyia leguniini- 

 cola, IJnt,) has been looming into prominence 

 in various remote localities in our country, 

 but the present season they have sliown 

 themselves conspicuously in Dauphin countv, 

 and, for aught that we know to the contrary,' 

 may be domicilated in the county of Lancas- 

 ter. We call the attention of our readers to 



an article on this subject written by Secretary 

 T. J. Edge, of the " State Board of Agricul- 

 ture," taken from a Harrisburg paper. 



We are under obligation to the secretary 

 for siiecimens of the larvce of tliis insect, from 

 which we hope to develop the fly. 



They were the first we had seen— in point 

 of fact, wo absolutely have not seen a clover 

 field, nor a single growing " head " of clover, 

 tlie present season, we have been so closely 

 engaged in our secular occupation. This 

 midge has the power of preventing the devel- 

 opment and ripening of clover seed, and 

 there seems to be no other remedy than, for a 

 time, to discontinue the cultivation of clover. 



BARK LOUSE OR SCALE INSECT. 



It is frequently said, that " History repeats 

 itself," and it may as truthfully be said, that 

 there are periodical repetitions of a redun- 

 dancy of certain insects, although the periods 

 may be irregular. A case in point occurs the 

 present season, although it may not yet have 

 attained its maximum manifestaion. The year 

 1W54 was remarkable for the prevalence of an 

 insect that infested tlie Linden and Maple 

 trees in Lancaster city and county, in count- 

 less numbers. In front of the Court House, 

 extending from " Sprecher's agricultural im- 

 plement and seed store " to the corner of East 

 King and Duke streets, was a row of tall 

 Linden trees, and these were so badly infested 

 that it was deemed best to cut them all down 

 and burn all the branches. These insects did 

 not appear suddenly or arbitrarily, for they 

 had been noticed in increasing numbers for 

 two or three years previously, but in that year 

 they were so numerous and aflected the trees 

 so injuriously that they attracted almost uni- 

 versal attention. Our present Court House 

 was then in process of being built, or at least 

 not yet finished, and we had been consulted, 

 or interviewed, in reference to them, and in the 

 absence of any previous knowledge of them, 

 or any entomological literature on the subject, 

 we suggested cutting them down and burning 

 them, and oui suggestion was carried into 

 effect, although a more beautiful row of trees 

 would have been hard to find. We had pub- 

 lished a brief article On them, faintly estimat- 

 ing and intimating their numbers, in one of 

 our city newspapers, which was quoted in the 

 Public Ledger and other Philadelphia papers, 

 for it appeared that the same insect was pres- 

 ent among the Maple and Linden trees in 

 that city. A small branch, about twelve inches 

 in length, was brought to us perfectly invested 

 with the in.sects through its entire length and 

 upon this • we based our calculations. We 

 severed one scale and the cotton-like mass at- 

 tached to it, in whicli we counted 500 eggs, 

 and we were not sure that we counted all of 

 them. The branch, as near as wo can recollect, 

 contained one hundred scales, which would 

 aggregate .50,000 eggs, each capable of pro- 

 ducing an insect. According' to this ratio, 

 one small limb, containing, with its laterals, 

 thirty feel (wliich was a moderate estimate) 

 yielded 3,000 scales, containing 500 eggs 

 each" aggregating the enormous number 

 of 1,500,000 eggs, and ultimately that number 

 of insects. But the trees were large, and each 

 containing not less than one hundred such 

 limbs, the multiple of which would amount to 

 150,000,000 eggs, and this number multiplied | 



by ten— the number of the trees footed up 

 1,500,000,000. 



In view of these enormous results, at the 

 request of the publisher of the Pennsylvania 

 Farm Journal, we prepared a brief paper, ac- 

 companied by rude illustrations, provisionally 

 naming the insect Coccus innumcrabilis, 

 which were inserted in the journal aforesaid ; 

 and, alttiough the species was subsequently 

 transfened to the genus Pulvinaria, it appears 

 that tliis was the first name and record the 

 insect had received, although it had been 

 afterward described under other names. 

 After disfiguring and enervating many favor- 

 ite trees, the insects finally passed away, and 

 so completely so, that on a subsequent occa- 

 sion wlien we were requested to furnish speci- 

 mens, we could obtain none in the city or 

 county of Lancaster. 



And now, we are likely to have a repetition 

 of 1854. A branch of a Silver Maple tree was 

 brought us from Ephrata, as fully infested as 

 were those of thirty years ago. We noticed 

 a few two years ago. Last summer they had 

 greatly increased in immber, and the present 

 season exhibits a still greater increase. They 

 also infest grapevines, and on one occasion 

 we removed tliem from our vines entirely by 

 "hand-picking," and when this is done be- 

 fore the young are hatched from the eggs it is 

 effectual. In 1854 tlTe Linden was a pre- 

 dominating tree in Lancaster city, but through 

 this in.sect and the " Linden-tree borer," 

 [Saperda vestila) it has become almost obliter- 

 ated. The " Countless scale," in the absence 

 of the Linden is quite satisfied with the 

 maple (Acer dasycarpum.) There seems to 

 be a developmental crisis in its history, after 

 which it recedes, but whether it has reached 

 that point, the future alone can demonstrate. 

 Taken in time, it would be easy to accom- 

 plish its extermination, but people are heed- 

 less or indifterent about it until it becomes 

 too late or too numerous to be approached by 

 a remedy. 



Tlie scales adhere so closely to the branches 

 during the winter season, and are so nearly 

 the color of the bark of the trees, that they 

 elude observation, and only become conspicu- 

 ous in the spring or summer, after they begin 

 to secrete the white flossy, or cotton-like sub- 

 stance, in which the eggs are invested. The 

 eggs are a sulphur yellow in color, and the 

 young when they first appear are of the same 

 color and size. They have two very dark eyes, 

 six white translucent feet, two whitish an- 

 tenme, and two anal, or tail-like appendages, 

 with a few lateral bristles, but none of these 

 are visible without the aid of a magnifier. 

 About the last week in June and the first week 

 in .July, probably earlier or later, according to 

 temperature or other conditions, the young 

 come forth and begin to scatter over the trees, 

 until they find a favorable location on the 

 young and tender branches. They occur in 

 such countless millions that perhaps not more 

 than one or two in every thousand find a con- 

 genial lodgment, but these, when fully de- 

 veloped, in many instances, are capable of 

 covering the whole surface of the branches, so 

 that mone of the bark can be seen ; but usual- 

 ly, on the larger branches, they are mainly con- 

 fined to the undersides. Of course, many mil- 

 lions, at this time are washed off by drenching 

 showers of rain. In the absence of rain a 



