1884. J 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



181 



rooms closed from the use of the family, for 

 fear of having something soiled, and who 

 would make you feel most unwelcome were 

 you to leave a print of mud on the floor, or a 

 scratch on the wall or furniture, yet they will 

 use, or permit to be used, dish-rags for weeks 

 at a time, without washing or boiling them. 

 To say the least, it is not pleasant to think of 

 eating oft" dishes washed with such a cloth. 

 Next to liaving food pure and free from all 

 dirt, is the importance of having clean dishes, 

 and above all, bright knives and spoons. 

 Carelessness in such things among servants is 

 very annoying. Occasionally one finds help 

 that is particular in this regard as in all 

 othere, who are appreciated by all good house- 

 keepers. 



Contributions. 



SHOELESS HORSES. 

 Ukookville, Ohio, Dec. H, 1884. 



Editou Lancaster Faumer— Si7-; I see 

 several article in the last issue of the Farmer 

 on shoeless horses that meets my idea of the 

 matter under consideration. From the ex- 

 perience I have had with shoeless horses I am 

 satisfled that horses travel much easier with- 

 out shoes thau with them. Shoes on horses 

 makes the growth of the feet abnormal, both 

 anotomically and physiologically. On the 

 principle of the "survival of the tittest " 

 great benefit would ensue from breeding'horses 

 from such as never had shoes on them, as by 

 use organs are perfected and enlarged ; by use 

 the hoof becomes hard and tough. By shoe- 

 ing, and consequent disuse, it becomes tender 

 and brittle ; by disuse four of the horse's toes 

 and fingers have disappeared, except rudi- 

 ments of the first and third (splints). Disuse 

 of these has come of altered euvirouments of 

 the animal in past ages. By use the horny or 

 outer substance of tlie foot becomes very 

 sharp and haid. After a horse has had shoes on 

 for a while he is unfit to travel for a long time 

 afterwards without them. lu this country 

 nearly every public road is piked with either 

 glacial or alluvial gravel ; this gravel is com- 

 posed of limestone pebles and sand ; on 

 these roads my horses travel a good deal with- 

 out any shoes. Although I keep from five to 

 seven horses and colts on my farm, yet I have 

 not had any shoeing done for eight or ten 

 years. Formerly I have drove them consider- 

 ably, professionally, without any lameness. 

 It is true, however, when one begins to use 

 colls they should be used very moderately for 

 a year or two, or until the hoofs become hard 

 and tough, particularly when the roads have 

 been muddy for some time, even if one has to 

 desist from using them for some time it will 

 pay in the end, for during a horse's lifeiime 

 there is considerably saved by not shoeing. A 

 horse of some age, that never had any shoes 

 on, travels over rough and icy roads much 

 better than one would anticipate that had 

 never used them in that way. 



For many years the prices of farmers' pro- 

 duce has not been so low us now, yet wc pay 

 from one to two per cent, tax on all we are 

 worth. iVheat, 70 cents ; corn, 30 cents ; 

 oats, 2.5 cents ; fat hogs and catUe, 4 cents, 

 gross. Tobacco hanging in the sheds yet. 

 G. 



ESSAYS. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL ESSAY. 



[The following annual address, delivered 

 before the Ontario Enlumoloyicnl Societi/, may 

 contain much that is interesting to farmers 

 and othei's in this and adjacent localities, and 

 this must lie regarded as a sufficient apology 

 for inserting it here. — Ed. J 



Mr. William Saunders, the President, de- 

 livered his annual address : 



•'The working entomologist, " he said "ever 

 on the watch and ready to note the many 

 items of interest in connection with insect 

 life, will seldom pass a season wit.iout finding 

 many facts worthy of interest which, if not 

 of general interest, are at least of local im- 

 portance." lie said the year 1844 had not 

 been marked by any unusual invasion of de- 

 structive insects as affecting the country as a 

 whole and exciting general comment, yet 

 many localities have sufi'ered either from the 

 unusual development of familiar forms of in- 

 sect life or from the introduction of new pests. 

 Early in the year some excitement was caused 

 in the Ottawa district by the appearance of a 

 very destructive catei-pillar in great numbers 

 in the clover fields, which rapidly devoured 

 the foliage. It was at first supposed to be the 

 veritable army worm, but proved to be a very 

 different animal. On May 23 the speaker ex- 

 amined some of the affected fields, accom- 

 panied by the Vice President and Mr. W. H. 

 Harrington. The caterpillars were very 

 numerous, and much of the clover had been 

 seriously injured by them. They were a 

 species of cut-worm, the progeny of a moth, 

 belonging probably to the genus Agrotis. The 

 larvse measured 1:{ to 1} inches in length. At 

 the time had a dark yellowish brown head 

 with a black stripe down the front, and a 

 black body with two yellowish stripes on each 

 side, the upper one composed of streaks and 

 dots of yellow, the lower, which was near the 

 under surface, formed of two crinkled yellow 

 lines which approached each other on the an- 

 terior segments, and diverged posteriorly. On 

 the upper part of the second segment was a 

 black horny shield ; the breathing holes on 

 the sides were also surrounded with black. 

 At the time of the visit the then almost full- 

 grown caterpillars were affected witli a singu- 

 lar disease of a fungoid character, which was 

 destroying them very rapidly, the diseased in- 

 sects after death remaining extended on the 

 leaves of clover or blades of grass in a natural 

 position, but somewhat discolored. The dis- 

 ease spread rapidly, and was no doubt con- 

 tagious. Of ."iO or 00 specimens collected by 

 the speaker for rearing all died, only one sur- 

 viving the chiysalis state, and this did not 

 mature a perfect insect. 



A few days later complaints were made to 

 the speaker of the depredations of the cater- 

 pillar of another of our cut worms, a si)ecies 

 usually very common, the larvw of a moth 

 known to entomologists as Hadewi Aiika, 

 which are very disastrous to corn and other 

 crops. A few days matured swaiuis of these 

 insects, when the caterpillars that had es- 

 caped disease and enemies buried themselves 

 in the grouud, changed to chrysalids, which 

 subsequently produced winged moths. 



Every season these cut worms are a source 

 of great annoyance to gardeners and farmers, 



and inflict enormous losses. They receive the 

 name from their habit of cutting off near the 

 base tender and succulent plants, and under 

 the designation of cut worms are included a 

 number of species having similar habits, be- 

 longing chiefly to.the genera Agrotis, Hadena 

 and Mamesta, some of which possess striking 

 points of difference in the moth state, al- 

 though they much resemble each other in the 

 caterpillar condition. The eggs «re laid by 

 the parent moth in the latter part of summer, 

 sometimes on the ground about the roots of 

 grass and other plants, and sometimes on the 

 leaves near the ground. Within two or three 

 weeks young larvie hatch from the eggs, and 

 by the time autumn sets iu the caterpillars 

 have attained the length of lialf an inch or 

 more, when they burrow into the ground 

 deep enough to protect them from injury by 

 the severe frost, and there remain in a torpid 

 condition all winter. The warmth of spring 

 arouses them to activity, when they seek the 

 surface of the ground, feeding at night upon 

 alnrost any green thing they met with, eating 

 with alnrost insatiable appetities as they ap- 

 proach maturity, and buryiirg themselves dur- 

 ing the day under the surface of the ground 

 iu the neighborliood of their depredations. 

 When full grown they burrow irr the earth to 

 varying depths, arrd there change tocrysalids, 

 from which the mature insects escape in two 

 or three weeks. These insects are hurtful 

 only when in the larval condition. As reme- 

 dies, showering the plants with Paris green 

 and water, sprinkling them with air-sacked 

 lime or powered hellebore, or strewing lime or 

 soot or mixtures of these substances around 

 the plants on tire surface of the ground, have 

 all been recommended, and in some cases 

 have been found useful. Plants have also 

 been protected from injury by these cater- 

 pillars by strewing around them a little dry 

 saird impregnated with coal oil in the pro- 

 portion of a tcacupful of coal oil to a pailful 

 of sand thoroughly mixed ; the application 

 should be renewed every week. The method 

 of warding off the attacks of irrjurious insect* 

 by the use of odorous substances repugnant to 

 them, is rapidly growing in favor on account 

 of the success attending its use. This coal oil 

 remedy for cut worms is said to be very 

 effectiral, and the cost of the application be- 

 ing so very triflihg, its usefulness should be 

 extensively tested. It is manifest that none 

 of these measures are feasible where field 

 crops are irrvaded, as the area would be too 

 great for airy one to undertake to cover with 

 such material. In such cases nature has pro- 

 vided eflicient remedies to I'educe their num- 

 bers. Besides the disease to which he had 

 reference, there are armies of parasitic insects 

 which prey on them. Hence it very often 

 occurs that air insect which is very abundant 

 one season is very scarce the next. 



These cut worms are widely disseminated. 

 Early in .luly he (the speaker) received speci- 

 mens from Manitoba from the Deputy Min- 

 ister of Agriculture of a caterpillar belonging 

 to this group, which was found to be seriously 

 injuring vegetables, and in some localities 

 oats and barley also. This was a grayish 

 brown caterpillar with a semi-transparent 

 skin, a brown horny head and a shield of the 

 same character on the upiier part of the second 

 segment. There was a pale line down the 



