June 



THE POMOLOGIST. 



71 



conjectured tliat they were probably brought 

 up from north-cast Missouri, and sold in 

 Davenport. So at West Liberty, we had a 

 very good taste of Grimes, and pronounced 

 it all that Mr. Hauan and his authority liavc 

 recommended. 



I had seen this apple before last year, and 

 two years ago I obtained twelve trees, three 

 years old, of Mr. Marshall, of Massilim, Ohio, 

 snd last fall I obtained two hundred and tifty 

 more, three years old, mc)st of which I shall 

 set in my orchard for fruit. The trees are 

 upright, good growers^much like the "Ben 

 Davis." 



SuBL Foster, Muscatine. 



The Pear on the Thorn. 



A correspondent iu the Country Gentleman 

 writing from Massachusetts, says : 



" Many years since I top-grafted an old 

 thorn hush with several varieties of pears, 

 some of which grew finely for a shcjrt time, 

 but none lived long enough to bear much 

 fruit. Mr. Haskell tells us that the Vicar 

 succeeds well, and not long since I read the 

 statement of a gentleman residing in the 

 west, who has found the old White Doyenne 

 to do well also. He stated that with liim it 

 was free from all deflects when grafted on 

 the white thorn. 



A friend ot mine, an Englishman, told me 

 that he had often eaten pears of the old 

 Swan Egg variety from branches grafted into 

 the hawthorn. Now perhaps the hawthorn 

 may be better suited to the pear than our 

 thorns are. I think if one has it, that the 

 experiment is worth trying, usiug White 

 Doyenne and Vicar clous. 



Budded upon seedliug hawthorn stocks, 

 perhaps valuable dwarfs might be obtained ; 

 at any rate the experiment would cost but 

 little. Let us hear from any who have tried 

 it." 



The Bartlett worked high up on the 

 white thorn has proved a perfect success in 

 our immediate vicinity. Mr. Isaac Brandt 

 of this city, some twelve years since, worked 

 a cion of the Bartlett into a white thorn 

 standing in his garden lot. For eight or 

 nine years past the tree thus formed has not 

 missed a crop of fruit. Pour bushels of 

 fine pears have been gathered from the tree 

 iu a single season. The tree often sets so 

 much fruit that Mr. B. linds it advisable to 

 thin out by hand picking at any early stage 

 of growth, to enalile the tree to stand up 

 under its burden of fruit. 



LiqmD MiiNURE i'OR SXRAWBERllIES. — A 



correspondent of the Small Fruit Recorder 

 gives the result of an experiment which he 

 made with liquid manure for strawberries. 

 He .said that he procured a half hogshead, 

 filled it with rain water, and put into it one 

 quarter of a pound of ammonia, and one 

 quarter of a pound of common nitre. Wlien 

 the strawberry plants were blossoming he 

 gave them a sprinkling of the solutioii at 

 evening, twice a wei'k, until the fruit was 

 nearly full size. The result was nearly 

 double the amount of fruit on those to 

 which the liquid was applied, than was ob- 

 taiued from [ilantg alongside, to which none 

 of the liquid was giveu. 





The tumble-dung beetle is identical with 

 the Scaral/ceus or "sacred beetle" of the Egyp- 

 tians. 



CuroiUio— Bark Lice. 



C. V. Riley, Slate Entomologist of Mis- 

 souri, read a i)aper before the Horticultural 

 Society of that State, from which we take 

 the following interesting extract: 



"Owingto the severe drouth of 1868, which 

 was unfavorable to its successful transforma- 

 tion, that dreaded foe of the fruit-grower, 

 the Plum Circulio, was scarce in the early 

 part of the season, and our plum and peach 

 trees set a fuller crop than they had done 

 before for years ; but the subsequent moist 

 weuther was favorable to the underground 

 evolutions of this little pest, and the new 

 brood apjieared in great numbers about the 

 end of June and beginning of Jul}', when 

 they did much damage to stone fruit, and 

 some damage to pip-fi'uit by the gougings 

 which they made for food. 



As stated in an essay read before the 

 State meeting of our Illinois horticultural 

 friends, I have discovered a little cannibal 

 in the shape of a minute species of Thrips, 

 which destroys vast numbers of the little 

 turk's eggs ; and let us hope, that by attack- 

 ing the Curculio in its most vulnerable 

 point, this l^hrips may in the course of a few 

 years reduce the numbers of the Curculio, 

 as tlie ladybirds have done with the Colorado 

 Potato bug, or as the minute mite (Acarus 

 maii) is known to have done with tlie 

 common Oj'ster-shell Bark-louse of the 

 Apple. 



The eggs of the Apple-tree Plant-louse' 

 {ApkiUs mali) which last winter so thickly 

 covered the twigs of the apple trees iu 

 many orchards, batched and produced 

 prodigious number of lice as soon as 

 the buds commenced to burst. In this 

 immediate neighborhood they were soon 

 swept away, however, hy their cannibal foes, 

 and by insectivorous birds, such as the war- 

 bler, etc. ; but a physiological fact connected 

 with this insect has been developed this 

 year by Dr E. S. Hull, the able Illinois 

 State Horticulturist, which is of so much 

 importance that I cannot pass over it in this 

 brief report. He has ascertained that we 

 sutler from the injurious punctures of tlieir 

 little beaks long after the lice them,selves 

 have disappeared. In fact, he has proved to 

 his own satisfaction tliat the so called ".scab" 

 in apples, which prevailed to such an alarm- 

 ing extent last year, and rendered thousands 

 and thousands of bushels valueless for mar- 

 ket purposes, is actually caused by the 

 punctures of these lice. 



I said the doctor had proved this matter 

 " to his own satisfaction," because I believe 

 that caution requires that we should not 

 consider it an established fact until all ob- 

 jections to it can be dispelled- Personally I 

 have made no observations on this matter, 

 but the facts in the case all add weight to 

 Dr. Hull's theory, if such it can be called. 



Hitherto the cause of the " scab "on apjilcs 

 has been involved in mystery. It was sup- 

 posed to have a fungoid origin; yet an ex- 

 amination will show that the scabby 

 appearance is not caused liy an3' live funirus, 

 but by arrested growth of the cells which 

 have become corky and cicatrized. The 

 importance of this discovery of Dr. Hull's 

 should it once be firmly established, cannot 



well be estimated ; for when we have once 

 ascertained the cause of a disease, it need 

 scarcely exist any longer. By destroying 

 the lice we shall prevent scabby apples, and 

 experience teaches that they can be destroy- 

 ed by a good syringing of tobacco water. 



We may expect, in this immediate vicinity, 

 an almo.st total exemption from " .scab " 

 next year, 1870 for the apple trees are remark- 

 bly free from the minute thread like eggs of 

 the Plant-louse witli which they were so 

 thoroughly peppered a year ago. 



Influence of Colored Light on Insects. 



The discussion of the changes produced in 

 animal and vegetable forms by the Influence 

 of varying conditions of temperature, moist- 

 ure, light, locality, etc., especially as con- 

 nected with the Darwinian hypothesis, has 

 induced a great variet}' i^f experiments,from 

 which some interesting results have been 

 derived. lo some of these experiments, 

 lately published, a .brood of caterpillars of 

 tlic tortoise-shell butterfly of Europe, was 

 divided into three lots. One third were 

 placed in a photographic room lighted 

 through orange colored glass, one-third in a 

 room lighted through blue glass, and the 

 remainder kept in an ordinary cage in natu- 

 ral light. All were fed with their proper 

 food, and the third lot developed into butter- 

 flies in the usual time. Those in the blue 

 light were not healthy, a large number dying 

 before changing; tho.se raised in the orange 

 light, however, were nearly as healthy as the 

 first mentioned. The perfect insect reared 

 in the blue light ditt'ered from the average 

 form in being much smaller, the orange- 

 brown colors lighter, and the yellow and 

 orange running into each other, instead of 

 remaining distinct. Those raised in the 

 yellow light were also smaller, but the 

 orange-brown was replaced by salmon-color ; 

 and the blue edges of the wings, seen in the 

 ordinary form, were of a dull slate. If 

 changes so great as these can be produced in 

 the course of a single experiment, it is prob- 

 able that a continuance of the same upon a 

 succession of individuals will develop some 

 striking results. — Hurpcr's Magazine. 



The Dorbug. 



Warren 8. Hill, who resides near the Man 

 Chester Riding-Park, finding an unusual 

 number of "dorbugs," or May beetles, flying 

 about, erected alight iu his gardeu one eve- 

 ning last week, and beneath it placed a tube 

 of water, and as a result caught 103 of the 

 beetles. 



Mr. Hill has been giving attention to this 

 specific branch of Natural History, and has 

 traced out the lineage of the beetle pretty 

 fully. The "dorbug," as we are accustomed 

 to designate it, is the progenitor of the large 

 white worm which gnaws the grass-roots, 

 and in autumn eat potatoes most voraciously. 

 It feeds on all kinds of garden crops, and often 

 blights the most valuable crop. 



Where a pile of manure has been laid 

 abundantly, will be found an abundance of 

 these white, fat worms, which are produced 

 from the eggs deposited by the dorbug. 



Mirror and Farmer. 



The Blue Jay. — Charles Carlisle, of 

 Woodstock, Vt., writes to the New Tork 

 Farmers' Club : " Small-fruit men think it 

 pays to feed and befriend the Blue Jays; 

 they mimic and mock other birds, talk, scare 

 and deceive with a screech like a hawk. I 

 have been cultivating small fruits a number 

 of years past ; I soon learned that m_v interest 

 and the interest of the Blue Jays were recip- 

 rocal. I allow them free access to my corn 

 crib in the winter; in the summer they pro- 

 vide for themselves, and act the part of a 

 police force to protect my crops." 



