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16 



THE ILLmOIS FAKMEK. 



Jan. 



whole family of saliacene, or willows. One is 

 the Hyphantia textor, a caterpillar which is 

 very common here, and common all over the 

 country. They will immediately feed on their 

 favorite. They are easily got rid of, by killing 

 them as soon as they are found. Like all other 

 caterpillars, they increase rapidly, and it will 

 not do to let them get ahead, as they come in 

 groups of 200. They must be mashed to give 

 any certainty of their demise. They can be 

 recognized and destroyed. They are a grey color ; 

 total length when matured and beginning to 

 scatter, about an inch and a half. The other one 

 is the claslora inclusa, about fifteen or twenty 

 of them getting together later. It begins when 

 a little fellow, and curls the corner of the leaf 

 around upon itself, and sews the leaf together. 

 It then turns the whole side over and goes to the 

 next leaf. This is his home and he does not eat 

 it. It begins about September. You will find a 

 bunch of leaves curled up, take them oflF. The 

 4th and 11th ring have a black spot, gregarious 

 and easily destroyed. 



Another caterpillar infesting the willow is one 

 and a half inches long at maturity, gregarious, 

 feeds in groups of 200, and clears the foliage off 

 as if a fire had passed over the tree. There is 

 also an aphis. 



Mr. Bryant — I have not had much experience 

 with this willow. I bought some as osiers, found 

 it worthless for that purpose, and dug them up. 

 The last season I had them they were attacked 

 by a gigantic species of aphis which covered the 

 bark and the stems of the tree completely. If I 

 remember rightly, they were of a brownish color 

 and of the size of a good large bed bug. They 

 attracted large swarms of the white and black 

 hornets, as the green aphis attracts flies. 

 Dr. Warder — After the honey dew. 

 Mr. 'Bryant — Yes sir. It is the only time that 

 I ever saw this aphis, and I don't know as it is 

 common to the white willow. That was seven 

 years since. 



Dr. Warder — Dr. Walsh said, fight aphids with 

 other insects, their natural enemies. These are 

 innumerable. One is the lady bug. As to ex- 

 ternal applications, use alkaline washes, not too 

 ■trcng. These are good for bark lice, also. You 

 can either use a solution, or by dusting ashes 

 upon the dewy leaves. 



The hour being very late the discussion was 

 cut off at this point, the horticultural society 

 by a resolution recommending the White Willow 

 on our prairies for timber purposes. 



The following resolution, was offered and 

 passed. 



Resolved, That the White Willow will be found 

 valuable, and we recommend it to all railroad 

 companies within the snow limit, for belts to pre- 

 vent the snow from drifting on the track. 



It should be further added to recommend a 

 trial of it for railroad ties, and should it be found 

 valuable for this purpose, a large saving in the 

 region of our railroads will be effected by it. 



SECOND DAY. 



This morning the attendance was larger than 

 yesterday, nearly filling the hall. There is no 

 abatement in the interest manifested, and the 

 subjects discussed are of great importance to the 

 planting public. The regular order of the morn- 

 ing is the subject of grape culture, but the 

 essayist on this subject begged a half day's de- 

 lay. In the meantime the discussion on the 



WHITE WILLOW 



was resumed. The resolution presented, was 

 "That the society recommend the white willow 

 for a live fence, where shelter and timber are 

 also an object." H. N. Bliss had been inveigled 

 into the idea of selling a million of willow cut- 

 tings by the peddlers for a mere nominal gum, 

 little more than the labor of cutting them, and 

 has the satisfaction of seeing his favorite cut- 

 ting sold to farmers for seven or eight dollars a 

 thousand. He had been in the habit of giving 

 his neighbors cuttings for shade and timber 

 trees. One of those, to whom he had made the 

 the offer of enough, free, for an orchard belt, 

 met one of these tree peddlers who conviaced 

 him that the willow of M. B. was not so val- 

 uable as his, and succeeded in selling him a 

 lot at eight dollars the thousand. After pay- 

 ing out his money on the word of a stranger 

 he will probably be a wiser if not a better man. 

 We have for a long time been of the opinion 

 that the fools were not all dead as yet, but 

 are kept as the especial food of these itinerant 

 gentlemen. Mr. B. says that the first fence 

 made of this willow was from cuttings stuck 

 down for a shelter belt, but to his surprise, 

 made a good stock fence. He is in full faith 

 that it would make a cheap, efficient and du- 

 rable fence. He would caution the farmers 

 against the idea that this willow will make a 

 fence without care. The tree peddlers had 

 given them the idea, through high notions in 

 regard to its growth, that would not be realized. 

 These men had obtained specimens of remarka- 

 growth, and which were represented as the 

 ordinary growth of two or three inches in di- 

 ameter in a year, and that it was not liable 

 to injury by insects or stock, which was false 

 in both particulars. The former of those, Dr. 



