ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



293 



[This insect has been veiy injunous the pres- 

 ent yeiir, and by request we give the above ac- 

 count of it. Mr. J. P. Jones, of Keytcsvillc, 

 Cliariton county, Mo., complained bitterly to us 

 this spring of its injuries to i)car and apple trees 

 in his section ; and later in the season we found 

 our friend H. D. Emery, of Chicago, almost 

 baffled by its injurious punctures in liis cfTorts to 

 raise late-planted cucumbers. Mr. D. B. Wicr, 

 of Lacon, Ills., considers that it has damaged his 

 crops to the amount of !$! ,0()(» ; and the ad interim 

 committee, which lately visited liis orchards, re- 

 port but little fruit on the pear trees on account 

 of its having poisoned and killed the blossom 

 buds. No doubt the extreme dry weather has 

 had nmch to do with the increase of these pests. 

 Mr. Ayres tried many applications of different 

 kinds this spring to ward them off, but even 

 some cresylic soap, which we sent liim for that 

 express purpose, proved ineffectual, as the follow- 

 ing experience will show. He writes, April 12,70: 



I first tried it according to directions — one 

 pound of the soap to ten gallons of water — and 

 it was impossible to kill the bugs with it except 

 by drowning; and they would swim in it an 

 unaccountably long time before they would die. 

 I then doubled the strength, using one pound of 

 the soap to live gallons of water. After immers- 

 ing one of them in this twice, he would get dry 

 and flyaway; but by keeping him wetwitli it 

 for ten minutes, it would linally kill him. I am 

 inclined to believe that it will no; kill insects or 

 keep them off the trees, unless made strong 

 enough to kill the trees also. 1 thoroughly sat- 

 urated several rows of trees with it at the strength 

 above stated, and three hours aftei"ward found 

 the bu^s as tliick as ever, and sucking away at 

 the buds and leaves as if nothing had happened. 



Not discouraged by this want of success, Mr. 

 A. afterwards went over all his pear trees, about 

 2,000 in number, with a basin of soap-suds early 

 in the morning, and sliaking each branch, caused 

 the bugs to fall into the water. It took about 

 three hours' time of three men, and by com- 

 mencing early they were enabled to get through 

 before it got warm enough for the bugs to be- 

 come active. After iiursuing this course for three 

 successive mornings, during which time many 

 thousands were killed, he had the satisfaction 

 of seeing his trees unmolested, and thus saved. 

 From the fact that these bugs suck the sap from, 

 and do not masticate the i)lant, we have found 

 the poisonous applications which are so ett'ectual 

 in killing many other insects of no avail here ; 

 and there is no better way of killing them at 

 present known than by shaking them ort' early 

 in the morning. It will also be well to bear in 

 mind that, as they winter mostly in the woods, 

 they are at first found most numerous on the 

 outside of our fields and orchards.] 



OSAGE ORANGE FOR THE MULBERRY SILK-WORM. 



Utah County. LTtaii. — Having been engaged 

 in silk culture for three years past, I take the 

 liberty of submitting to you a report of what I 

 have done. 



In 1867 the Hon. Albert K. Thurber, of tliis 

 place, on his return from a visit to London, Eng- 

 land, presented me with a few silk-worm eggs 

 of the old French variety. They made sixteen 

 cocoons, producing three iomale moths. The fol- 

 lowing year I raised five hundred worm.s, but not 

 havtng sufficient mulberry leaves to feed them, 

 I fed part of them on Osage orange ; they ate 

 it with avidity, all did >vcll, and made cocoons 

 of good size and color. Last season (IHO!)) I fed 

 five thousand worms on Osage orange, and they 

 made tive tliousiuid cocoons. This season I am 

 feeding ten tliousand worms on Osage orange, 

 and they are doing well. I would here remark 

 that I have never found a diseased worm since I 

 commenced raising silk. 



I have fed a portion of my worms each season 

 on mulberry and a portion on Osage orange, and 

 those fed on the latter have thrived and done as 

 well as those fed on the former. I do not sup- 

 l)ose Osage orange is preferable to mulberry to 

 teed silk-worms, but it may be of importance to 

 some to know that they will do well upon it. I 

 have fed worms on the two kinds of feed in close 

 proximity, and have known them to leave the 

 mulberry and go to the Osage orange. The dry- 

 ness of our climate and the absence of thunder 

 storms during the feeding season rt^ndcr Utah 

 particularly adapted to the raising of silk, and 

 perhaps may l)e mure favorable for feeding Osage 

 orange than a moist climate. 



Not having sufficient knowledge of the (piality 

 of silk to test it, I sent some cocoons to Mr. Mui- 

 ler, of Nevada City, California, to be reeled and 

 tested, and he reports that the silk is. to all ap- 

 pearances, strong and of excellent quality. I 

 intend to make a business of silk culture as* fast 

 as circumstances will permit. 



[Professor Glover, of this Department, four 

 years since fed the silk-worm (Bombyx mori) 

 with the Osage orange with success correspond- 

 ing with the above experiment.] — Monthly Hep. 

 Dept. Ayriculture for May and June. 

 ( [When facts of such vitiil importance as these 

 are published, tliey lose the greater part of their 

 significance l)y having no signature. No one 

 can rely on statements of this character when 

 given in such a mythical manner. Five thousand 

 cocoons from five thousand worms is something 

 so unusual and unprecedented, that, under the 

 circumstjinces, one is warranted in discrediting 

 the statement. Prof. Glover, it seems to us, would 

 have given weight to the above item by attach- 

 ing the date and the writer's name. We thor- 

 oughly experimented with Osage orange this 

 summer, but could not succeed in making any 

 worms spin uj) on it, though some few were fed 

 into the last stage. — Ed.] 



jy The Colorado Potato Beetle is said to be 

 doing more ilamage than ever in Minnesota. 



