HARDINESS OF DURHAM CATTLE. 
45 
supported a distinct species of louse, and some 
plants are attacked by three or four species of 
lice—they multiply beyond all calculation. From 
an egg, in one season, 729 millions are supposed 
to be created. They make their appearance so 
quickly and in such myriads, as to be termed a 
blight, and their numerous appearance directly af¬ 
ter a thunder-storm, has led to the vulgar supposi¬ 
tion that they come from the clouds. 
Professor Harris says, “ These insects are one of 
the causes, if not the only cause , of the peculiar 
malady affecting' the peach-tree in the early part 
©f summer, called the blight ,” which is no doubt 
the yellows of New York. Rieamer, a French 
author, observed the ground quite moist under 
peach-trees infested with bark-lice, which was 
caused by the dripping of the sap from the punc¬ 
tures made by the insects. These little insects 
are most easily examined on the rose-bush. The 
varieties are very numerous. In the green-house, 
two or three weeks will produce a generation, and 
©ne parent, in one season, will produce several 
millions. The authority above referred to, states 
that eggs are laid by the winged-lice in the fall on 
the trees, and that they hatch in the spring only 
females without wings, and that these females, 
without the presence of the males, give birth to 
several generations ! (not produced by eggs.) But 
the male being winged, and the two modes of cre¬ 
ation being at variance with nature, the writer 
thinks the statement in the latter particular, 
doubtful. The facts, however, show how numer¬ 
ous these insects are, many of which can not be 
seen with the naked eye. These lice have a 
proboscis with which they perforate the tender 
bark and leaves, and suck up the sap, which they 
exude in great abundance by two vents, which ex¬ 
udation is called honey-water, which the ants de¬ 
vour so greedily, that the lice have been called 
the milch-cows of the ants, who even rub them 
down, being good farmers, to make them increase 
the quantity of honey-water. 
If the lice only eat enough to support them, it 
might be said that they did not take enough sap 
to kill the tree; but they appear to pump it up 
for the ants, who in different ways, return the ob¬ 
ligation. It is not only the quantity of sap they 
take, but they poison and corrode the remainder, 
thus stopping up the pores of the bark, and ma¬ 
king the tree send out shoots in unusual places, 
and of an unhealthy character. One who has 
felt the bite of a louse or a musquito, or has been 
stung by a hornet, or seen the like or similar in¬ 
sects madden the horse, or considers that a cow, by 
her milk, will feed a dozen children, but dies in 
sustaining a quarter of an ounce of lice, will readi¬ 
ly suppose a tree would be killed by the parasit¬ 
ical attacks of lice. The eggs of the apple-louse 
can not be seen but with a microscope, and are to 
be found in the covering of the bark, in a knob, or 
cotton-like enclosure, and when full-grown, are 
but one tenth of an inch in length. 
In the 49th article on Entomology, the best 
of English authority, the Gardeners’ Chronicle, we 
are informed that the little animals stick to the 
bark of apple-trees, and are similar to mussel- 
shells. Gamelin calls them cocus conchiformis — 
the scales sometimes lie one over another; they 
are hard, dark, and shining; they adhere firmly to 
the bark; they appear woolly. In these scales, a 
fleshy green female is found, and a part of the 
shell or scale filled with 40 or 50 eggs. Out of 
these, proceeds a fat yellow-green maggot. 
In an article from the London Gardeners 1 Mag¬ 
azine, another scale is described, of a brown color, 
pointed at both ends, and less than half the size of 
the seed of the common flax. Sometimes found 
on the apple itself, the same scale it is said, is 
prevalent on the peach-trees. It is also alleged by 
the same authority, that peaches, apricots, and 
plums, suffer from the attacks of the mussel-scale —• 
that these insects migrate from one tree to another— 
that standard trees are seen covered with the 
mussel-scales, the trees bocome hide-bound. They 
are so minute that you must use a microscope to 
see them, when in April they first move out. 
The apple-trees in England have been most ex¬ 
tensively injured for the last 20 years ; for nearly 
the same period, the locust, pears, apples, peach, 
and quinces, and particularly plums, have greatly 
failed, and some kinds will not perfect their fruit 
at all on Long Island. How is this to be account¬ 
ed for, but by insects ? The locust of Long Island 
was free from borers, and a most valuable timber 
until 20 years since—now it is worthless. 
Forests and new countries have few insects, 
with cultivation and emigration they, like the 
birds and quadrupeds, are introduced. The horse 
now roams wild over the southern forests of this 
continent. The Norway red-rats have come too, 
and not content to live here in fellowship with 
our blue-rats, have killed or driven them from the 
Atlantic border, toward the Rocky Mountains. 
Since these things are so, it is not difficult to sup¬ 
pose that as our seeds, plants, and trees, and 
wrapping-straw, (brought in great quantities from 
abroad,) have introduced the new vermin and in¬ 
sects of the last 20 years. The tradition is, that 
the German soldiery of the Revolution, brought 
the Hessian fly (in the bed-straw) which killed 
the wheat in New England. But having got the 
insects, the important point is, how shall we get 
rid of them ? I recommend to begin by quarrelling 
with their friends. S. S. 
(To be Continued.) 
HARDINESS OF DURHAM CATTLE. 
I have waited until the experiment was fairly 
tested, to let you know the result of our introdu¬ 
cing the Durhams into our “ terra nimbosa,” and 
changing their feed from cultivated English pas¬ 
tures, to our trackless prairies and rush-beds. It 
was generally supposed that our experiment would 
be a failure, and that the six months winter and 
prairie hay would thin their ranks. We selected 
fifty odd individuals from Mr. M. L. Sullivant’s, of 
Columbus, Ohio, extensive and well-improved 
herd, and drove them on in September; they were 
chiefly young heifers, and three or four young bulls, 
descendants of Corn planter, Talleyrand, Red Jacket, 
and Niagara. 
The winter set in remarkably early, before they 
had had time enough to recruit from their long 
