1884.] 
AMEEIOAI^ AGEIOULTEEIST. 
531 
Mutton and Milk. 
Sheep raising is an essential part of the hus¬ 
bandry of Great Britain. There it is largely mut¬ 
ton raising, and it is really profitable on account of 
the vast quantities of mutton consumed by all 
grades of the population. The wool is of course 
an important item on the right side of the ledger, 
but the flesh is by far more so. Hence we observe 
the preponderance of mutton breeds. Observe the 
three hornless heads in the group on the opposite 
page. What a John Bullish look they have !— sub¬ 
stantial, well-fed, and comfortable. The favorite 
Cotswold is in the lower left-hand corner. For 
some time he has held his place as the most popu¬ 
lar of the long-wool breeds. The hare-polled Leices¬ 
ter pressed him close at one time, and even now 
has many ardent advocates, while the noble 
Lincoln, not shown here, has recently come 
strongly to the front. The fame of the long-wools, 
however, does not dim that of the middle-wools in 
this engraving, represented by the Southdown on 
the upper left of the group, and the delicate-faced 
Highland sheep on the upper right. The mutton 
of these middle-wools, which includes all the so- 
called Down breeds, the Cheviots, the dark-faced 
Highlanders, and the Mountain sheep of Wales, is 
of superior quality. In the centre of the group is 
the fine-wooled, heavy-horned Merino. Originat¬ 
ing in Spain, this most valuable breed spread into 
France and Germany, in each of which countries it 
developed peculiarities under the different care 
received. There we have the French. Silesian, and 
Saxony Merinos, and in this country the so-called 
American or Vermont Merino, and the finer-wooled 
Silesians. In the lower right-hand corner we have 
a face strongly contrasting with the others, that of 
the African broad-tailed sheep, with its slender 
horns, lopping-ears, jaw-pendants, and the coarse, 
hairy wool. It has, however, wool of two qualities; 
the long-wool coarse and hairy, while the inner 
coat, close to the skin, is remarkably furry and 
fine, having wonderful felting qualities. It is 
chiefly from this that the best fez caps are made, 
which are so universally worn in Northern Africa 
and the Levant. The tail is esteemed as a delicacy. 
Surely the sheep breeder has sufficient choice of 
varieties to suit his locality and market. Onr 
American markets are every year becoming more 
and more discriminating. A few years ago the 
prevalence of fine-wool sheep, the flesh of which 
is not of high quality, gave our country people a 
distaste for mutton. Lamb they would eat if they 
could not get beef, but mutton in its perfection 
was not known. The introduction of the British 
mutton breeds is fast changing this, and our mar¬ 
kets, particularly in large towns, show at all seasons 
excellent mutton, the best cuts of which sell for 
nearly or quite as much as beef. We get a good 
deal of over-fatted long-wool—Leicester and Cots¬ 
wold—mutton from Canada, but our mutton-eaters 
are discriminating, and the better-fleshed mutton of 
the Downs,marbled with mingled fat and lean,which 
is chiefly raised nearer home, is decidedly preferred. 
Sheep will probably never take their proper place 
in our agricultural system until our people generally 
learn to like mutton. This they will never do, so 
long as we fry chops, instead of broiling them, eat 
them “ well done,” instead of rare, and warm, 
instead of “ piping hot.” To one who knows what 
he wants, and has it right, there is no viand quite 
equal to a thick, juicy, fat. Southdown rib chop, 
broiled to a turn, and served hot from the broiler. 
Boot and sheep husbandly go together. Turnips 
will never have their profitable place in our farming 
system that they should have until we raise more 
sheep. Roots are good for cattle, but their advo¬ 
cacy is vain without sheep, and so is the attempt 
to raise mutton sheep profitably without roots. 
Many of the noted breeders of beef cattle 
have for many generations exerted themselves to 
reduce the amount of horn and offal in cattle, while 
increasing the general weight of the body. With 
those who have bred for milk, the desirableness of 
small heads has not made so direct an appeal to the 
pocket. Our artist has illustrated this idea, by two 
pairs of heads shown on the opposite page. Short¬ 
horns are upon the left, and Swiss cattle upon the 
right. The former has been primarily a beef breed, 
though it has great milk capacity if properly devel¬ 
oped. The Swiss, on the contrary, has been bred 
for milk, and has a natural coarseness of head, 
which shows a neglect of this point, while atten¬ 
tion has been given to promoting milk secretion. 
New Invasions of the Fall Army Worm. 
The winter wheat fields of the West have been 
devastated the past autumn by the caterpillar of 
the Fall Army Worm {Laphrygmafrugiperda), some¬ 
times called the “Southern Grass Worm.” Many 
hundreds of acres have been completely devoured 
by the pest, a full-grown specimen of which is 
THE FALL ARMY WORM. 
shown in the engraving. This enemy to the farmer 
has been known since 1845, when it was injurious 
to the sugar cane crop in Georgia. The mature 
insect is a mouse-gray moth, with a wing expan¬ 
sion of a little more than one inch. The pale yel¬ 
low, and slightly ribbed eggs, are deposited in clus¬ 
ters upon the leaves of the plants, which* are to 
furnish food for the worms. The engraving gives 
the appearance of the voracious larvae. There are 
three or more broods, the last one appearing in 
November, and being most destructive. The insect 
passes the winter in an inactive, or pupa, state in 
the earth. When these worms appear on the 
young growing wheat, the field should be rolled 
with a heavy roller, by which most of the larvae 
will be crushed. The worms sometimes move in 
somewhat compact phalanxes, and their progress 
may he checked by plowing under a strip of the 
grain, in their pathway. Professor Forbes, State 
Entomologist of Illinois, who has had con.siderable 
experience with the Fall Army Worm during the 
past few months, recommends sprinkling the wheat 
with Paris Green or London Purple. An entire 
horde of worms, advancing across a field, may be 
destroyed by poisoning a strip in front of them. 
Hay and Straw Hooks. 
Many farmers who have hay and straw in stacks 
and use but little of it each day, prefer to pull out 
Fig. 1. 
a sufficient quantity rather than to remove it by 
cutting down with a hay knife. Pulling out the 
hay when done wholly by grasping it with the 
hands, is a slow operation, whereas by using a hay 
Fig. 2. 
hook it is done quickly, and hay can be taken from 
a greater hight. The simplest form of hook is 
represented in figure 1, and consists of a piece of 
Fig. 3. 
iron bent in the form shown, and attached to a 
pole eight or ten feet in length. The shank and 
other portions of an old garden hoe is easily con¬ 
verted into a hook by the blacksmith. A double 
hook is shown in figure 2- The hook portion, made 
of iron, should be a little heavier than the first one 
shown, as the double hook will grasp more hay 
and pull harder. Some use a wooden hook cut 
from a tree, but this is not satisfactory, as the 
heaviest part of the pole bears the hook. This ob¬ 
jection is avoided by selecting a small tough 
wooden hook or branch, and attaching it firmly to 
a suitably shaped pole, as in figure 3. In using 
hooks of this deseription, push the point into the 
stack with the barb projecting downward and pull. 
An Insect New to New York State. 
Mr. R. J. Swan, of Central N. Y., reports an inseet 
new to the State, and one that if not destroyed at 
once may prove very injurious to the wheat crop in 
future years. The insect is the Wheat-Straw Worm 
{Isosoma tritici), closely related to the Joint-worm 
(/. hordei) first observed in this country in 1829, 
and since known as a very destructive insect in 
the wheat fields. The Wheat-Straw Worm was first 
found in 1830, and last year was quite abundant in 
southern Illinois where it did considerable damage. 
The female perfect insect is shown in figure 1, 
much enlarged. It is only one-tenth of an inch 
long, with the body black, highly polished and 
Aft 
Fig. 1.—THE FEMALE 
STRAW-WORM. 
Fig. 2. — LARV^ OF 
STRAW-WORM. 
sparcely covered with hairs on the posterior end. 
Many of these females have their wings only partly 
developed, and some are wingless. The males have 
not been found. Two larvfe are shown much en¬ 
larged in figure 2 ; they are nearly twice theleng^th 
of the female fly and pale yellow in color. In the 
pupa, or resting, state, the insect in its thin cover¬ 
ing, is wasp-like in form and jet black in color. 
The Wheat-Straw Worm is single brooded, the 
eggs being laid upon the growing wheat in April 
or May. The young worms, after hatching, enter 
the straw a few inches from the ground, and oc¬ 
cupy the culms close to and usually above a joint. 
They feed upon the soft substance of the straw and 
sometimes become embedded in it. The hard 
knotty galls formed by the worms arrest the up¬ 
ward flow of sap, and cause the heads of wheat to 
ripen with light, imperfect grain. Straw thus in¬ 
fested does not break down like that attacked by 
the Joint-worm. This recent rival of the Hes¬ 
sian Fly and Wffieat Midge may be controlled. 
A part of the larvse remain in the stubble until 
the following spring, and are quickly destroyed by 
burning. All the infested straw in mow or stac^ 
should be disposed of before midwinter, because 
some of the flies will emerge in late winter should , 
the weather be favorable for them. An important \ 
precaution is the burning of all surplus straw in 
early spring. The absence of wings in many females 
renders them poor travellers, and is another, 
resource against their rapid spreading through the 
country. Wheat crops should not succeed each 
other on the same land, and, if possible, dp not let" 
the field of one year adjoin that of the previous 
season. The Wheat-Straw Worm is now local in 
the East, and the means here given are sufficient 
for its extermination. A careless distribution of 
the infested straw throughout the neighborhood, or .', 
neglect to burn the stubble, may leave the way 
open for the spreading of the pest to the wheat in 
other localities until it becomes a national curse. 
