4,62 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
grouped together, as they were at the exhibi¬ 
tion, could not fail to attract the most indiffer¬ 
ent spectator, and presented a striking illustra¬ 
tion of the odd and strange in vegetable forms. 
In most, if not all the species, the water they 
contain is secreted before the opening of the 
lid shows that the pitcher is fully developed. 
It is known that this liquid has the power of 
dig .ilng animal substances, and observations 
upon the plant in the wild state will no doubt 
show that, like the pitchers in Sarracenia and 
Darlingtonia, these are intended as insect traps. 
Some of those books which pretend to set forth 
the wonders of the vegetable world, have a re¬ 
markable story about the Nepenthes. Accord¬ 
ing to these writers the plants, by their stores 
of water, are especially adapted to live in arid 
deserts, where other plants cannot exist, and 
they show how providential it is that these 
pitchers of water are at hand to sustain the 
thirsty traveller in those inhospitable regions. 
A pretty story, and a pity to spoil it by the hard 
fact that these plants grow only in tropical 
bogs and swamps, where the atmosphere is 
always humid, and anything like the soil or air 
of an arid desert would be death to them at 
once. Unfortunately pitcher-plants can never 
come into general cultivation, as they need 
a degree of heat and moisture that can only 
be obtained in a house devoted to these and 
other plants of similar requirements. They 
are found to succeed best in a mixture of 
fibrous peat and sphagnum moss. They are 
very often grown in baskets which may be 
hung at such a hight as to give the best view 
of their interesting pitchers. The Nepenthes 
have their male and female flowers in separate 
plants, but the flowers are not showy, and 
plants are cultivated only for their strangely 
formed and often beautifully colored pitchers. 
- — «■ - 
An Improvement in "Wheelbarrows, 
The wheelbarrow, it is said, was invented by the 
noted Italian artist, Leonardo da Vinci. That it 
was the production of so capable a man is possibly 
the reason that it has remained for centuries un¬ 
altered, and considered so far incapable of improve¬ 
ment. But now-a-days our wants are so many, or 
our wishes are so exacting, that for some uses the 
present wheelbarrow is not satisfactory. In tha 
garden the wheelbarrow is very useful, even in its 
ordinary construction, but in the shape in which it 
is presented in the accompanying illustration, it 
will be still more useful. The additions and im¬ 
provements here described are the result of the 
ingenuity of Mr. E. D. Beach, of Hartford, Conn., 
to whom we are indebted for a photograph from 
which we make the engraving. They are as fol¬ 
lows : a rubber wheel-tire by which more quiet and 
easy rolling is secured; two springs fitted to the 
axle, which prevent jolting ; a wheel-lifter, or a 
second pair of longer legs, by which it may be 
lifted over obstructions, by pushing forward the 
leg frame and bearing down upon the handles ; a 
movable water-pail hook; drawers for seed, etc.; 
a seat with a socket for an umbrella or sunshade, 
to be used while resting ; four buckled-strap loops 
for holding tools; four partitions for various uses ; 
two sliding-doors for quickly emptying it of its 
contents ; four baskets fitting into the partitions, 
and, lastly, a movable cover made to fasten by a 
latch or catch. Each and all of these may be re¬ 
moved at will, except the rubber-tire. Some of 
these appliances will be found useful for any wheel¬ 
barrow, and others are intended for special work in 
the garden and orchard, where one wishes to have 
all the tools he is likely to need at hand in a con¬ 
venient manner. It is really converting a wheel¬ 
barrow into a portable tool-house. Mr. Beach 
writes us that he has spent three years in perfect¬ 
ing his wheelbarrow, but he will be sufficiently re¬ 
paid for his thought and labor by freely conferring 
the invention, with whateverof value or usefulness 
it may possess, upon the public ; this he does 
through the columns of the American Agriculturist, 
without any other compensation than results from 
doing whatever good he may. The additions are 
therefore free to everybody to adopt. 
BARK-LOUSE 
The Oyster-shell Bark-Louse. 
The increased frequency with which specimens 
are sent for determination, shows that, notwith¬ 
standing all that has been published in this and 
other journals, this serious orchard pest is not 
generally known. It is so small, and 
so near like the color of the bark, 
that its presence is often not suspect¬ 
ed, until the trees are in a condition 
that unfits them for nearly everything 
else but fire-wood. Every one who 
has an orchard, or a single tree, should 
be familiar with the appearance of 
this insect, and on the look-out for it, 
and we again give an engraving,(this is 
from Riley’s first Report), that show's 
the insect in the dormant state, of 
the natural size. Entomologists have 
now settled down upon Mjtilapsis 
pornicorticis, as the scientific name 
of this insect. Its habits may be briefly stated : 
Starting with the insect as it appears in the en¬ 
graving. If one of these brown or gray coloi'ed 
scales, W'hich is shaped much more like a mussel- 
shell than an oyster-shell, be lifted, and examined 
with a magnifyer, it will be found to cover a num¬ 
ber of pure white eggs. These remain until June, 
when they hatch, and the young insects, then in 
the larval state, travel to the new twigs, insert 
their slender trunks or suckers, and are thereafter 
fixed. Soon a scale begins to form from the secre¬ 
tions of the body, and the insect undergoes several 
changes. The male insect, after becoming a pupa, 
finally comes out a perfect winged insect. The fe¬ 
male never leaves the scale ; in her changes she 
loses her feelers and her legs ; it is supposed that 
she is visited by the male, and soon after lays eggs ; 
the scale is increased by layers, each projected 
from the one previously formed. As the eggs are 
laid, the body of the female shrinks, and she finally 
dies, leaving a mere speck, scarcely to be distin¬ 
guished, at the narrow end of the scale. A full ac¬ 
count of this insect is given in Prof. C. Y. Riley’s 
1st and 5th Reports on the Insects of Missouri, in 
which will be found a detailed history, of w'hich 
this is a meagre synopsis. The insect moves for 
only a few days after it is hatched, and all the rest 
of the year is fixed, or in the egg state. To attack 
it when just out of the egg, were it then noticed, 
would hardly be practicable, as the trees are in full 
leaf, and as the scale is impervious to ordinary ap¬ 
plications, the insect has been regarded as one of 
the most difficult to destroy. As with other insect 
pests, as they increase, their enemies increase also, 
and render good service in keeping this in check. 
In 1868 Mr. D. A. Norris, of Greenville, Conn., pur¬ 
chased a house, and among some trees on the 
grounds was one badly infested with this scale. 
As the painters were at work upon the house, he 
took a brush, and painted the tree “ from stem 
to stern,” and the next year wrote us that the 
tree was not injured in tire least, and not a scale 
was to be found. We mention this to show how 
discoveries coincide ; about the same time Dr. Le 
Baron, of Illinois, discovered that lard and linseed 
oil were most efficacious remedies; it was the oil 
in our friend’s paint that did “ the business,” and 
oil is now regarded as the best application for the 
destruction of the scale. An undrying oil, like lard 
or neat’s-foot, is preferable to linseed, and though 
the application has been made in various parts of 
the country, we have seen no injury to the trees 
reported. No doubt that much of the spread of 
this bark-louse, and its occurrence in widely sepa¬ 
rated localities, is due to the sending out from nur¬ 
series of trees thus infested. It is a wise precaution 
to minutely examine every tree before planting, 
and if the scales are at all numerous and can not be 
readily and surely destroyed, burn the tree at once. 
The Sorrel-Tree. 
Perhaps the only way to popularize really good 
but neglected plants is to keep talking about them. 
We have, on more than one occasion, had words of 
praise for the Sorrel-tree, Oxydendrurn arboreum, 
and mentioned its value for its late blooming, pro¬ 
ducing in July long clustered racemes of Lily of 
the Valley-like flowers, and that the fruit, which 
hangs on until winter, is also pleasing. It is a native 
of Pennsylvania and southward, and is quite hardy 
in Massachusetts. One of its great merits is, that 
though it will grow 30 to 60 feet high, it will bloom 
when only 4 to 6 feet high, and- serves either as a 
shrub or a tree. Our reason for mentioning it now 
is to call attention to the beauty of its foliage in 
autumn. Were not our forests so generally beau¬ 
tiful we should pay more attention to this feature 
in planting trees and shrubs than we now do. There 
is good reason why we should consider autumnal 
effects in planting, especially as our trees that are 
fine in this respect are generally desirable in their 
green foliage. This year our autumn colors have 
been much less brilliant than usual, a matter to be 
regretted, as so many appreciative Europeans are 
now visiting us, and by far the most brilliant dis¬ 
play of color that we have seen has been made by 
our clump of Sorrel-tree. The foliage began to 
turn a dull red and finally blazed out in the most 
intense of crimsons, almost dazzling when the sun 
shone upon it. The tree has another good quality, 
the leaves remain on a long while after they change, 
and we have this year enjoyed their brilliancy for 
between two and three weeks. The Sorrel-tree is 
one that we can heartily recommend to the atten¬ 
tion of all lovers of really choice trees and shrubs. 
Boses in Window-Gardening'. 
There is no plant with which those who follow 
window-gardening so much desire success, as the 
Rose, and none that brings such a regular crop of 
disappointment. The number of letters we receive 
every winter, embodying in one form and another, 
the general question, “ What is the matter with my 
roses,” is quite surprising. Of all flowering plants 
the Rose is the most highly prized, and there is 
none, even among the hardy out-door kinds, so be¬ 
set the whole season through with one or another 
of its peculiar pests. The lack of success in window 
cultivation may be due to one of several causes. An 
unsuitable variety, improper previous treatment, 
bad soil, too much heat, mildew, insects, and over¬ 
watering, will either one of them be sufficient to 
account for the “ bad luck,” and it often happens 
that there are several of these causes combined. 
Whoever succeeds in growing roses satisfactorily 
jn a house of the modem style, where the tight 
