47o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
July 28 
harrow and the “Acme” were used to prepare the 
sod, the fertilizer was sown from a grain drill, and the 
corn drilled from a corn planter. With a fair season, 
the 2,000 tons will be easily secured. This use of a 
fertilizer to grow food for live stock, may seem at first 
thought like a singular arrangement, yet it is true 
science in this case. There are thousands of acres of 
worn-out old meadows that would now starve a cow, 
but which might be brought back to profit by a judi¬ 
cious use of fertilizers. It is easy to see what a help 
Crimson clover would be on such a farm. If it will 
thrive at Ellerslie, even three seasons out of five, it 
will prove the greatest possible boon. 
The Business of the Farm. 
Before the fire, blood, butter and broilers were the 
products sold from this farm. There will not be much 
blood to sell until the herd increases. We shall tell 
about the broilers in another article. At present, the 
butter has been dropped out of the list. The papers 
have stated that Ellerslie has “ gone into the milk 
business.” When asked about this, Mr. Cottrell said : 
“ We have started in Rhinebeck end Kingston. We 
have been going only a few weeks, and sell about 150 
quarts per day, with trade increasing every week as 
fast as fresh cows come in. We sell at eight cents per 
quart. We started at the request of physicians, and 
our work is inspected both by physicians and our 
veterinarian. The tuberculosis scare has frightened 
everybody in this locality. A number of herds have 
been tested, some found badly diseased, others free.” 
“ The killing of your cows helped you then ? ” 
“ The tuberculin test has educated the people up to 
a knowledge of the danger from this disease, and they 
are deminding milk from cows that have passed the 
test. That is the reason we can sell at three cents 
above the regular price. The papers so thoroughly 
advertised the killing of our cattle by the State Board 
of Health, that every one knew of it, and now cus¬ 
tomers are coming to us because they know we are 
free from the disease.” 
“ Any change in your method of handling milk ? ” 
“ We have changed somewhat in order to meet the 
physicians’ idea of a perfectly pure milk. As fast as 
the milk is drawn from the cows, it is taken to the 
dairy and aerated with pure air, under pressure, taken 
from outdoors. The air is drawn through absorbent 
cotton, which removes any dust or germs that might 
possibly be found in the air. The physicians lay great 
stress on this, as they think the forcing of air in the 
ordinary way through milk without passing it through 
cotton will often fill the milk with germs. After aSrat- 
ing, we run the milk over a Star cooler, reducing the 
temperature to 40 degrees. As soon as cooled, we put 
the milk in glass bottles, and keep it below 50 degrees 
until left at the customers’ houses.” 
“ What about the empty bottles ? ” 
“ As soon as the empty bottles are returned from 
the customers, they are washed, scoured, and then 
put in a tight box, and subjected to steam until thor¬ 
oughly sterilized I think this is very important. 
The bottles go into a number of houses. There is al¬ 
ways a possibility of getting germs of diphtheria, 
scarlet fever, typhoid fever or other diseases in the 
bottles, and then spreading these diseases from house 
to house by means of the milk. The sterilizing of the 
bottles absolutely prevents this. We have not made 
any plans for the future. We sbal) probably stay in 
the milk business, and start in New York City in the 
fall. All this is undecided.” h. w. c. 
THE PERIODICAL CICADA OR IT-YEAR LOCUST. 
THE STORY OF A WONDERFUL INSECT. 
Are the inclosed the so-called 13 or 17-year locusts, 
about which so much has been said lately ? On May 
25, they came out in swarms in our fruit orchard. 
They seem to favor pear trees, although they were 
also on apple and cherry trees. Even an elm near by 
had quite a number on it. I noticed that where the 
trees were more closely planted, they were in much 
greater numbers. In fact, the grass and lower limbs 
were literally covered. Within a radius of about 40 
yards, we picked up fully 400 by actual count. I 
observe that they have a tongue like the bee as though 
they lived by sucking instead of eating. Are they 
destructive? Is there any known remedy for them, 
and what is it ? Do the locusts spoken of really take 
13 and 17 years to develop? I am inclined to be a 
skeptic on that point. c. 
Closter, N. J. 
ANSWERED BY M. V. 8L1NGERLAND. 
The insect whose appearance is so graphically de¬ 
scribed by the correspondent, is, indeed, the curious 
and wonderful creature known as the 17-year locust, 
or more properly the Periodical cicada. At c in the 
figure is shown one of the adult insects, natural size, 
with the wings of one side spread out as in flight, and 
the other wings held alongside the body, their posi- 
tiop when the body is at rest. All of the figures are 
hasty sketches from the figures of Riley and Lintner. 
The great interest that this insect excites whenever it 
appears, is due to its occurrence in such large num¬ 
bers over a comparatively small area; to its large size, 
the shrill screech of the males, and still more to the 
fact that it is never again seen in the same locality, 
except after a long lapse of time. Children who see 
the insects to-day will be young men and women, 
perhaps with children of their own, before these won¬ 
derful insects again make the trees resound with their 
shrill notes. Although the remarkably long life of 
these insects is doubted by many, still no scientific 
fact is better established than that fiom the time the 
female insect deposits her eggs in slits which she 
deftly cuts in the twigs of trees, to that in which her 
children emerge from the ground to deposit their eggs 
in a similar manner, 17 years (less about a month) in¬ 
tervene. The only exception to this is that in some 
of the Southern States a race occurs, not distinguish¬ 
able in appearance from the others, but which takes 
only 13 years to develop. It has been thought that 
this difference of four years in development may be 
caused by climatic conditions. To determine this, 
eggs of the 13-year cicadas were transferred from the 
South to different points in the North and allowed to 
hatch there. This was done in 1885, and arrange¬ 
ments have been made at the several points to make 
careful observations in 1898, the time the adu’ts 
would appear had the eggs been left in the South, or 
in 1902, 17 years after the transfer, if none of the in- 
aects appears in 1898. A similar transfer was made 
of eggs of the 17-year race laid in the North, to differ- 
Fig. 122. 
ent points in the South, to see if the life cycle will be 
hastened and changed to 13 years in that warmer cli¬ 
mate. Entomologists all over the country are await¬ 
ing with much interest the outcome of this experi¬ 
ment begun before some of us ever dreamed of the 
wonders of the insect world. 
As these curious creatures thus appear in different 
parts of the country at definite intervals of either 13 
or 17 years, they are known as the 13-year (Cicada 
tredecim) and 17-year (Cicada septendecim) cicadas. 
Their appearance began to be recorded early in the 
eighteenth century, and several years ago Dr. Riley, 
then United States Entomologist, made an extensive 
study of the creatures, with the result that the differ¬ 
ent broods of them were numbered and the localities 
where they occurred were mapped ; so that the years 
in which they have appeared in definite localities 
during the present century, are known, and it is 
possible to foretell where a brood will appear above 
ground at a certain time in the future centuries. 
There are thus numbered and mapped 13 17-year 
broods and eight 13-year broods of the insect in the 
United States. Curiously enough, this insect occurs on 
no other continent, and is confined to the United States 
east of the Rocky Mountains. There is practically no 
danger of its spreading ; in fact, it is believed that its 
numbers are decreasing, due to their great destruction 
by the hands of man. The birds have also added 
fresh cicada to their bill of fare. The much abused 
sparrow is said to have destroyed thousands of them 
this year. 
The area over which some of the broods appear, is 
confined to a portion of a single State, while others, 
with a wider range, extend through several States. 
This year, two broods were expected to appear above 
ground—one, brood XII., a 17-year, and one, brood 
XVIII., a IS-y.’ar brood. Brood XII. occurs in North 
Carolina, Indiana, Michigan, Virginia, Maryland, 
northern Pennsylvania, throughout New Jersey, in 
Connecticut, and all along the Hudson in New York. 
The adults have been observed to appear in some of 
these localities every 17 years since 1724. It is the 
members of this Hudson River brood, which have been 
appearing true to their time, in such great numbers 
throughout the Hudson River Valley since May 25. 
Woods and orchards have teemed with them, and local 
papers have also teemed with exaggerated accounts of 
their numbers, and of the destruction wrought to 
both life and limb of both man and trees. 
Several accounts of persons having been bitten by 
the cicadas, necessitating the amputation of the bitten 
member, or even causing death, have appeared. Care¬ 
ful investigation has shown these reports to be with¬ 
out foundation. In fact the insects have no jaws for 
biting, but simply a slender beak for sucking; this 
might under certain extraordinary circumstances be 
forced through the human skin. Persons who have 
been thus bitten or stung, report that the wound is 
not nearly so serious as that resulting from a bee 
sting. The cicadas ha/e no stinging instrument. 
Some have thought that the long, sharp ovipositor of 
the females, was the organ with which the so-called 
“sting” was made; but careful experiments have 
shown that this instrument can not be easily forced 
into the soft, yielding human fiesh, and that when it 
is forced through the skin, no serious wound is made. 
Brood XVIII. is a Western and Southern one, occur¬ 
ring from Illinois southward, thence eastward to the 
Atlantic coast of the Carolinas. It was first noticed 
in 1803 ; I have not seen any account of its appearance 
this year, but it has doubtless come forth true to its 
nature as we know it has done every 13 years during 
the present century. 
In New York State, five distinct broods of the 17- 
year cicadas are known to occur. Brood VIII. ap¬ 
peared on Long Island in 1889 ; it will not appear 
again until 1906. Brood XII. is the one that has ap¬ 
peared this year in the Hudson River Valley ; it will 
not be seen again until 1911. Brood XIX. is a small 
one, occurring only in a few counties in western 
New York. It appeared last in 1882. and is therefore 
not due again until 1899. Brood XX. has been re¬ 
corded from the extreme western counties of tbe 
State. It is a small brood and has not attracted much 
attention. It appeared in 1883, and may be expected 
in 1900. Brood XXfI. is the largest 17-year brood, and 
in 1868 appeared on Long Island and about Rochester; 
it was thus due in 1885, and will again appear in 1902. 
From this it will be seen that the cicadas will not ap¬ 
pear in New York State again until 1899 ; and there¬ 
after only in 1900, 1902, 1906 and 1911 may they be ex¬ 
pected in the various localities mentioned. 
(To be Continued). 
TUBERCULIN TEST AS A COMMERCIAL GUIDE. 
Would You Use It in Buying and Selling P 
THE QUESTIONS. 
In view of the Kteat interest being taken In tbe tubercnlosls ques¬ 
tion, we take the liberty of asking you the followlrgquestions, believ¬ 
ing that conservative answers from breeders will have an important 
bearing on tbe subject. 1. In view of what has been proved about 
tuberculosis and the prospect of further investigation, would you not 
prefer to test a valuable cow with tuberculin before buying her for 
your held ? 2. Would you be willing to guarantee healthy animals to 
a customer by giving him the option of a tuberculin test ? 3. Will 
you be kind enough to explain In a few words why you favor or object 
to the plan outlined in the above questions 7 
Believes Tuberculin Unreliable. 
Id reply to the three questions, all I can state is 
my own experience. 1. I do not think I would. 2. 
No I 3. I had two cows that the veterinarian used 
tuberculin upon ; both their temperatures went up 
very high, and the result was that we killed the two. 
The one whose temperature was the lower, and before 
killing we even doubted whether it would pay to test 
her, showed after being killed, that she was rotten 
with the disease ; while the other animal that we 
thought had it the worse and whose temperature was 
the higher, showed not the least signs of it after 
being killed. Consequently, my belief in the tuber¬ 
culin test is not strong. It is a question with me 
whether animals that may be perfectly healthy before 
being subjected to this test, might not contract the 
disease after once having been subjected to it. 1 
know that in this locality, many valuable cows have 
been tested and killed on account of the temperature 
going high, that never had the disease, and I doubt if 
they ever would, geo. e. peer. 
Rochester, N. Y. 
Plans for Investigating Tuberculosis. 
I am handling no cattle at the present time, (with 
the exception of a single cow), therefore I can give 
no answers to questions 1 and 2. To the third, I would 
say that I think our present system of investigation 
for tuberculosis is far from being perfect. The inveS' 
tigation in some form should extend to every herd. 
This could be done by dividing the State into small 
districts, with an ag'ent in each district to be under the 
