646 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
October 13 
ket has been filled with New York grapes at 2 to 3 
cents. Hut the busy bee has sometimes played the 
mischief with my fine clusters, a trouble the picker of 
unripe fruit escapes. I know that a bee can’t eat 
grapes, unless one punches holes in them with a crow¬ 
bar ; that has been scientifically demonstrated, so I 
believe it! Why, a bee has no teeth with which to 
bite, any more than a hen; and a hen having no teeth, 
cannot eat corn ! So the bee cannot eat grapes. Be¬ 
sides, some New York man once shut some bees and 
grapes in the same bottle, “ and they didn’t eat them.” 
I don’t know whether the bees refused to eat the 
grapes, or the grapes refrained from eating the bees, 
so take your choice. Why, I have some grapes so vile 
(I grow them to give predatory boys the colic) that no 
bee could be induced to touch them. Besides, I have 
seen bees hundreds of times when they were not eating 
grapes, and that, I hope, will settle it, that they can’t! 
Still, if the bees would keep away, I would have more 
clusters this year, and much better ones. w. 
Monroe, Wis. 
A STINGING CATERPILLAR. 
“ LIKE QUILLS UPON THE FIIETFUL POBCUPINK.” 
My wife and I were stung by a sort of worm while 
gatljering sweet corn. The pain was terrible; our 
hands were swollen to twice their natural size, ard 
were red and blue in color. I felt the pain all over 
my body, and even my lips were white and drawn as 
if in death. I never saw such a worm before, nor did 
I ever experience such pain. I have been often stung 
by watps, but those were nothing when compared 
with this worm It is green in color, and has a lot of 
bunchy stingers on its body. To me, it seemed some¬ 
what like a porcupine. It is about two inches in 
length. The only remedy of which I knew, was to 
put a lot of vinegar on our hands. Ihat eased the 
pain a little. j. u. p. 
New Alexandria, Pa. 
ANSWKKED BY M. V. SLINQEBLAND. 
Although I have not seen the worm, I can say with 
certainty that it is not the ordinary Corn worm, 
Ileliothis armiger (which has no spiny armor). The 
insect that did the stinging was undoubtedly the 
caterpillar of one of our largest and most beautiful 
moths, known as Antomeris (Ilyperchiria) io, the lo 
moth. The insect rarely occurs in sufficient numbers 
bo become a pest; hence hand-picking, using gloves 
always, of the larrae is all that is resorted to in com¬ 
bating it. In spite of its defensive armor, the cater¬ 
pillar often falls a victim to a little enemy among its 
own kind—an Ichneumon fiy ; and thus Nature mater¬ 
ially aids in checking this, to some people, formidable 
caterpillar. 
I happened to have, at the time the correspondent’s 
letter was received, a colony of the caterpillars 
of this Io moth. 'Ihe larvae are now about two- 
thirds grown, and have been fed upon raspberry. It 
at once occurred to me that it would be a happy hit, 
which would lend interest to this dry recital of facts, 
if I could persuade one of these “pets” to sit, or, 
rather, lie for his photograph. The male moth, F’g, 
170, is shown natural size ; the caterpillar was only 
about two-thirds grown. The male moth has fore 
wings of a deep yellow color with wavy, purplish 
markings; the hind wings are of a darker yellow, 
with very prominent, round blue-black eye spots 
having a whitish center. The female is considerably 
larger, and her fore wings are of a purplish-brown 
shade, otherwise similar to the male. They fly only 
at night, and in May and June are often attracted to 
electric lights. During these months, the cream- 
colored, top-shaped eggs, with a dark spot on the 
flattened top, and a yellow spot on the side, are laid 
in clusters of 20 or 30 on the leaves of trees, usually. 
The larvae hatch in a few days and, curiously enough, 
their first food consists entirely of the shells of the 
eggs from which they have just emerged ; this habit 
is common to several other caterpillars. They then 
begin work upon their food plant, feeding gregar¬ 
iously, side by side, until about one-half grown, when 
each one shifts for himself. The caterpillars are about 
two months in attaining their growth, and during this 
time they moult or cast their spiny skins five times. 
Not only do the young larvae eat their egg shells, but 
more curious still is the fact that they eat their old 
cast-off spiny ” clothes,” after the first one or two 
moults at least. 
The full grown caterpillar is about 2X inches in 
length, and of a delicate, light green color, with a 
distinct stripe of lilac red and one of white, running 
along each side; these stripes show plainly on one 
side in the figure. Each segment of the body bears 
several clusters of green, branching spines t pped with 
black. It is by these very sharp spines that the sting 
is produced. The wound is inflicted simply by one or 
more of the sharp spines being forced into the flesh. 
The worm exerts no voluntary power to force them 
ip, and it iS only when carelessly bandied, or let drop 
for a little distance on to some exposed portion of the 
body, that the sting is inflicted. I have handled dozens 
of them without the least sting. Just now I struck a 
worm slightly with the inside and upper surface of 
one finger. On the inner, thicker-skinned part, no 
sting was made, that is none of the spines could pene¬ 
trate the thick, tough skin. But on the upper surface 
where the skin is thinner, a spine penetrated produc¬ 
ing immediately the sensation experienced on hand¬ 
ling a nett’e. The finger soon reddened, swelled very 
Eaton Grape. (Part of Bunch.) Fig. 169. 
See PaKe 615. 
slightly, and a white blotch appeared accompanied by 
some pain and stiffness in the finger. Two hours 
later, all had disappeared. 
It has been thought that the spines inject a poison¬ 
ous liquid into their puncture, but no opening in the 
spine has been found. Some think the substance of 
the spines themselves possesses this irritating prop¬ 
erty ; the spines of a dead larva or a cast-off skin pos¬ 
sess the same property. I do not know that it is 
definitely known just why the simple puncturing of 
the skin by the spines should result in the way it does. 
Of course the sting acts differently on different per¬ 
sons, the same as does the sting of a bee, or the nettle. 
It seems that the correspondent was very susceptible, 
while I am not particularly so, although I am much 
affected usually by a bee sting. One of my entonco- 
logical friends the other day had one of the larvae 
brought to him, and while a lady was calling at the 
house, the worm got loose and crawled upon the lady’s 
dress. She at once made a frantic effort to brush it 
off, with the result that the middle of her hand bore a 
broad, mottled, swollen band for several hours. No 
one, however, sj far as known, has ever been danger¬ 
ously injured by the sting. The correspondent’s ex¬ 
perience is the most serious I ever heard. Scarcely 
any writer on this insect has thought it necessary to 
prescribe any application to allay the injury. Dr. 
Riley says that the application of a little saleratus 
water will soon allay the inflammation. 
When full grown, in August or September, the 
caterpillar draws a few leaves together, and spins a 
thin, weak cocoon of br own silk. Within this cocoon, 
it changes to a commonplace looking brown object 
without .spines—the pupa. Sometimes a few moths 
emerge from these pupse the same fall, but most of 
Io Moth and Caterpillar. Fig. 170. 
them wait until May. The caterpillars feed on a great 
variety of plants including clover, corn, willow, and 
other trees. 
There are at least a dozen other different kinds or 
species of the Stinging caterpillars, all being the 
larvae of moths ; all of them possess spines. But the 
Io caterpillar is the most common one, and it possesses 
this stinging power to a greater degree than do most 
of the others. The hairs from ordinary caterpillars 
like the Apple-tree Tent caterpillar, when made to 
pierce the flesh by the crushing of the larva on the 
skin where tender, will sometimes cause inflammation. 
I well remember the mark left on my neck when, in 
trying to brush off ‘something that had fallen from an 
apple tree above, I had crushed one of these hairy 
caterpillars, and seme of the hairs had pierced the 
skin. The sensation was not unlike that produced by 
nettles ; there was the same intense itching. 
What They 5ay? 
Stable Manure and Grubs. —Fred Grundy is wrong 
on page 551. Stable manure will not cause grubs. I 
have raised berries largely for 21 years, and never 
was troubled with the grubs where I used manure, 
and I have used thousands of loads. On the contrary, 
when I have used no manure I have had much injury 
from the grub. H. s. H. 
Ithaca. N. Y. 
How to Carry' a Grain Sack. —I have always 
dreaded being under the necessity of carrying the bot¬ 
tom end of a grain sack. Broken finger nails, sore 
fingers, and frequent droppings of the sack have 
always attended me in such a position. Recently I 
learned a way of holding the corners of the bag which 
relieves that position of all its unpleasantness. In 
picking up the lower end of any heavy sack, with the 
middle fingers press the corners back in. This will 
give a hand hold easier and more comfortable than 
any other way, and since learning how, I find it easier 
to cavy by the corners than to grasp the upper end. 
H w. j. 
Irrigating Celery. —Your correspondent at Carey, 
Ohio, will find subirrigation the best thing he ever 
tried. One line of tile will (if the soil is light) wet the 
earth two feet Ox more on each side. Only enough 
water should be used to show a little wet on the sur¬ 
face every few days. Onions will require less, and a 
way should be fixed to keep them from getting too 
much—also to prevent heavy rains washing trash and 
soil into the tile from any openirgs at the surface. 
Many of our trees grew over 12 feet the first season, 
they had no strength and the wind damaged some ; 
the borers finished them ; still we had to cut out many 
to make room. Our vegetables never failed us. We 
had strawberries for weeks after other people. 
Shreveport, La. c. c. 
Some White Grapes —The Green Mountain and 
Moore’s Diamond grapes have been fruiting on our 
grounds for the past three years. The former variety 
was ripe August 18, fully 10 days earlier than the 
Diamond, and is much sweeter, and we think a little 
better quality. The Diamond yields more fruit, both 
berries and bunches being much larger than those of 
the Green Mountain. In regard to the best of the six 
white grapes named on page 602, we would select 
Moore’s Diamond for this section. The quality is not 
quite as good as that of P. B Hayes, but in size of 
bunches, size of berry, productiveness and hardiness, 
it is far superior to any of those named. F. B. Hayes 
would be my second choice from the varieties named, 
if intended for home use; but if for market, I would 
select either Empire State or Geneva, m. h. beckwith 
Del. Col. Exp. Sta., Newark, Del. 
Grundy on Grubs —I was glad to be set right in the 
matter of white grubs vs. strawberries by G. A. Par- 
cell, page 598, and F. W. S , page 602. It may be that 
I don’t know a white grub when I see it. And it may 
be that when I found them under strawberry plants, 
the roots of which were eaten off, they were there acci¬ 
dentally, while the real destroyer had skipped. But 
when I remark that I have seen not one, but many fine 
beds of strawberries utterly annihilated and have 
invariably found one or more of these pests under every 
plant destroyed, and that in each and every instance 
these beds were on land that had been heavily ma¬ 
nured with stable manure, it may be that I know what 
I am talking about. The facts are as I stated them. 
I have found it utterly useless to attempt to grow 
strawberries here on land that has been heavily ma¬ 
nured with stable manure; because they are certain to 
be destroyed, and by white grubs. fred grundy. 
Christian County, Ill. 
The Road Question. —I read a good many papers, 
almost all of which agitate the subject of road making 
in a general, theoretical sort of way. They advise the 
Government to build them, advocate State taxation, 
the sale of Government land, a whisky tax, and other 
innumerable ways; but always dodge the only prac¬ 
ticable solution of the difficulty to my mind, i. e., the 
farmer and those contiguous to the roads to be bene¬ 
fited. Just as long as we keep looking for something 
or somebody, nobody knows what or who, to provide 
us all with good roads to travel on, we are pretty sure 
to walk in the mud. When we are once thoroughly 
disabused of that idea, and we realize that good roads, 
if they come at all, come the same way as good houses, 
barns, fences and other improvements, come by in¬ 
dividual effort and expense, we will soon be able to 
enjoy them. Judge Biggie says; “ Don’t haul a lot of 
small stones in the road to make the traveler mis¬ 
erable.” Other judges say : “ Don’t haul in loose dirt 
to make a bed of mud the next time it rains. If there 
