JULY 48 
46 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
ftarw of a 'Suralwt. 
DAILY RURAL LIFE. 
From the Diary of a Gentleman near New 
York City. 
NEWLY PLANTED TREES. 
June 25 .—It may not do any good to be 
constantly scolding people for their ignor¬ 
ance or neglect but I cannot help doing so 
occasionally, and especially when I see the 
stupidity exhibited In the management of 
newly planted trees. In the subur s of any 
of our largo cilies or villages it is t» common 
practice to set outgroups, and single speci¬ 
mens, of evergreen pnd deciduous trees and 
shrubs for ornament, after which the ground 
is seeded down, the grass being permitted to 
grow close up to the stems the first, season 
and perhaps longer. The remit, as every 
man of experience knows, is a stunted 
growth of the shrubs and trees, if they are 
not killed outright. If the planting was 
done in the fall the chances are that some 
stupid gardener or other person will advise 
the owner to seed down with rye or wheat, 
and the following season a crop of this grain 
may be eeen growing in front of elegant 
country or suburban residences, smothering 
the smaller shrubs and drawing the last, 
drop of moisture from the soil, I saw sev¬ 
eral instances of this injurious and absurd 
practice in a ten-mile ride to-duy in the 
vicinity of one of our most aristocratic vil¬ 
lages, not twenty miles from New York City. 
One might, suppose that common sense 
would teach a man better tliau to allow 
grass, weeds or grain of any kind to grow 
over the roots of trees for the first, season at 
least, when they require all the moisture 
likely to fall iu rains to sustain life, and even 
this is seldom sufficient to insure a vigorous 
growth unless carefully retained by the free 
use of some kind of mulch on the surface 
about their stems. City-bred men, of all 
others, appear to be the most stupid as well 
as donkeylsb in regard to this matter of 
smothering newly set trees and plants with 
grass; In fact they have a disease from their 
first introduction into country society, which 
may be appropriately termed “grass on the 
brain,” and everything from a Verbena up 
to t he huge Rim or Maple must be crowded 
with grass. If an evergreen hedge is set out 
grass seed Is sown In among and all about 
it, and not a hoe or rake applied to the 
ground ever afterward, and then there is 
great “ wotiderings” why the plants look so 
yellow and sickly, when some less stupid 
neighbor’s are so fresh and green. It’s a 
pity that we have no society for the preven¬ 
tion of cruelty to plants; for such an one is 
needed as much as those for preventing 
cruelty to animals. I seldom go a dozen 
miles from home without getting my temper 
up to fever heat from seeing upon every 
side the grass-bound and weed-smothered 
trees and plants, ft plants had souls, some 
folks I know would get scorched for crimes 
committed against, the rarost and most 
beautiful, as well as the more common and 
useful. 1 cannot believe that it is necessary 
for me to tell what treatment newly set 
trees or hedge plants require, for it is scarce 
ly possible that a man who has brains 
enough to inherit money (and this requires 
an infinitesimal small quant ity) sufficient to 
purchase them, could go wrong if he would 
use what he has. Hut I will say this much: 
no grain, grass or weed should be permitted 
to grow over the roots of any tree or plant 
the first scuson after it is set out, and it 
would be better if not in after years, al 
though the latter is not so imperatively a 
neoess-try con lttion. 
If those who spend money liberally or 
otherwise for ornamental trees and shrubs 
would pay a little more attention to culture, 
we would see less failures to produce hand¬ 
some and healthy specimens. 
LOOK OUT EOR CATERPILLARS. 
June V .—The season for caterpillars is at. 
hand, and one can scarcely walk for five 
minutes in garden, orchard or forest with 
out being reminded of the fact, by huge 
broods of different kinds stripping the leaves 
from some tree or shrub. It. is quite an easy 
matter to collect and kill caterpillars, but 
quite a different thing to capture the parent 
moth or butterfly. Then ftgaiu, no one 
seems to have the least twinge of conscience 
when crushing caterpillars, but there are 
few persona who can stamp out the life of a 
beautiful butterfly without feeling that, they 
are performing an act of cruelty, although 
the two objects are one and the same thing 
iu different stages of existence. Perhaps It 
is well that our associations, habits and edu 
cation have been such as to lead as to hasten 
to destroy a creature in one of its natural 
forms and hesitate to do it in another. Poets 
have spun fine threads of golden words over 
the “birth of the butterfly,” but whoever 
heard of the muses warbling over the birth 
of a caterpillar; still one is just as interest¬ 
ing and beautiful as the other in the eyes of 
an entomologist. But let the caterpillars be 
killed, and thereby save the trees from de¬ 
foliation, unless curiosity or desire for knowl¬ 
edge prompts you to put them where they 
can be fed and kept iu confinement during 
(heir various transformations, as T am doing 
with hundreds at this time. 
There are few persons so indifferent, to the 
wonders of insect life as not to become in¬ 
tensely interested in the breeding of the 
most common species, if they once make a 
beginning. A cheap frame covered with 
wire netting, or even mosquito netting, will 
answer for some kinds, and one is ready to 
raise a few caterpillars and learn wlmt they 
will become in due time. For instance, four¬ 
teen days ago 1 found several hundred long, 
black. Ugly looking caterpillars feeding EEpon 
the leaves of one of my willow trees, and al¬ 
though knowing that they were those of the 
common Antiopa butterfly (Vanessa An- 
tiopa), I put them all into a breeding case 
imd fed them regularly every day, Seven 
days from the time they were put in the 
case they had become chrysalids, and were 
hanging by delicate threads of silk to the 
top of the case, and to day the first butterfly 
appeared from the same. Within the time 
named I have had an opportunity to watch 
the manner of feeding, molting, drinking, 
changing to chrysalids, and lastly butterflies. 
A DROP OF BLOOD. 
A few moments after one of the butter¬ 
flies emerges from the chrysalids, a (b op or 
two of a (loop red fluid exudes from the 
body, and if it falls upon any thing of a light 
color, like a sheet of paper or clean board, 
it. might readily be mistaken for blood; and 
this reminds me that in ancient times 
showers of blood were not infrequent com¬ 
ing from a similar source, although ignor 
mice and superstition attributed them to a 
supernatural origin. A few drops of bloody 
fluid exuding from the bodies of some beau¬ 
tiful butterflies led to the massacre of ten 
thousand Jews in Frankfort in the year 1298, 
and terrible have been the sufferings of 
innocent people in olden times just tor the 
want of a few bug and butterfly hunters to 
explain miraculous phenomena which to-day 
would not be considered either strange or 
mysterious. 
NORTHERN MOLE CRICKET. 
July 1.—O. C. Ames of Clyde, Ohio, sends 
me a “ varmint ” for name, which 1 recog¬ 
nize as the Northern Mole Cricket. [GryllotaF 
pn borealis, Bcrmeistek.) Now when Bull 
meister, the entomologist, described this in¬ 
sect many years ago, he recognized its close 
relationship to our common crickets (Qryllus) 
but its immense front legs and claws fitted 
expressly for burrowing in the ground re¬ 
sembled in form those of our common ground 
moles ( Tulpa ) hence the compound generic 
name QryUutalpa. The specific name borealis 
signifies northern, therefore both common 
and scientific names are in perfect accord, 
which occurs less frequently than one could 
wish it. did, for the sake of communicating 
information relating to plants and insects. 
These mole crickets burrow In the earth 
feeding upon the roots of plants and quite 
frequently attack potatoes, but are seldom 
so numerous as to do any great damage to 
Uus or other crops. 
NEST OF THE SOLITARY BEE. 
W. W. Smith, Strongsville, Ohio, The 
curious little cell made of pieces of leaves 
whieh you dug up in hoeing is the nest of one 
of our solitary bees, ( Apida) but I cannot 
give the specific name without ft specimen 
of the insect. In the bottom of the cartridge- 
like cell sent me there was a mass of bee 
bread placed there as food for the larva 
which would eventually (if it. had not been 
disturbed) have hatched from the egg laid 
therein. Tho species belonging to the Jn- 
drenadee and Apidai provision; their nest* 
with a mixture of the pollen of plants and 
honey more commonly known as boo bread, 
while many of the true wasps and hornets 
store up other insects which serve as food 
for their young. 
ORASS AND A BEETLE FOR NAMES. 
July 2.—Daily Rural Life Per mail, 
wrapped in u paper marked 27.1, I send you 
i\ Lrr&hs which grows iu roixclsidetuihout nei ft. 
of which I should like to know the botanical 
name and such other particulars as you may¬ 
be able to give. It has been observed that, 
this grass is much liked by slock, both green 
and as hay. Our farmers are winning to 
find a good hardy grass which will stolid the 
winters better thau timothy. In the same 
paper I send you an insect common in some 
fields of potatoes, which I wish you would 
name. It eats the tender leaves of the poto- 
to and, should its numbers increase, might 
become, a serious detriment to that crop. 
Mule and female are alike. Packard does 
not describe nor figure it.— Geo.; W. tries, 
Friendship, N. Y. 
The grass is the well known Kentucky 
blue grass ( Poa pratennis). It also has many 
local names such as green meadow grass, 
June grass and spear grass. This grass is far 
superior to timothy for pastures, but the 
great objection for hay is that it. does not 
yield as much per acre iu weight, as the 
coarser kinds. It Is, however, one of our 
most valuable grasses, but when gathered 
for hay it. should be cut quite early, else 
much of its nutritious properties are lost. 
The soft, long, cylindrical, grayish beetle 
sent is Lytta cincrea, Fabr. You must have 
overlooked it in Packard’s Guide, for it is 
figured on page 480. 
This and several closely allied species are 
sometimes quite abundant upon potatoes, 
feeding upon the leaves, but are never very 
numerous or destructive. If the Colorado 
Potato Beetle was no worse than the Lyllas 
we should have litt’e to fear from them. 
But. unfortunately they boloug to another 
family and are of an entirely different hab¬ 
it, and come to stay, unless killed, while, the 
Lyttas are migratory beetles, seldom found 
in the same locality for more than two years 
in succession. 
(ftittontological 
ENTOMOLOGICAL N0TE8. 
Colorado Potato Beetle. —A. V. Poindex¬ 
ter, Orleans, Ind., whites the Cincinnati 
Gazette:—The only sure remedy I know of 
is one part of Paris green to sixteen or eigh¬ 
teen parts of flour or shorts, well mixed. 
Manner of using:—Take a half gallon tin 
fruit can. Puncture the bottom with a 
Hharp instrument until it is like a pepper-box 
lid. Take the can in the left hand, and take 
a small stick in the right hand. Now, hold¬ 
ing the can over the plants, tap it lightly 
with the stick, and a small quantity does the 
work effectually. Apply when the dew is 
on. It is also good to keep insectH from 
squashes, pumpkins, or melons, but it should 
not be used on salads. On winter cabbages 
it may bo used for tho first half of their 
growth. Keep the cover on the can, and 
the operation of applying i* perfectly safe. 
How to Bother the Turnip Fly.— Mr. Fish¬ 
er HOUBS “ bothers” this enemy of the tur¬ 
nip with the following preparation “Take 
1 bushel white gas ashes fresh from the gas 
works, 1 bushel fresh lime from the kiln, 6 
lbs. sulphur and 10 lbs. soot. Let all the in¬ 
gredients be reduced to a dry and fine pow¬ 
der and well mixed together. This is suffi¬ 
cient. for two acres of land. Another mixture 
recommended by Mr. Hobbs consists of 2 
bushels road scrapings, 1 bushel fresh lime 
and 14 lbs. of sulphur, t.he whole to be mixed 
for a few days .before application. These 
mixtures should be dusted over the young 
turnips early in the mornings, before the 
dew is off their tiny leaves, either by broad¬ 
casting or by moans of the drill.” 
Poke-Root for Destroying Insects.—D. F. 
C. Renner of Frederick County, Maryland, 
writes to the Department of Agriculture, 
that several years ago he collected some 
poke-root ( Phytolacca demndra) for medici¬ 
nal purposes, and placed it at various places 
about the house to dry. After several days 
he observed that there were many cock¬ 
roaches lying dead, and upon examination 
found they had been partaking freely of the 
poke-root. Home of the root was placed 
near their haunts, and the result was that it 
rid the premises of those insects. Since 
then he has communicated the remedy to 
others, who have tested it with satisfactory 
results. 
The Grasshoppers and Fire.—A Minneso- 
tian proposes that the Legislature of that 
State shall pass a law compelling overy farm¬ 
er and land-owner to bum the prairios before 
the grasshoppers are able to fly and while 
they can only bop over the ground. This 
course, pursued a few years, he thinks would 
be successful in destroying them entirely. 
Mustard and the Colorado Potato Beetle , 
a correspondent is informed, are not so an¬ 
tagonistic to each other as they have been 
reported to be, for the beetle has been found 
promenading on a mustard plant, and its eggs 
liave been gathered from it. 
Colorado Potato Beetle.—Tell the farmers 
to use assafoetida dissolved in wuMir to kill 
the Colorado potato bug.—C qari.es Henry 
O i'TiMUs, Syracuse, N. Y. 
THE NEW YORK GAME LAWS. 
The Turf, Field and Farm says : — The 
New York Legislature, in its last session, did 
a good deal of tinkering with the game laws 
of the State. April 21 an act was passed for 
the protection and preservation of fish in 
that jwrtton of tho Walkill River in the 
counties of Ulster and Orange. All fish taken 
from t.he stream must be caught with hook 
and line. March 11 an act was passed mak¬ 
ing it unlawful to take any fish out of the 
waters of Queeohy Lake, Columbia County, 
for a period of three years. February 27 an 
act woe passed forbidding persons to take 
fish in Honeyo, Seneca, Cayuga and Canan¬ 
daigua Lakes in any other way than with 
hook and line. Eels may be speared. An 
act of May 11 declares that quail shall not be 
captured or killed in the counties of Genesee, 
Cayuga, Wayne and Orleans for tho space 
of three years. An act of May 12 protects 
the fisheries of Cross Lake, Onondaga Coun¬ 
ty, also of Clyde and Seneca Rivers, in the 
counties of Wayne and Cayuga. 
An act of May 8 is for tho preservation of 
fish within the county of Cortland. An act 
of May 9 makes it unlawful to kill or chase 
any moose or wild deer in any part of the 
State save only during the months of Sep¬ 
tember, October, November ; and no person 
shall expose for sale or sell or transport the 
flesh of these animals during any other 
months than September, October, Novem¬ 
ber, December and January. It is further 
declared that no fawn shall be killed in its 
spotted coat. May 20 the following was 
passed : 
Section 10. No person shall kill or expose 
for sale, or have In hiH possession after tho 
same has been killed, any robin, brown 
thrasher, meadow lark or starling, save only 
during the months of August, September, 
October, November and December, under a 
penalty of $5 for each bird ; and in the coun¬ 
ties of Kings, Queens, Putnam and Suffolk, 
no person shall kill or expose for sale, or 
have in his possession after the same has 
been killed, any of said birds, except meadow 
larks, in this section named, except during 
the months of October, November and De¬ 
cember, under a penalty of $5 for each bird. 
Sec. 2. The nineteenth section of said act 
is hereby amended to read as follows : 
Sec, 19. No person shall at rny time catch 
any speckled trout with any device save 
with a hooked line, except for the purpose 
of propagation as hereinafter provided, or 
place any set lines in waters inhabited by 
them, under a penalty of $50 for each of¬ 
fense ; and no person shall at any t.ime, ex¬ 
cept for the purpose cf propagation as afore¬ 
said, catch any kind of fish 111 Lake Saratoga, 
in the County of Saratoga, or in Onondaga 
or Oneida lakes, tributaries or outlets, ex¬ 
cept. minnows, with any device save with 
hook and line. And no person shall at any 
time use more than three lines with hooks 
attached ; and any hook and line unattended 
by the fisherman hi person, and all set lines, 
nets traps and devices other than fair ang¬ 
ling as aforesaid, are hereby prohibited on 
said lakes and their tributaries and outlets, 
or within onu mile of the lakes, and when 
found in use or operation are hereby declared 
forfeit and contraband, and any person find¬ 
ing such set lines, nets or traps m said waters 
is hereby authorized to destroy the same, 
and any person fishing with such prohibited 
means or devices shall he liahla to a penalty 
of not less than $10 nor exceeding $100. And 
no person shall take or catch any black or 
Oswego bass in the waters of Lake George, 
except from the 20th day of July to the 1st 
day of January, under a penalty of $10 for 
each flsh so taken. 
See. 3. See. 25 or said act is hereby amend¬ 
ed so as to read as follows : 
Sec. 25. No person shall kill or catch any 
flsh in the Mohawk or Clyde Rivers, Ironde- 
quoit Bay, Braddock's Bay, Little Pond, 
Round Pond, Cranberry Pond, Buck Pond 
and Long Pond in the County of Monroe, or 
in the inlets thereof, or the lakes in the 
counties of Westchester. Rockland, Wyo¬ 
ming, Columbia, Ulster, Genesee, Orange, 
Putnam, Herkimer, Rensselaer, Sullivan, Ti¬ 
oga Cortland, Broome and Livingston, by 
any trap, dam, weir, net, seine, or by any 
device whatever, other than that of angling 
with hook and line or with a spear, under a 
penalty Of $25 for each offence. All fishing 
in the aforesaid Braddock’s Bay, Little Pond, 
Round Pood, Cranberry Pond, Buck Pond 
and Long Pond in the County of Monroe, in 
tries months of January, February and March, 
or either, is hereby forbidden and prohibited. 
Hec. 4. It shall not be lawful between the 
1st dav of December and the 18th day of 
April In any year, to take with hook aiKiluu% 
trap, net or any device whatsoever, any fish 
from Rockland Lake, in the county of Rock¬ 
land. Any person violating any of the pro¬ 
visions of this section shall be deemed guilty 
of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction 
thereof shall pay a penalty of not less than 
•o nor more than $15, or be confined m the 
countv jail not less than five days nor more 
than is days, in tho discretion of the court, i 
