its season which is from February to April.’ 
As this pear is now offered for sale, we pre¬ 
sume it will be tested at once in this country 
an industrious little fellow, destroying the 
pupae of moths injurious to trees, busy during 
the long Winter months searching for and 
destroying the borers which infest the rasp¬ 
berry and the currant. Doubtless this is the 
wee chap Gen Noble saw “flitting through the 
currant bnshes,” He is another of our friends 
—ppare him. 
There is another useful bird which is often 
or more rows. The sap-sucker is a very silent 
bird, seldom uttering a note when feeding. An 
occasional “ kewee” “ kewee,” when flying 
from tree to tree, is its only utterance. I never 
lost a tree, or had one injured to any extent 
by these, birds daring my twenty years’ owner¬ 
ship of a large orchard in Illinois ; and I still 
think a long row of Yellow Bdleflowers were 
rendered more fruitful by their yearly perfor- 
the hen sees you are afraid of her, she will 
keep up the fight. Quarrelsome henB should 
as far as possible be avoided, as they are gen¬ 
erally the poorest sitters and injure their own 
aud other hens' chicks when feeding together. 
Having tried nearly all breeds 1 much prefer 
the Brahma both as a reliable sitter and as a 
good mother, though she does tread on the 
little chicks If confined in a pen. She does not 
roam too much, however, or fight the chicks 
of other hens, and an abundant fluff makes 
her admirably adapted for raising chicks in 
very early Spring. 
The number of eggs to the hatch should be 
regulated by tbe size aud feather of the ben. 
In cold weather from eight to ten are enough 
for small and medium-sized hens and not over 
thirteen should be placed under the largest. 
This will insure more chicks than a larger 
number of eggs, as the hen moves them con¬ 
stantly from the center to the outside of the 
nest and, if tbe outer civcle of eggs is not 
sufficiently heated, all will in time feel the 
effects of the cold and be injured. Then the 
size of the eggs should have something to do 
with regulating the number to the ben. Good, 
judgment is of prime importance in arrang¬ 
ing these matters. It has always been my 
practice in hot or cold weather to fill the cor¬ 
ners of the box with dirt to prevent the eggs 
from working back into them. This also gives 
everything a tendency toward the center. It 
is also well, when the heus are strangers, to 
examine each carefully under the wings to see 
that she is free from vermin. This may he de¬ 
ferred until she has become somewhat accus¬ 
tomed to her new quarters so that she will bear 
handling without becoming panic-struck. Tbe 
application of a mixture of lard and sulphur 
will generally cure this trouble when found to 
exist. 
Hens with bad cases of scaly legs 
should not be used as sitters, for we are told 
by many authorities that tbe disease or afflic¬ 
tion is certain to be conveyed to the chicks, 
and as it is caused by a small insect there is 
probably a large measure of truth in the state¬ 
ment. As a rule, aged hens are more reliable 
sitters and better mothers thau pullets, though 
this is denied by some high authorities ; but it 
can hardly be disputed that the older a hen is, 
the less likely is she to be timid and nervous, 
while her experience mustcountfor something. 
To be sure a young Brahma is as tame as au 
old game beu, and I would prefer her for a 
sitting heu ; but, as a rule, all other points be¬ 
ing equal, 1 have found the old hens the best. 
In choosing tbe eggs for a hatching, get those 
as near the same age as possible, or they will 
not batch out together, the fresher ones batch¬ 
ing perhaps two days before the old cggR, and 
the early chicks will coax tbe ben from her 
nest before all arc out, thus causing a loss 
which might have been avoided if the proper 
precaution had been taken. Chicks raised or 
hatched in January or February make the 
earliest broilers, and the best show birds iu tbe 
Fall; but May is early enough to get them out; 
for chicks hatched then lay just when eggs 
are dearest in the market. 
THE ARMY-WORM 
PROFK8SOR CYRUS THOMAS 
The public is indebted to Professors Pviley 
and Comstock for recent able and important 
articles on that erratic but occasionally very 
troublesome pest, the Army-worm—that of tbe 
former iu the July, August and September 
numbers (1880) of the American Entomologist; 
that of the latter in his last report as Entomol¬ 
ogist of the Agricultural Department. While 
the importance of these articles is cheerfully 
conceded, they contain some statements and 
present some views which I cannot let pass 
without a mild protest. 
Number of Animal Generation*. 
The first, of these statements to which I call 
attention is a statement found iu both. In the 
article by Professor Riley it is as follows: 
“ From the time Fitch wrote so fully on the 
species in 1861, until the record of our obser¬ 
vations iu 1875 and 1876. it was the prevailing 
belief amoug entomologists that there was but 
one annual brood of the species, no absolute 
evidence of a second brood having been ob¬ 
tained." In Professor Comstock’s it is in these 
words; “ The number of generations in a sea¬ 
son varies greatly with the climate. It has 
TUE NEW I'EaK, mRECTEUB ALl’UAND 
ations. I never joined in the perpetual cru¬ 
sade against them carried on by my brother 
horticulturists. I never gave them a bad 
name, or pursued them with the shot gun, 
and the large number of well filled barrels 
standing beneath the trees in tbe Fall of the 
year, bore ample testimony that the protection 
afforded them was abundantly rewarded. 
The Hairy Woodpecker (Pieus villosus), is 
no doubt the bird to which the General refers 
as the “ fellow that makes the splinters fly." 
It is about the size of the sap-sucker, and is 
too often mistaken aud destroyed for that bird 
The head is black, with a broad, red baud; 
breast white; wiugs, black spotted and tipped 
with white; outer tail feathers, white. The 
tongue will protrude two inches or more be¬ 
yond the point of the beas, and is provided 
with a narrow, sharp, horny point, plentifully 
supplied with recurved barbs, a most perfect 
instrument (or abstracting borers from their 
burrows. Cheerful and industrious, he is al¬ 
ways on tbe lookout for the laryfc of the order 
Buprestidie, that burrow in the substance of 
the wood, or under the bark of trees. As he 
explores suspicious localities with gentle taps 
of his beak, he quickly detects the evidence 
of unBOundnese, aud is not slow to learn the 
cause. Borers are his hobby ; soon he chips 
an opening, and with bis long slender tongue, 
armed with its lance-like barbed point, lie soon 
extracts the enemy. While engaged iuhisbene¬ 
ficial work, he now and again utters his cheer¬ 
ful “Plick" “Plick,’’ in a sharp key, as if e on- 
ecious that he is engaged iu a good cause, and 
is not ashamed to own it. You cau always 
tell where be iB at work. He asks uo pay for 
the valuable work he performs. Horticultu¬ 
rists—protect him, for he is your friend. May 
that guu ever hold fire that is directed against 
the Hairy Woodpecker. 
The Downy Woodpecker (Ficus pubescens,) 
is the smallest of the species. In color, mark¬ 
ings and voice he is precisely like his hairy 
brother, differing only in size, being a mere 
ocket edition of the Picus villosus. He is 
SAP-SUCKERS AND WOODPECKERS 
JOHN W. ROBSON. 
Tna reading of the paper by your genial 
correspondent Gen. Noble, in the Rurai. of 
December 35, alfoidcd me much pleasure. It is 
60 gratifying also to meet with one 80 versed in 
horticultural lore, so anxious and willing to 
learn tbe truth aud so ready with all true hu¬ 
mility to confess his ignorance concerning the 
subject be discusses, that I feel tempted to 
write a short pemonelle of the sap-sucker. 
This species may be known by the bright 
red spot on the head ; and in the male bird there 
is also a red spot on tbe throat—this spot is 
lacking in the female—a black spot in tbe cen¬ 
ter of the breast: belly, light yellow ; tail black, 
the two centr al feathers white on their inner- 
vanes, aud spotted with black. The tongue of 
this genus is quite unlike that of any of tbe 
wood-pecker species, the tip, or horny portion, 
being rounded at the point, aud highly devel¬ 
oped. while the length of the tongue renders 
it incapable of being protruded much beyond 
the point or the beak. 
The sap-sucker is migratory in its habits, 
usually arriving in Northern Illinois about 
tbe middle of April when rt wages a vigorous 
war on the maple, birch, silver poplar, apple, 
and eherry. It attacks the most thriftily grow¬ 
ing trees, preferring in the orchard the fol¬ 
lowing varieties of applc6 :—Yellow Belle- 
flower, Red Astrachan, Rumbo, Talrnau Sweet, 
and other varieties of the same class. The 
wounds made by tbe sap-sucker penetrate to 
the hard wood, and a portion oi theinner bark 
and cambium layer is eaten out. These holes 
are from one-eighth to a quarter of an inch in 
diameter, and are generally close together, in 
regular lines, running around the tree, gird¬ 
ling the trunk and larger branches with one 
THE NEW PEAR. DIRECTEUR ALPHAND. 
It seems by the Loudon Garden, from which 
wc have bad our illustration re-engraved, that 
the Messrs. Croux. of Sceanx, near Paris, are 
the introducers of this showy pear. It is spoken 
of as being always large, measuring between 
six and seven iuches in length and sometimes 
more, by three to four inches iu diameter. Its 
skin, which is yellowish-green, changes to a 
gold color, spotted with red aud sometimes 
possessing a rosy tint on the side next t he sun. 
The eye is small; flesh white, firm, dose aud 
&IIghlly gritty towards the center -very sweet 
and delicate in flavor. It is further described 
as being “altogether one of the best pears of 
