JUNE 9 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
364 
by F. W. Robinson, the senior member of the 
present firm, and for 40 years he has person¬ 
ally superintended the building of, as well as 
designed all the different kinds of machinery 
built by the firm. They are also manufac¬ 
turers of portable engines and saw mills. An 
examination of the catalogue, which will be 
sent to any of our subscribers on application, 
will interest many readers who have need of 
such machinery. 
Hand-Book of Tessessek. Prepared by 
A. W. Hawkins, Commission of Agriculture, 
Statistics, Mines and Immigration, Nashville 
Ik 
pounds of my corn in the ear; then shelled it, 
and got 62 pounds of corn and eight pounds of 
col). Of course, had I just sheLled 56 pounds 
of corn there would have boon a less amount 
of cobs. Now, if any of the readers of the 
Rural can beat this let him report it. My 
corn is a small-eared dent, 10- to 14-rowod, 
deep-grained. It fills well and matures early, 
and is called Isenhour or Little Red Cob. 
Ocoee, East Tenn. r. v. m’c. 
the following season. Among “preventives 
and “remedies’ are catching the parent moths 
with a net or “fly-paper” rolled around the 
vines; cutting out the larvse from wilting vines; 
banking up the young vines with earth to the 
first blossom to prevent the moth from de¬ 
positing eggs, and destroying the larvae in dead 
vines to prevent them from maturing, and 
so begetting a fresh brood next season.— Eds. 
Vines, however, do not always wither mere¬ 
ly from the attacks of the borer; they are 
sometimes blighted by the weather, particu¬ 
larly when planted in a white sandy soil. The 
sand becomes heated by the sun, heavy 
showers fall, and the water is in turn heated 
by the sand, and this has pretty much the 
same effect on the vines as if it had been boil¬ 
ed in the house and poured over them. 
Pulaski Co., Va. 
SEEDLING COLEUS. 
We had intended to urge it upon our 
flower-doving readers earlier to sow seeds of 
the Coleus. But there is yet time, since seed¬ 
lings grow very fast and, even though not 
large enough to make much show this season 
in the garden, they could lx*, removed to the 
house for a Winter display. The seeds are 
very fine and need to be sown with scarcely 
any covering upon a mellow soil, kept barely 
moist and protected from the hot sun. Flow¬ 
er-pots, well drained, and covered with a bit 
of glass, will serve as well as anything to start 
the seeds. Among all of our variegated 
plants, there are few if any others that pre¬ 
sent so brilliant a combination of color as the 
improved Coleus—and seedling plants vary 
indefinitely and will, we feet confident, reward 
the cultivator richly. 
The leaf illustrations Figs. 320, 330, are from 
seedling plants raised at the Rural Grounds. 
It was intended to have many of them drawn 
and engraved, so strikingly and dissimilarly 
benutiful were many of the plants. But we 
found that without colors it was impossible to 
convey any idea of their distinctive beauty 
and that the two leaves presented would 
THE CORN-ROOT DIABROTICA 
PROF. C. V. RILEY 
Com has of late years very seriously suffered 
in the Mississippi Valley from the attacks of 
the elongate larva of Diabrotiea longicomis, 
Say. Prof. Forbes, the State Entomologist of 
Illinois, has given it very careful study dur- 
ng the past year, and has published in the 
Prairie Farmer for December 30, 1S.S2, a 
lengthy account with figures of the species in 
all stages. He has also given the salient facts 
in a special circular. Prof. Forbes states, that 
“until a few weeks ago it was known only as 
a common and insignificant insect, feeding as 
a beetle on the pollen of some of the most 
abundant weeds.” The injurious increase of 
this beetle has not been so sudden as the above 
language would lead one to suppose. In the 
American Entomologist, vol. III., p. 247, was 
recorded the fact, that we were aware of its 
injuries already in 1874, and that the beetle 
was first bred by us in 1878 , when we received 
accounts of its serious injury to the roots of 
com from Mr. G. Pauls, of Eureka. Mo. As 
Prof. Forbes well shows, The chief injury is 
done by the larva, and the amount of damage 
may, under circumstances favorable to the 
insect, reach one-half or even three-fourths of 
the crop, and, as one might expect, compara¬ 
tively little injury is done except in fields that 
have been in com the year or two preceding. 
No parasite, and indeed no enemy whatever of 
the species bos hitherto been found; nor does 
it seem to be attacked by birds. Prof. Forbes 
suggests the same remedy which we have 
recommended, viz., rotation of crops, and 
gives little hope from the insect's life-history of 
any other feasible mode of attacking it. We 
have suggested,in addition to rotation of crops, 
the destruction of the ragweed lArtemesia 
Canadensisi upon which the beetles love to 
congregate, and the application of lime and 
ashes around the young coni to ward them off. 
This is known to be effectual with its notorious 
congener, the Striped Cucumber-beetle (Dia- 
brotica vittata. Fabr.) which has similar lar¬ 
val habits. Prof. Forbes states, that longicor- 
nis hibernates in the egg as a rale. This fact, 
if fully established by observation, is excep¬ 
tional, and we opine that investigation will 
show that, the normal mode of hibernating is 
in the beetle state. 
A Coleus Plant.— Fill 328. 
Tenn., 1882 , Pages, 16 S. The object of this 
volume is to furnish in a condensed form such 
information as will enable the reader to form 
a just conception of the present condition of 
the State of Tenuessec and of its capabilities 
for future development. 
Proceedings of the first, second and third 
meetings of the Society for the Promotion of 
Agricultural Science. Edited by W. J. Beal, 
of Lansing. Mich., and L. B. Arnold, of 
Rochester, N. Y. A work of 135 pages com¬ 
prising papera read and addresses delivered 
at the several meetings. 
Chart of the Area Devoted in 18S0 
to the cultivation of Flax in the Flax- 
producing countries of the world, with the 
approximate quantity of Flax fiber produced, 
in tons of 2,240 pounds. Published by Hiram 
Sibley A" Co,, Rochester. New York. 
Tub Citizens Law and Order League of 
the United States. Proceedings of the Na¬ 
tional Convention, Constitution, By-Laws, 
\ddrcsses, Officers, Committees, Etc. Pages, 
81. J. C. Shaffer, Secretary, 126 Washington 
Street, Chicago, Ill. 
Experiments in Amber Cane and the En¬ 
silage of Fodders at t he Experiment Farm of 
the University of Wisconsin, Madison. A 
valuable work of 100 pages by Professor We 
A. Henry. 
Quarterly Report of the Kansas State 
Leaf From a Seedling Coleus.—From 
Nature.—Fig. 330. 
serve as well as a greater number. The 
Coleus, when used as a bedding plant, seeds in 
the Fall. Let our readers—our respected lady 
readers particularly—gather and sow them as 
we have stated for next Winter's window 
decoration. 
Cntomoloakiil 
THE INSECT ENEMIES OF THE 
CUCURBIT.®. 
HUGH L. WYSOR. 
If an experience of 20 years, in great part 
successful, in growing melons, cucumbers and 
pumpkins, ought to entitle one to speak as 
having authority in regard to them, l might 
lay claim to that privilege. Their culture is 
simple enough, and it is for this reason, I pre¬ 
sume. that the agricultural press has given 
them very little attention; but their numerous 
and increasing enemies are yearly render¬ 
ing it more difficult to grow them. They should 
occasionally, therefore, have some share of the 
space devoted to other subjects. I say noth¬ 
ing here about varieties or methods of plant¬ 
ing and cultivation, for this article is written 
too late in the season to offer any information 
on these heads, I will only say that 1 use 
much more seed and plant much closer now 
than formerly. The man who gets his melon 
and cucumber plants above ground without 
having had at. loust one-third of them up¬ 
rooted and destroyed by the moles and ground- 
mice may consider himself fortunate; for it 
is in the loose soil in which the cucurbit® are 
usually planted that, those animals delight to 
revel. The plants rarely reach the surface 
before they arc pounced upon by the striped 
cucumber beetle with which everybody is 
familiar. With the arrival of this beetle 
there comes also his companion, the 1 “-spotted 
Diabrotiea. As many mistake this last for the 
Lady-bird, I give its description, remarking 
that there is only one of the Lady-bird family 
which feeds on vegetables, and that I shuil 
notice presently. The 12-spotted Diabrotiea 
s more elongated than the Lady-bird, is green¬ 
ish in color, ami has 12 black spots arranged 
in parallel rows down the wing covers. It is 
never found in as great numbers as the striped 
This creature works iu utter darkness for 
nearly three years, cutting through the wood 
of the base of a trunk of quince or apple tree, 
often w itbout being at all noticed or suspected 
until the tree top shows manifest signs of 
its suffering, when it is too late for any 
rernedy. The destruction of trees in town 
gardens equally with country orchards, and 
all over the country, Is immense. Nursery¬ 
men are kept full of work, between the care 
of their young trees against these iusidious in¬ 
sects on the one hand, and the supplying of 
places of trees lost by customers on the other. 
James W. Robinson, an ex-president, of the 
Illinois State Horticultural Society, says that 
the slits in the bark made by the beetle 
(June to August) to receive its eggs, look 
much as if made by the point of a penknife, 
pushed in obliquely. Sometimes the eggs are 
put in so shallow as to lie visible. On thin- 
barked trees they are placed so deep as to be 
close to the wood. They hatch in a few days 
and then the slit opens slightly, and is seen 
more readily. A firm pressure with a knife 
blade will break the eggs; they eiui be heard 
to ernek quite distinctly. If hatched, a shal¬ 
low paring with the knife exposes the young 
worms. They don't go into the wood much 
the first year, merely cutting a circular piece 
in the cambium, about the size of a five-eent 
piece. A brownish oozing can be seen then, 
exuding from the original puncture, and dry¬ 
ing into a small but quite obvious spot upon 
the bark. This indication should be closely 
looked for toward the end of Summer—a 
sharp ami pointed knife in hand. The remedy 
advised by Mr. R. is to make the ground 
quite clean uud smoothly patted down round 
U'.piiacnnu ooreans), tue grower may expect 
some fruit, if some day he does not find them 
wilting and withering from the deadly wound 
made by the vine-borer. This is an insect 
about which I regret to say I know nothing, 
although 1 have for years been familiar with 
its operations, nor have I seen any satisfactory 
account of it in the books or the press. I only 
know that if the roots of wilted vines be ex¬ 
amined near the ground, they will frequently 
be found to have rotted, and iu the center, one 
or more maggots or small worms which have 
bored their way in and destroyed the pith of 
the vine. What. moth or insect it is which 
lays the eggs from which these worms are 
hatched, I do not know. Can the Rural give 
give auy information i 
[Isn’t it the Squash-vine Borer—--Egeria cu- 
eurbitad This is the larva of a moth about half 
an i ueli long, with an orange-colored or tawny 
body, black fore-wings, transparent, hind- 
wings. and hind legs fringed with long orange 
and black hairs. The female. deposits her 
eggs on the vine near the roots from June to 
August. The larva penetrates the vine and 
devours the interior, and the viue dies. If the 
exterior of the vine he closely examined 
near the roots, the wound caused by the 
entrance of the young borer may often be 
seen. The full-grown larva enters the ground, 
forms a rude cocoon by gluing particles of 
earth together, within which it transforms to 
a shiny brown chrysalis and thus remains until 
Leaf From Seedling Coleus.—From Na¬ 
ture.—Fig. 32!). 
Board of Agriculture; ending March 31st. 
Pages, 74. William Sims, Secretary, Tope- 
ka, Kansas. 
Industrial Art iu Schools, by Chius. G. 
Leland, of Philadelphia, Pa. Government 
Printing Office, Washington, D. C. Pages, 87. 
T. Walter & Sons, West Chester, Pa. 
Catalogue of H. B. Jersey, Guernsey, Short¬ 
horn and thoroughbred cattle. 
Glass Manufactures of Eurofe. Pages, 
fi«. Published by Department of State. Wash¬ 
ington, D. C. 
A Corn Challenge. 
Some time since I saw a statement made iu 
n the Rural of corn that when shelled yield¬ 
ed 56 pounds of grain to nine pounds of cob. 
Thinking I could beat that, I weighed 70 
