4885 
87 
THE BUBAL WEW-YOBKEB. 
It is a question of no small interest to us, 
whether these raiders upon our orchards are 
descendants from species imported from the 
East, which long since dropped their plebeian 
tastes and adopted a more reGued table re¬ 
gimen, or whether our natives here in the 
West have made a leap forward iu civiliza¬ 
tion, as showu in their improved dietary. If 
we suppose these new enemies are Eastern 
immigrants, we must suppose that in their 
migration West in previous years, they jump¬ 
ed Michigan, as they were quite destructive 
in Wisconsin last year—which seems not at 
all probable. Again, were these immi¬ 
grants, they would not have come in upon us 
so generally all at once. I have heard of 
them in at least six counties in the State. 
Here, then, we have a case where uatives 
have made progress, and without, as I think, 
any leaven of civilization to give the impetus. 
Tne past year seems to have been a marked 
one iu this change of food rations among our 
Michigan insects. The Black Army-worm. 
(Agrotis feunica) a new wheat caterpillar, 
which feeds on the berry, a uew wheat joint 
worm, a species of Tsosoma, and the wheat 
cutworm (Laphygama frugiperda) have all 
attracted atteutiou. for the first time, during 
the past season; and all are authors of 
alarmiug mischief. This is surely, then, a 
good time for the apple enemy to make his 
first onslaught.; for in the general and wide¬ 
spread destruction it might hope to escape 
notice. 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
The small two-winged fly (greatly magnified 
at Fig. 50) is smaller than our common house 
fly, being about one fourth of an inch long; 
but in form it is much like it. The general 
color of the fly is black with white markings. 
The head and feet are red. The wiugs are 
‘•whitish glossy" crossed with dusky bands. 
These flies come from the ground iu July, and 
seek a nidus for their eggs on the apple. 
Several eggs are often laid on a single fruit. 
The lurvu.* or maggots (magnified at Fig. 57) 
are white, sometimes with a greenish tinge, 
and about one-fifth of an inch long The 
anal end is truncated, while the month end 
tapers. The bead is quite pointed. At the 
mouth end are two conspicuous black hooks, 
which remind one of the similar grating ap¬ 
paratus of the anthomyiau maggots, the rad¬ 
ish maggot, the cabbage maggot, etc. These 
are attached to au interior frame-work and 
can be easily seen without the magnifier as 
they are protruded or retracted by the mag¬ 
got. With these the pests 
gouge out their tunnels in the 
pulp of the apple. On each 
side, within the maggot, is a 
trachea, or air-tube. These 
are connected near the ex¬ 
tremities of the insect with a 
cross air-tube, and terminate 
in spiracles, which are very 
complex in structure aud visi¬ 
ble, as slight tubercles, to the 
unaided vision. 
The maggots are found in 
the ripe fruit iu September. 
I have fouud 12 in a single 
apple. Their filthy tunnels 
extend everywhere through 
the fruit, anil the sleek mag¬ 
gots are fouud anywhere in 
the tunnels. They ure fouud 
iu the apples till early October, 
when they go to the earth to pupate. I find 
the pupa (magnified at Fig. 58) in my breed¬ 
ing jar a littlu beneath the surf ace— about one 
inch. This is a coarctate pupa, the real pupa 
being encased in the last larval skin. Except 
in color (which is yellowish-brown) aud its 
shorter length, the pupa looks much like the 
larvu. The pupa will be fouud iu the ground 
in early October, and reuuUus in this quie¬ 
scent. stage till the next July, when the fly 
comes forth and the round of life is complete. 
A most admirable Illustrated article ou this 
insect, by Prof. J. H. Comstock, will be found 
in the Report* of the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture for 1881- 
1882, from which our figures 
are taken. 
The old apple worm is easily 
told from the apple maggot; 
it is longer, has sixteen legs, is 
nearly cylindrical, has a well- 
marked brown head, exists 
singly iu the fruit, feeding en¬ 
tirely about the core, may be 
found in the fruit any time 
from June till mid winter, and 
feeds alike on Bummer, Au¬ 
tumn aud Winter fruit. It 
pupates in some concealed place, iu a sil¬ 
ken eoeoou. The apple maggot is short, 
footless, pointed at the head, feeds iu a single 
apple sometimes.to the number of a dozen, 
eats through and through the fruit, is only 
found iu the apples in early Fall, aud as it 
prefers soft, mellow fruit, is much more de¬ 
structive to Fall apples, like Fall Pippin, Snow 
Fig. 57. 
Apple, etc. I have found a few in win¬ 
ter fruit, but nearly all in mellow falj 
apples. It is a more serious pest, when it 
attacks an apple, than the old apple worm, 
as it utterly ruins the fruit, but from the fact 
that it only attacks fall fruit, it is, ou the 
whole, far less to be dreaded than the codling 
moth larvee. 
REMEDY. 
The remedy which I have demostrated to 
be the most practicable for warding off the 
old apple worm, I think would be utterly 
worthless in this case. I think this apple 
maggot does not eat in the usual sense of that 
term. It rasps the pulp, I think, and then 
absorbs tbo juice, so it would not take any of 
the invaluble London-purple or Paris-green, 
even if these were thrown over the fruit. 
i'he second-best remedy against the codling 
moth larvae—sheep or hogs in the orchard — 
however, becomes a very perfect one against 
the apple maggot. The affected apples are 
almost sure to ripen prematurely and fall tc 
the earth. These would be immediately eaten 
by the ever-watchful aud expectant swine, 
and so the maggots would not go into the 
earth, but would go into pork. Wherever 
this maggot gains a foot-hold it will become 
absolutely necessary to keep hogs in the or¬ 
chard. I can but think that such a practice, if 
generally adopted, will go far to keep this 
pest from doing any serious damage. 
Agr. Coll . Lansing, Mich. 
farm Cccmonuj. 
A CONVENIENT LOO SLED. 
There is no handier convevance for farm 
use tbau some sort of a low sled with wide 
runners, on which farm implements, large 
stones and other heavy or cumbrous things 
can be easily loaded aud hauled from place to 
place. We show, at Fig 55, what is usually 
called a log boat, and it will be found to be con¬ 
described for the purpose of bringing before 
the readers of the Rural New-Yorker vari¬ 
ous kinds of sap spouts, any one of which 
may be freely made without infringing ex¬ 
isting patents or rendering the maKers or 
users liable to annoyance from the ubiquitous 
patentee with bis State and Territorial rights. 
The two or three exceptions, where the pat¬ 
ents described have not quite expired, are 
mentioned in their proper places, but even 
these will expire about the time of sap-gath¬ 
ering. Most of these sap spouts were made 
at the center of the maple sugar activity in 
Vermont by Vermont men. They certainly 
ought to have some knowledge of the service. 
It will be understood that the terms of protec¬ 
tion under which these patents were granted 
having expired, or being about to do so, the 
patents become public property under the 
law, and, as such, may be used by any one so 
disposed without let or hindrance. 
In 1865 Archibald Leitch, of Ryegate, Vt., 
devised a sap-spout for maple trees, the patent 
for which expired in 1882. Mr. Leitch con¬ 
structed bis sap-spout from both metal and 
wood, whereby be secured, as he states, the 
advantages of both these materials without 
causing injury to the tree® by bringing metal¬ 
lic surfaces in contact therewith. We give an 
illustration of the Leitch sap spout at Fig. 49, 
(p. 89.) showing its construction and the man¬ 
ner in which it is inserted The spout consists 
of a tube of wood lined within with a metal 
tube, preferably made of tin. That part of 
the spout which enters the tree is of less diam¬ 
eter than the opposite end, both the wooden 
and the tin tube being gradually enlarged in 
diameter toward the discharging end of the 
spout. Mr. Leitch states that when metallic 
spouts are used to tap maple trees, the latter 
become apparently iujured and poisoned 
thereby, and the wounds made in tapping 
them are longer in healing than wbeu wooden 
spouts are used. It is also asserted by the in¬ 
ventor that in his device the advantages of 
the wooden spout are preserved, an 1 yet he is 
Fig. 59. 
venience itself, and will be almost in daily use 
both iu Summer and Winter. The ruuners 
are of Hard Maple, Rock Elm or any other 
tough, hard wood. They are 2x8 inches, and 
the front end is sawed with a rise of four 
inches, like the plank of a stone boat. They 
shculd be ten feet long. On these runners is 
placed a scantling 4x4 inches, with the front 
end sawed slanting so as to fit nicely on top of 
the runners. The wedged shaped piece sawed 
Fig. 55. 
off should be reversed, aud placed by the side 
of the long scantling so as to make the front 
end of the boat solid; it is shown iu position 
in the cut. The nose or front piece is an oak 
plank 2x10 inches, aud has a pole attached 
with clevises, as shown, which, while holding 
the boat from running upon the team on a 
snow path, will permit it to be turned 
about very' easily. The beams are4x6 inches; 
of oak or elm, while the raves are 1x8 inch 
elm and are bolted through the beams to the 
runners by bolts with large,lint heads inch 
and nine inches long, the heads being sunken 
into the runners one-and-one-half inch. 
The stake holes go through raves aud beams 
outside the scantling, and are strengthened 
and prevented from splitting by nailing au 
old horse shoe around them on top of the rave. 
Such a boat is easily made and is worth its 
cost every month on almost any farm. 
EXPIRING MAPLE-SAP SPOUT 
PATENTS. 
F. B. BROCK. 
The following designs, made by practical 
maple-sap gatherers, are here illustrated and 
enabled to use a metallic conducting tube 
which does not come in contact with the tree 
at all. 
The end of the spout which enters the tree 
is concave, or made after the manner of a 
countersink, and fits tightly in the hole tapped 
in the tree. By enlarging the diameter of 
the spout towards its discharge end, a readier 
flow or sap through it is secured; and another 
udvantage claimed for it by Mr. bitch is, that 
when the sap has been frozen iu the spout, it 
will slip out readily as soon as it has been 
thawed a little. 
Another Vermout inventor, Mr. James 
Bullock, of lteedsborough, constructed a sim¬ 
ple sap bucket book which he patented in 
1806, the patent expiring in 1883. This rnaple- 
sap-buckot hook is made of wire about one- 
oigbth of an inch iu diameter and two feet 
long. Each end of the wire at the rear of the 
hook, is sharpened to a point and bent around 
at right angles in the form of a brad. The 
hook is made by doubling the wire upon it¬ 
self, as showu in the illustration, Fig. 50, so 
as to form a double twisted wire about two- 
and one-half inches long. The extremity of 
this double twisted wire is bent into a hook 
to receive aud hold the sap bucket. 
The general arrangement of the holding de¬ 
vice is circular in form, and the ends of it are 
sprung around the tree to which it is applied. 
The greater the weight of the sap-bucket the 
more secure is the hold of the device upon the 
tree, the weight of the bucket effectually keep¬ 
ing the brads in close contact with the tree on 
the opposite side from the sap spout. 
Mr. Chas. C. Post, of Burlington, Vt., ac¬ 
tively engaged in the maple sugar interest, is 
the owner of Mr. J. B. Sargent’s patent for a 
sap spout, the period of protection of which 
will expire April 7tb. This sap spout consists 
of a metallic tube provided with a hollow 
shank having a screw formed upon its end for 
the purpose of screwing into the tree. The 
exterior space between the screw and the base 
or flange on the spout, foims, when screwed 
into the tree, a chamber permitting the sap 
to flow around between tbe small neck of the 
spout and tbe adjacent space in the tree, and 
enter the sap spout through an opening there¬ 
in : a packing is provided to prevent the escape 
of tbe sap outside of the spout, aud the spout 
has a hook on which to hang the bucket to re¬ 
ceive tbe sap. 
We give an illustration at Fig. 51 of the 
Fig. 51. 
Sargent sap spout. It will be seen that the 
screw thread is of less diameter than the base 
or collar of the spout, and the shank between 
the two is reduced, as shown, and an opening 
made in its top so as to form the hollow tube. 
Tbe collar, or flange, on the base of the spout, 
is made of an elastic material to form the 
packiug. The shank is screwed into the hole 
in the tree until the packingat the base of the 
tube is borne hard against it, so as to pack 
closely the joint between the tree and the 
base. Grooves may be formed in the thread, 
as shown in tbe figure, through which the sap 
will pass to the opening made iu the shank. 
Mr. Charles C. Post also became the owner 
of the patented sap spout designed by Geo. 
L. Cady, of Lowell, Mass. In order to make 
it clear to readers of the Rural an illustra¬ 
tion of the Cady sap spout is shown at Fig. 
52. It will be observed that the spout is 
Fig. 52. 
semi-circular in form and tapering. The inner 
end is designed to enter the tree, and turns up¬ 
ward, terminating in a spur or sharp edge. 
This inner inclined end is concave in shape, 
and at its bottom au opening is made into the 
spout, through which the sap has a free pass¬ 
age. 
Iu operation the inner part of the spout is 
inserted into the hole in the tree (Fig 53.), the 
Fig. 58. 
outer end of the spout being first inclined up¬ 
ward and then pressed downward, which 
operates to force the spur, or knife edge, into 
the upper portion of the hole, so that only 
those fibers of the tree which come into im¬ 
mediate contact with the spur, are in the least 
mutilated or contracted. Cady states that 
this obviates the liability to wedge up or 
