4887 
ble that, after one of them has been handled, 
the bees from it will follow the bee-keeper 
about and “pester” him for a long time after 
the hive is closed. The remedy is to kill the 
queen and replace her with one of a more 
peaceable strain. 
Genesee Co., Mich. 
A BATCH OF FRUIT AND FLOWER 
DESPOILERS. 
W. L. DEVEREAU X. 
The imported Gall or Pear Midge; the Apple 
Midge; the Apple Maggot; birds and other 
fruit pests. 
A new and very alarming peat attacking the 
pear has, so far as known, been confined to a 
few fruit farms near Meriden, Conn. It was 
first noticed by Coe Bros., in 1879. In 1881 
they corresponded with the U. S. Agricultural 
Department, and again in ’84, as the pests be¬ 
came more numerous, doing more damage 
each year. Prof. Riley then determined it to 
be the young of some midge. By the ’84 and 
’85 Report of the Department of Agriculture it 
is seen that Special Agent J. B. Smith was 
sent to obtain information about the habits of 
the insect and the injuries it had done, and 
procure larva. 1 to rear, so as to be able to de- 
termiue the species. Prof. Riley pretty clear¬ 
ly shows it to be the Gall or Pear-midge (Dip- 
losis nigra) known to have been injuring the 
pear in Europe for more than 50 years. That 
it was introduced from there to the Coe fruit 
farm seems very probable, since its first ap¬ 
pearance was in small numliers, and one or 
two years after a large quantity of pear stocks 
had been imported from France. (Wee Figs. 
198-200. Fig. 199, a, shows an adult female, 
Fig. 198. 
6, is the genitalia of male from side, which is 
shown greatly enlarged at Fig. 200. Fig. 199, 
c, is the pupa from the side, much enlarged. 
Fig. 198, a and b, show larva? from the above 
Fig. 201. 
and from the side; d is last joint of a larva 
from above, c head of larva, e “breast bone” 
of larva.) The eggs are laid even before the 
period of expansion of the flower. The fly 
pierces the flower bud with its ovipositor, and 
deposits upon the anthers from six to 20 eggs. 
1 he larva? on hatching out enter the young 
pear almost before it is set, and channel 
through the pulp and core, until they are 
full-grown and then emerge from the cracks 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
337 
and decayed spots they have caused and drop 
to the ground, choosing a rainy day for this, 
exactly as the wheat midge does. This mag¬ 
got, or larva, is quite like the “weevil” or 
wheat midge worm in color, shape and size, 
and belongs to the same genus. The Law¬ 
rence Pear suffered most; but nearly the 
whole crop of all kinds—on many hundred 
trees in the bearing year of ’S3—was destroyed. 
Since then fruit showing signs of being 
wormy are stripped off, burned or fed to 
swine. By this course the loss was reduced to 
nearly 15 per cent, in ’85. Coo Bros, wrote 
me Dec. 8, ’80; “The midge does us no damage 
further than the cost of picking off all infest¬ 
ed pears every spring. If this were not done 
enough would breed to destroy the next crop 
one thousaud times over.” Infested pears are 
easily discerned, because blemished by convex 
protuberances—galls—or else the whole pear 
is made abnormally round. Very few blem¬ 
ished ones remain till picking and packing 
time. They slowly turn black and rot off. 
Coe Bros, tell me that the midge is not easily 
found six miles away, but three miles from 
their fruit farm it now abounds. It is not 
spreading rapidly, yet enough so to arouse 
serious apprehensions. 
The Apple Midge is quite different and is 
found only in ripened apples, and those pre¬ 
viously injured. 
The Apple Maggot (Trypeta pomonelia). 
Fig. 201, in some places called “Railroad-worm” 
is a serious pest, and causes a great deal of 
damage in Now England, and it is present in 
every State. Reports of the damage done by 
it are more numerous every year, especially 
from the West and South. An American in¬ 
sect, it has gradually transferred its choice 
from the wild haw and crab to all kinds of 
summer and fall apples, and winter apples 
have very often suffered from late broods of 
the fly, as 1 have frequently observed with the 
Spitzenberg and Baldwin. The fly, though 
having spotted wings, very much resembles 
a small house fly. 
Egg-laying on the apples is already begun 
by the first of August, and only the fruit 
which is approaching maturity is selected. 
Hence this insect gives no sign of its presence, 
nor does it cause a blemish, as the apple is 
nearly done growing and the worms burrow 
in the pulp without touching the core. Injury 
to large, fine apples is not noticed until they 
are cut open; then the pulp is seen to be com¬ 
pletely channeled in all directions. The 
worms are white, footless and, at the largest, 
one-fourth of an inch long. They arc distin¬ 
guished from all other kinds of larvae found in 
apples by being, in shape, squarely cut off be¬ 
hind and tapering gradually to a very pointed 
head, armed with two minute, black raspers 
or hooked jaws. Matured fruit can no more 
be distorted, but it is subject to numerous 
little blemishing attacks while yet on the tree. 
More kinds of insects,and more fungi await the 
chance to sip and sap it now than at any pre¬ 
vious stage of its growth. Nearly all these 
pests need a cleft iu the peel, a weakening 
blemish, or a ruptured stoma, to get a foot¬ 
hold. 
Some birds occasionally tear open the peel, 
and thus give access to other nuisances. The 
yellow-hammer does this, and even the hum¬ 
ming-bird cuts into the pulp of ripe sweet 
apples. A few species of insects, however, 
when abundant, excavate ripeniug pears and 
apples much more than all kiuds of birds 
together. These are wasps and hornets of 
the genus Vespa—bees never break open the 
peel—and beetles of the genus Euphoria. 
They are of the May-beetle family; two of 
them,K. Inda. and E. melancholies, are about 
half an inch long and almost as broad, of a 
yellow-brown, speckled with black, and 
clothed on the underside with short flue hairs. 
Another. E. fulgida, is of a beautiful polished 
green, and in shape and size like the first. 
After these break into the fruit, many others, 
as the Rose-beetles nitiduhe, and glow-worm 
beetles, bees, ants and flies, stop in and con¬ 
tinue to consume it to the last fragment, if 
not gathered from them. 
Poraologists have often advised the method 
of picking fruit before it becomes fully col¬ 
ored, and before it at all approaches mellow¬ 
ness. By this plan the keeping qualities of 
the fruit are enhanced and it is rescued from 
scores of destroyers. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
[Every query must be accompanied by the name 
and address of the writer to Insure attention. Before 
asking a question, please see If it Is not answered in 
our advertising columns. Ask only a few questions at 
one time. Put questions on aseparateple.ee of paper.] 
LOSSES OF CATLLE FROM FEEDING ON DRY 
CORN STALKS. 
./. B., Dunlap, la. —A fine young bull that 
was confined all winter iu the yard where was 
a tank, and fed clean oat straw and corn, was 
taken with an apparent chill, commenced to 
snuff the ground and bellow. Staggering 
backward he became crazy and apparently 
blind and in less than an hour died, bellowing 
to within ten minutes of its last breath. On 
cutting him open the manifold was found a 
solid lump, but contained nothing not ground 
fine. In tbe paunch was found nothing un¬ 
usual save a piece of old rope of three un¬ 
twisted strands about ten inches long What 
ailed the beast and did the rope have any 
agency in the difficulty? Probably 300 cattle 
were lost while browsing in stalk fields last 
winter in this county. I personally know one 
party who lost 26 three-year-old steers within 
10 days. 
Ans. —There can be no question of the cause 
of the death of this young bull or i# regard to 
the loss of cattle feeding in the stalk fields. In¬ 
digestion surely follows the consumption of 
dry, innutritious food, and the withered, 
weather-beaten stalks of the corn and straw 
are indigestible. Indigestion produces impac¬ 
tion of the maniplies or third stomach. The 
office of this organ is to triturate 
the food and prepare it finally for 
the true digestive stomach—the fourth. The 
inflammatory condition of the stomachs pro¬ 
duced by the presence of hard, crude, dry, 
woody matter, which is not properly acted 
upon by the salivary and other primary di¬ 
gestive fluids, causes this matter, which is not 
food, to pack between the leaves of the mani¬ 
plies and thus stops the fundamental vital pro¬ 
cess Intense local inflammation and gastric 
fever produce the chill, which is tbe precursor 
of almost certain death in this disorder; the cir¬ 
culation is disturbed, the brain is paralyzed, 
blindness and frenzy (blind staggers as it is 
commonly called) result, and the animal soon 
dies. This “costly-cheap” manner of feeding 
cattle should be abandoned. The fodder should 
be gathered as it is in the.South, the small tops 
cut off' and bundled and stacked as they arc 
properly cured and the blades stripped and 
bunched and cured. The nutritive qualities 
of the fodder are then preserved. It may cost 
a trifle more to do this than to leave them iu 
the fields to wither and dry and become mere 
wood, but the cost will be much less to gather 
the fodder upon 200 acres than to lose 26 three- 
year-old cattle in 10 days. The strands of 
rope swallowed by this bull were scarcely more 
indigestible than dry straw fed alone. Had 
the corn been ground and mixed with the 
straw, cut and wetted (and this would be less 
costly than to lose the cattle) the animal would 
have thri veu and the stock thus fed may be kept 
growing all winter. The time has come when 
semi-barbarous, uncivilized, nomadic habits of 
keeping stock—which were practiced in the 
days of Abraham—should be abandoned, and 
a real business-like system adopted. 
RINGBONE: AN AILING FILLY, 
.4. L. if., Horse Shoe Bend, Idaho .—1. 
What will cure a three-year-old ringbone on a 
five-years-old horse? A man says he poured 
boiling-hot currier’s oil on a horst’s leg to cure 
ringbone, and that it removed the lameness 
but not the blemish. It didn't take the hoof off, 
or even the bair: nor did it even raise a blister. 
What does the Rcral think of the treatment? 
2. A filly of mine rau out during the winter 
with the other young horses. For three 
mouths she has been sick. She grew poor and 
showed a depraved appetite by eating rotten 
straw and even manure. She was very thirsty 
all the time. She staled profusely sometimes, 
and at others her urine was scanty aud high- 
colored. About three months ago, she fell on 
the ice and hurt her hind parts so that she 
couldn't get up. W hen hrought in she lay for 
a couple of weeks on her side, being turned 
occasionally. During this rime she suffered 
from suppression of urine. Then running 
sores broke out ou the head, under the fore¬ 
legs, on the hips, and other parts. The hair 
over the sores become matted and fell off 
All the sores are healed now except two. She 
eats well, but her food seems to do her no good. 
What should be done for her ? 
ANSWERED BY F. L. KILBORNE. 
1. Firing will probably- be the most effectual 
THE mm EDIT 
FOR 
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graceful — conBist- 
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Blouse, Skirt and 
Sash, is knitted 
of the finest 
TUX 
T 
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Bfr-raa 
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From its texture 
it is especially 
adapted for L wn 
Tennis, Yachting, 
Rowing, Gym¬ 
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E 
D 
O 
MISSES. 
worsted materials 
in patterns to 
match through¬ 
out. It is made 
in a varied assort¬ 
ment of colors 
and in sizes for 12 
years and up¬ 
wards. 
EDO 
From its texture 
it is (especially 
adapted for Moun¬ 
tain and Seashore 
Wear, and all 
Athletic and Out¬ 
door Sports. 
Descriptive Circular sent ou application. 
FOR SALE ONLY BY 
JAMES McCHEERI S CO, 
Broadway and llth St., 
NEW YORK. 
treatment. It is best fired in points, and deep¬ 
est where the swelling is the greatest. If una¬ 
ble to have it fired by a competent practitioner 
try repeated severe blistering. The blister 
should be applied to the front and sides of the 
limb, but not to tbe back. Do not apply a 
second blister until the effects of the preced¬ 
ing one have nearly or quite passed off. A 
blister applied to a surface already blistered 
is almost sure to produce au unsightly blem¬ 
ish. Rest during treatment will be essential. 
This ringbone may be too old to be entirely 
removed, but the lameness can probably be 
cured, although more or less stiffness is liable 
to remain. We have heard of the use of boil¬ 
ing oil, but would certainly not recommend 
any such treatment. If only a small quantity 
were poured upon the limb the hair would 
protect the skin so that but little effect would 
be produced. On the other hand, it might be 
applied so as to burn severely. 2. Carefully 
wash out the sores with a solution of sulphate 
of zinc and copper (one dram in a quart of 
water) and then apply daily a dressing of car- 
bolated vaseline. For the general system, 
give the following powders: one ounce each 
of powdered gentian, Epsom salts, and sweet 
spirits of niter, twice daily; on alternate 
weeks replace this by two dratus each of sul¬ 
phate of iron, aloes and niter. Omit the above 
if the bowels become too loose. The diet 
should be laxative and easily digestible. If 
convenient, turn to pasture daring the day, 
but give grain night and morning in stable. 
TANNERY OFFAL FOR FERTILIZING PURPOSES. 
A. F. B., Clearfield, Pa .—In this county 
there are a great many tanneries. The offal 
from them for fertilizing purposes, in bulk, 
would consist of 30 per cent, of lime, fleshings 
aud hair, and 70 per cent, of ashes from the 
burnt tan-bark. Some of our farmers make 
piles of this material, by mixing the ashes, 
lime, hair and fleshings and letting them re¬ 
main so from one to six months before using. 
Does such mixing destroy any of the fertiliz¬ 
ing qualities? If so, what, and how can it be 
prevented ? 
ANSWERED BY PROF. G. 0. CALDWELL. 
So far as this tannery offal consists of flesh¬ 
ings ami'hair it ii rich in nitrogenous matter, 
but in a very insoluble form: only a thor¬ 
ough rotting in a fermenting compost pile 
will “solubilize” it, and so bring it within 
reach of the plant. Ammonia, of which a 
little over S3 per cent, is nitrogen, is one of 
tho products of this rotting, and so far as it is 
formed,it is a most valuable product,but there 
may be much or little of it according to cir¬ 
cumstances. The nitrogen is the only valua¬ 
ble constituent of this mixture of animal mat¬ 
ters, lime and ashes, that is liable to be lost, 
provided that the pile is not iu any danger of 
being leached out by the soaking of much wa- 
