1903 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
547 
THREE FARMERS SOLVE THE HELP 
PROBLEM. 
These three men were vexed almost to despair with 
trying to find help in busy seasons, till stern necessity 
forced them to solve the problem, and now they are 
wondering why they did not think of the present plan 
years before they accidentally stumbled upon it. 
Their farms contain respectively 45, 55 and 80 acres, 
and are devoted to mixed crops. Pour would probably 
be a better combination than three, but the=e men 
managed to do a great deal of work without outside 
assistance by simply combining forces whenever one 
needs the other. In this way, machinery, money, 
horses and hired help are saved in a way unknown 
in the old days, when each farmer vainly hunted for 
help or paid double wages in order to save his crops. 
The farms are within two miles of a thriving town, 
where factories lure the young men from their rural 
homes, and where help is much more difficult to get 
than farther out. Two of the men are Civil War vet¬ 
erans and the third an active young Irishman. It 
would seem that the young man got the worst of the 
bargain, working with two old men, but as his farm is 
the largest, everything is about equal. Then, too, the 
extra work is carefully paid for, so that each man 
feels satisfied with the arrangement. For example; 
in the Winter the young man does the butchering for 
(he other two families, as he once owned a meat shop, 
and is always paid in money for this task. One of the 
men is something of a carpenter, and does odd jobs 
about the places and keeps the machinery in good re¬ 
pair, while the third, who was raised in the city and 
only took up farming after he was middle-aged, has 
an abundance of fruit, with which he sometimes pays 
his butchering and carpentering debts. The city man 
has the smallest farm, and as it is mostly devoted to 
fruit and poultry, he has less work than the others, 
but he is also the least fitted to do farm work. The 
ripest grain is always cared for first, and no one has 
ever complained that his crop suffered. There is no 
haste and no waste, and the time once spent hunting 
help is devoted now to caring for the hay, wheat and 
corn in their seasons. 
Perhaps the most satisfied persons with this plan 
are the women folks of the three families, who say 
they never want to see another hired man as long as 
(hey live. They have only their own people to cook 
Jor, and the two other men for dinner and supper a 
few days during each busy season, and never a bit of 
washing for strangers. The privilege of being alone 
is worth much to these women, accustomed for years 
to having any and all sorts of men in their homes 
from three to six months of the year. It is quite dif¬ 
ferent cooking for neighbors who are your friends, 
or loafers picked up off the streets, who have to be 
coaxed to work, and that is what it amounts to when 
you live near town. The horses are always well 
treated, as each man works his own team, except dur¬ 
ing harvest, when frequent changes are made on hot 
days, and the men find the work no harder than in 
previous years. They have been doing their work in 
partnership for five years now, and pronounce the 
plan a complete success, because no one ever imposes 
on the other. It would be hard to find men more com¬ 
pletely opposite in dispositions and tastes, but they 
agree about their work, and that is all that is 
necessary. hilda, hichmond. 
Ohio. 
THE ASIATIC LADYBIRD IN AMERICA. 
It is doubtless a matter of interest to fruit growers 
to know of the present status of the Asiatic ladybird 
and its relation to the San Jose scale; therefore I 
had a talk with C. L. Marlatt, of Washington, con¬ 
cerning it, who is the authority on this subject. He 
made the first successful and very recent introduc¬ 
tion of this ladybird from China, where he found it 
devouring the same insect pest that we here call San 
Jos6 scale, and has had charge of the experiments in 
introducing it in America for the same purpose, as 
has before been stated. In the Spring of 1902 there 
were only two of the ladybirds alive that had been 
sent from China the previous Fall, and they both be¬ 
ing fertile females laid eggs which soon hatched into 
a brood of about 200 larvae. At the end of last season 
there were thousands of these insects, as the natural 
increase from this small start, and most of them on 
the grounds of the Department of Agriculture here in 
Washington; although a few had been sent to other 
entomologists for trial. Having been mostly reared 
on trees in cages they v/orc not so abundant and 
vigorous, perhaps, as they might have been in entire 
freedom and where their food, the San Josd scale, 
was very abundant. However, they wintered over 
quite well and have propagated abundantly this Sum- 
Dier. It is known that they have safely endured the 
oubdoor conditions of last Winter in the District of 
polumbitt, Ngvy Jersey and Georgia, and that they 
have devoured San Josd scale by the million. They 
are now in a flourishing condition in several places. 
What may finally be the outcome of their introduc¬ 
tion is only an interesting problem, for the experi¬ 
mental stage of the effort is not yet passed. It may 
be said to be promising of good in our warfare against 
the San Josd sale. 
One discouraging fact has developed in regard to 
this ladybird; that there are some other insects that 
devour its larvm to some extent and some parasitic 
enemies besides. How badly they may affect it is yet 
to be learned. It is not likely that this enemy of the 
San Josd scale will entirely destroy it, but one thing 
is certain, that it has a wonderful appetite and eats 
about all the time. This particular scale insect is its 
natural food and it seems to prefer it to all else. In 
China and Japan it keeps the scale in check, so that 
it is no more serious there than many of our scales 
are here, and the climatic conditions are about like 
ours. It is, therefore, reasonable to expect like re¬ 
sults, unless the ladybird has some other natural ob¬ 
stacles that it cannot overcome. We expect it to do 
good work when it is well scattered where the scale 
exists. H. E. VA.X DEMAN. 
THE VEGETABLE CATERPILLAR OF NEW 
ZEALAND. 
h. T. Chambers, of the Beekeepers’ Supply Co., Mel¬ 
bourne, Australia, forwards us some of the extraordi¬ 
nary “vegetable caterpillars” of New Zealand. Many 
insects, including some grasshoppers and the common 
house fly, are subject to fungus diseases that cause 
death and greatly distort the form, but none takes 
VEGETABLE CATERPILLERS. Reduced FiiOM Natuue. Fig. 20b. 
SO Strange a development as the subject of the illus¬ 
tration, Fig. 205. The following description is from 
“New Zealand After Fifty 'Years,” by Wakefield; 
Any notice, how'ever brief, of the insects of New 
Zealand, would be imperfect without some account of 
the oddest insect in existence. It is not easy to decide 
whether it ought to be described under the fauna or 
the flora of New Zealand, for it is at least as miach 
vegetable as animal, and, indeed, in its final stage, it 
IS a vegetable and nothing else. This is the “aweto” 
or vegetable caterpillar, called by the naturalists 
Hipialis virescens. It is a perfect caterpillar in every 
respect, and a remarkably fine one, too, growing to a 
length, in the largest specimen, of inches and the 
thickness of a finger, but more commonly to about 
half or two-thirds of that size. Until it is full-grown 
it appears to conduct itself very much like any other 
caterpillar, except* that it is never found anywhere 
but in the neighborhood of the “rata” tree, a gigantic 
scarlet flowering myrtle, and that it habitually buries 
itself in the ground a few inches below the surface. 
Then, when full-grown, it undergoes a miraculous 
change. For some inexplicable reason, the spore of 
a vegetable fungus, Sphaeria Robertsii, fixes Itself on 
its neck, or between the head and the first ring of the 
caterpillar, takes root and grows vigorously. The 
plant is exactly like a diminutive bulrush, from six 
to 10 inches high, without leaves and consisting solely 
of a single stem, with a dark-brown felt-like head, so 
familiar in the bulrushes. This stem penetrates the 
earth over the caterpillar and stands up a few inches 
above the ground. The root simultaneous grows into 
the body of the caterpillar, which it exactly fills in 
every part, without altering its form in the slightest 
degree, but simply substituting a vegetable substance 
for an animal substance. As soon as this process is 
complete, both the caterpillar and the fungus die and 
become dry and hard, but without shriveling at all. 
Tffe thing then is a wooden caterpillar, so to speak, 
with a wooden bulrush standing up from its neck. 
Papier machd, perhaps, w'ould better describe it than 
wood. It can be taken out of the ground entire, with¬ 
out any difficulty, and preserved for any length of 
time. Where the “aweto” is found at all—always at 
the foot of the “rata”—it is often found in great num¬ 
bers, so that dozens of specimens may be obtained at 
once. The Maoris eat it, in its soft state, when it is 
much like marrow in consistency and flavor; and. 
w'hen it is dry, they powder it and use it for a fleeh 
dye in tattoo. 
PROPAGATING FROM BEARING OR 
NURSERY TREES. 
In reply to the question, whether trees propagated 
from select bearing trees are better than tdiose fro-m 
wood from nursery row trees, I have this to say: In 
the first place, we should be mindful of some general 
biological principles, which help the solution and aid 
in practice in propagation. It is now demonstrated 
that the real life of a plant is in the protoplai^nnc 
matter, which is formed in the (irnwlng layer of cells, 
between bark and wood, and in the leaves of exogen¬ 
ous trees and plants (as are all temperate climate 
fruits), and that this protoplasm extends from cell 
to cell throughout the plant, by fine threads or streams 
of the protoplasm, slowly 'ext>ending from cell to cell, 
and not isolated in each cell, as formerly supposed, 
and that the stock and gi-aft or bud partake more or 
less of each other’s character by thus intermingling. 
A. Jurie, of Millery (Rhone), France, recently sent me 
a printed leaflet, giving his experience with two 
grafted grapevines. One was an Isabella on which a 
French white variety had been grafted, and a sprout 
from a short distance below the point of union, from 
the Isabella stock, had been allowed to remain, and it 
bore grapes greatly resembling the Freneh variety, in 
color (white) and shape, and the foliage on the sprout 
was much modified, resembling the French kind. In 
the other instance, the reverse was observed, a branch 
on a graft above the union had changed to bearing 
fruit resembling that of the stock. Lueien Daniel, of 
France, has, during the last year or two, published 
several articles in French journals, which I have, and 
several brochures, detailing hundreds of his experi¬ 
ments in making what he terms graft-hybrids, in 
which the grafts, bearing seed, althougti self-pollin¬ 
ated, produced true hybrids between the stock and 
graft used. This occurred between tomatoes and 
potatoes grafted on each other, and cabbages with 
broccoli, etc. The effect does not always show, but 
he enumerates many cases where he obtained siK-h or 
similar results. Prof. Daniel ij? a botanist and practi- 
4;al biologist of high repute in France. 
It has been often observed by various hybridizers 
that if varieties that are vei-y subject to the attacks 
of any disease, as of mildew and black rot in the 
grape, or of black-knot, rot of fruit, etc., in plums, be 
used in making hybrids, the hybrids are invariably 
more or less subject to the same attacks, and that re¬ 
sistant parents give resistant offspring. I have 
observed these results in all my grape hybrids. Prof. 
A. Millardet, of France, of th» Faculty of Sciences of 
Bordeaux (now deceased), the most noted grape 
hybridizer that France has produced, published in his 
works that he had obtained suah results from such 
combinations. 
The lack of uniformity in grafted and b(ndded tree <3 
of the same variety where seedling stock* are used, 
in all classes of orchard fruits, is a large fact in the 
same direction, though the effects are not uniform, 
but sufficiently numerous to give a general law, that 
the character of either the graft or stock is more or 
less transmitted in the union made in grafting or bud¬ 
ding to both members of the union, and probably more 
by the stock to the root than from root to stock. On 
these demonstrations as premises, I would say, in 
answer to your question, that a vigorous grafted or 
budded orchard tree is no better to propagate from 
than a vigorous grafted or budded nursery tree, prob¬ 
ably hardly as good, for the tree in nursery is usually 
better fed and cultivated, and its protoplism, on that 
account, somewhat more active and virile. I would 
avoid weak and sickly trees both in the orchard and 
nursery from which to propagate, as the weakness 
will probably have some effect on the young tree, 
grown. The darker green, larger size and more 
glossy the foliage of any tree of the same variety, the 
greater the vitality of that tree. 3uch are the ones 
to propagate from, either in the orchard or nursery, 
while continued propagation from pale, feeble trees 
will surely deteriorate the progeny. If one vigorous, 
healthy tree is known continually to bear more abund¬ 
antly and better fruit than an equally vigorous one of 
the same variety, would surely propagate from the 
former, and continue from such strain. 
Texas. t. v. munson. 
