1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
55 
HOW INSECTS SPEND THE WINTER. 
THEY DODGE .TACK FROST 
And Turn Out Ready for Business. 
Where Are They ?—Where are the insects which 
harassed the farmer, fruit grower, gardener or house¬ 
wife last Summer ? Doubtless some of us would dis¬ 
miss this question with the notion that the insects 
are killed off by the rigors of Winter, perhaps to be 
reincarnated, by spontaneous generation or otherwise, 
in the Spring. It is true that many insects do suc¬ 
cumb to zero weather, yet Mother Nature always sees 
to it that even such insignificant (to many) creatures 
as the insects make ample provision for getting 
through the Winter in some form, even among “Green¬ 
land’s icy mountains”. Doubtless no kind or species 
of insect was ever exterminated from the earth in 
historical times because of inability to withstand 
Winter weather. 
Frozen Insects. —One may ask, Can insects sur¬ 
vive freezing ? There are several records by careful 
observers of spiders, grubs and caterpillars being 
found frozen stiff in northern latitudes, so that they 
would break like icicles; and yet when these were 
thawed out gradually they would “come to life”, as 
it were, and be all right. It is very essential that 
there be a gradual thawing out, hence insects suffer 
greater mortality during a Winter in which there are 
frequent sudden and extreme changes of temperature. 
In the case of some insects, at least, they will with¬ 
stand very low temperatures without freezing. With 
the thermometer registering several degrees beloAr 
zero, I have pricked the thin shells of the little black 
eggs of the common green Apple aphis, which a^e 
laid in the Fall on the bark of the apple tree, where 
they are exposed to all the rigors of Winter. From 
every egg I thus pricked the juicy contents ran out as 
freely as on a warm day in November. These facts 
show that it is possible for insects to withstand the 
severe cold of Winter or to hibernate. 
Sound Asleep. —Generally speaking, insects do 
not feed during the Winter; they truly hibernate. 
Of course, this statement applies only in cold wintry 
latitudes and to out-door insects. We will discuss the 
in-door insects shortly. 
There are, as many understand, four different stages 
in the life-cycle of many insects. First, the egg stage, 
which is the starting point in the life of all insects ; 
second, the caterpillar, grub, or maggot stage ; third, 
a quiescent pupa stage, when the insect makes itself 
over from a caterpillar, grub, or maggot, into a but¬ 
terfly, a beetle, or a fly ; fourth, the adult insect. 
Hibernation among insects may occur in any one or 
more of these four stages. Usually an insect passes 
ea jh Winter in a certain stage, but some go into hiber¬ 
nation in two of these stages. 
Indoor Insects. —Every housewife is glad when 
the frosts of Autumn put an end to the house-fly war¬ 
fare. As the house-fly's favorite breeding place is 
horse manure, which does not afford a congenial feed¬ 
ing ground in Winter, the pest is obliged to hibernate. 
Sharp eyes may find some of the flies snugly tucked 
away in the cracks and crannies of our houses and 
barns. Usually several of these wintering individuals 
will be thawed out whenever a spare bedroom, public 
hall, or church is warmed. When the whole house 
has to be warmed for the children’s home-coming for 
the 'holidays, some of last Summer’s house-flies will, 
doubtless, wake up from their Winter’s nap in a win¬ 
dow crevice and take a nibble at the Christmas turkey. 
A few pestiferous mosquitoes may also be on hand, as 
they hibernate in similar situations. 
Mosquitoes breed in standing water, like rain bar¬ 
rels, water-tanks, pools, etc., hence Jack Frost forces 
the adult mosquitoes to hibernate, unless they can 
find a tank or cistern of water in a warm attic, cellar, 
or elsewhere, where they might continue to breed 
during the Winter. Clothes moths keep on breeding 
in ordinary closets and warm storerooms; a temper¬ 
ature of 40 degrees F. will prevent the moths work¬ 
ing, hence valuable furs, etc., are now often placed in 
cold storage during the Summer. The insects which 
infest stored grains and seeds usually breed much 
slower during the Winter, and may cease to feed if 
stored in quite cold places. 
Outdoor Insects, however, rarely, if ever, eat 
during the Winter. The Apple and the Forest tent- 
caterpillars were very numerous and destructive in 
1898 in many parts of the country, yet how few of 
those who suffered from their ravages have a thought 
or a care as to how or where these pests are winter¬ 
ing. In the case of each of these insects, the cater¬ 
pillars transformed into millers or moths late in the 
Summer, and these moths laid a large mass of eggs 
around the smaller branches of the trees upon which 
their progeny are to feed in 1899. These tent-cater¬ 
pillars, then, are now hibernating as little baby cater¬ 
pillars, all ready to burst through the egg shell, and 
begin eating the opening buds in the Spring. En¬ 
courage the children to look for the curious varnished 
egg-masses of these tent-caterpillars this Winter. Cut 
off every twig bearing one, and after the children 
have had a good look at the eggs and the little furry 
caterpillars in them with a pocket lens or microscope, 
then, and not until then, burn the egg masses. 
M. V. SLINGERLAND. 
(To be continued.) 
SAVING TOMATO SEED. 
TRIADS AND TRICKS OF THE TRADE. 
I have been interested in the account of how tomato 
seed is saved at some of the canning factories, as re¬ 
ported on page 846 of The R. N.-Y. for 1898. I can 
but wonder what catsup consumers would say to eat¬ 
ing catsup made from tomatoes too soft for canning. 
I have grown many thousand bushels of tomatoes for 
seed alone. But a small part of this canning-factory 
seed finds its way to “bargain-counter seedsmen”; 
much of it is sold to our largest seedsmen at a price 
less than one-half the growing cost of good seed. Not 
all of the large seedsmen buy this cheap seed, but 
some of them do, and it is a fact that seed from new 
varieties of tomatoes is offered from canning factories 
at a “ cheap-john ” price before the variety is fairly 
on the market. 
1 would at all times prefer seed from a poor speci¬ 
men fruit, grown on a plant where all the others are 
good, than from a very choice specimen from a plant 
where all the others are bad. However, in picking 
the fruit, we reject any fruit that is not smooth and 
nice, and we do not save the later-ripening fruits from 
the vines. The tomatoes are ground in a machine 
similar to the one represented on page 846. The ma¬ 
chine is made to set over large barrels that hold six 
bushels of tomatoes, and the pulp remains in these 
until ready to wash, generally from 24 to 36 hours, 
according as the weather is hot or cold. 
The pulp is used as a fertilizer. It seems rather a 
pity to use as a fertilizer so much nice catsup material, 
and at one time, I had a notion to make it up into 
catsup ; but upon investigation, I found that I could 
not sell a pure tomato catsup; consumers preferred 
catsup composed largely of pumpkin and tomatoes 
that were too rotten for canning. A. A. nALLADAY. 
Vermont. 
A CHEAP AND SIMPLE GREENHOUSE. 
Will you suggest a simple, cheap plan fora greenhouse for 
forcing lettuce and other vegetables in Winter, and starting 
plants in Spring, to be built of portable sashes and heated with 
a hot-water boiler, also combining with the house considerable 
potting-shed room ? I have already in operation an even-span 
forcing house 12 feet wide, built of sashes and heated by hot 
water, that is giving fair satisfaction, but it is not iarge enough, 
neither are the potting-shed facilities ample. The present hot- 
water boiler can be made to heat twice the present space. The 
question is how to get increased space at a low cost. H. c. c. m. 
Connecticut. 
A Handy Tittle House. —Probably the most satis¬ 
factory low-cost greenhouse for forcing vegetables is 
A SIMPLE GREENHOUSE. Fig. 21. 
found in the form of a half-span house facing the 
south or southeast, and having a comparatively flat 
roof composed of movable or partly movable sash, the 
front wall of the house also to be partly glass, in order 
to give abundant light to the front bed or bench. A 
house of this character, and of moderate size, may be 
roofed with two rows of sashes seven feet long, the 
lap or junction of the two sashes in the center of the 
roof being supported by a wooden girder formed of a 
piece of 3 x 4 stuff resting on posts, the latter being 
spaced about eight feet apart. This length of roof 
would give a house nearly 13 feet in width, with front 
wall five feet high and back wall feet, and may 
be divided into three beds or benches of convenient 
width for working. See Fig. 21. 
Board Up tlie Back, —The back or north wall 
should be tightly boarded for its full height, but the 
front wall will be much better if boarded for only 2% 
feet from the ground, the remaining 2% feet being 
composed of movable sash, by means of which the 
ventilation may be much improved when the sun be¬ 
comes strong in the Spring, and also the operation of 
removing and renewing the soil in the house be greatly 
facilitated. 
Returning to the roof of the house, the lower row 
of sash should be screwed down in place, but enough 
of the upper row should be movable to give abundant 
ventilation ; at least one in three should be a venti¬ 
lator, and it is better to have alternate sashes fixed 
and movable, while the cracks between the sash 
should be covered by battens. A house of this descrip¬ 
tion is not very difficult to heat, providing it is built 
reasonably tight, and eight rows of two-inch piping, 
with sufficient boiler power, will give plenty of heat 
for lettuce, the pipes being fitted with a valve on 
each side of the house, so that a portion may be cut 
off in mild weather. 
A Potting 1 Shed. —The potting shed should pref¬ 
erably be placed at the west end of the greenhouse, 
to avoid as much as possible shading the latter, and 
may be of the same general outline as the greenhouse, 
but having a tarred felt roof, or still better, one of 
tin, and plenty of windows on each side. The low 
side of the building may be used for the storage of 
pots and other material, and on the high side a strong 
work bench should extend the entire length. 
Make all doorways wide enough to admit a full-sized 
wheelbarrow without risk to the knuckles of the 
operator, for comfort in working usually adds consid¬ 
erably to the amount of labor accomplished in a day. 
The solid bed system appears to give the best results 
in lettuce growing, and is also much less costly in the 
matter of repairs, when compared with benches. 
Pennsylvania. _ w. h. taplin. 
SHORT SCRAPS. 
Free rural delivery is coming. There is a larger 
appropriation this year than ever before, and for ex¬ 
tending the service, Congress is now considering a 
bill to compel star route carriers to deliver mail all 
along their routes. It provides that persons living 
along such routes may put up boxes, and have their 
mail deposited therein without extra charge. 
We have lived in communities where, during the 
Spring, the standard of value was a sitting hen. That 
was before the days of incubators, and in communities 
where the non-sitting breeds prevailed. We can, 
therefore, appreciate the following rates, which are 
said to have been printed by a North Carolina editor : 
We will publish a 10-verse poem for a load of wood; a three- 
column story for a load of groceries, and we will cheerfully give 
space to obituaries of former subscribers at the rate of six lay¬ 
ing hens a column. 
Strawberry Roots. —The feeding roots of the 
strawberry cover but small space. During the Sum¬ 
mer, the roots run directly down, but late in the Fall, 
they root laterally close to the surface, but not suffi¬ 
ciently to be disturbed at a distance of one foot. The 
root systems are very similar, the variation in varie¬ 
ties being merely variations in amount and length. 
The roots of some varieties are much more vigorous 
than others on the same soil under equal conditions. 
G. S. BUTLER. 
Potato Crates. —This is a good time of the year to 
make potato crates. I made a number last Winter 
from old strawberry crates that were not good enough 
to use for berries again. The fruit dealer in town 
will often give them away. Take off the cover, and 
nail blocks on each end for handles. If not tight 
enough to hold potatoes, nail laths between with wire 
clinch nails. One will find the crates much handier 
than sacks or barrels when gathering potatoes. If 
allowed to stand in crates a few days, potatoes will 
not sweat or rot as in a tight barrel or bag, and can 
be handled by one person easily. m. l. b. 
Will the White grub work when cow pea vines are 
plowed under in preparing for a strawberry bed ? 
Cow peas are largely used in Delaware, and A. W. 
Slaymaker says that growers there are rarely troubled 
with White grubs, when the strawberries follow 
any cultivated crop except corn. The grub is sure 
to put in an appearance if the land has not been 
cultivated the previous Summer. Cow peas are some¬ 
times broadcasted in May, and allowed to grow with¬ 
out any further cultivation. If planted to strawber¬ 
ries the following year, serious trouble results from 
White grubs. If the peas are cultivated as late as the 
first of August, little trouble need be feared. It seems 
that cultivation late in the Summer is about the best 
remedy for this insect. 
Southern Christmas. —One of our readers in Vir¬ 
ginia describes the system of giving up one or two 
weeks at Christmas time to one long-drawn-out holi¬ 
day of feasting and frolicking, with no work. He 
says that it is an old slave institution that ought to 
go. He believes in short, occasional rests, through 
the year, for a picnic, a hunt, for fishing, etc.; but he 
is opposed to this long holiday, when the whole 
country stops work, and everything else but fun 
stands still. It ought to be broken up, for it puts 
great hardship upon the farmer who is feeding and 
milking stock. Think of dairymen with 40 or 50 Jer¬ 
seys to milk, with butter to make and sell, being 
deserted by all help for 10 days at Christmas ! In our 
friend’s case, he was able to hold his white laborer, 
but it meant hard work in body and mind, and all for 
a “ nuisance of fun and frolic.” 
