1896 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
495 
and the coarser particles be rejected, either by strain¬ 
ing- or by allowing them to settle before the milk is 
used. Comparatively little agitation is necessary 
under these circumstances ; but, if the attempt be 
made to apply old Bordeaux Mixture, the apparatus 
for stirring the mixture should be of the best, al¬ 
though it is scarcely necessary to put a steamboat 
propeller inside the barrel, and then revolve the 
former rapidly by means of an engine, as has recently 
been done. e. g. lodkman. 
Cornell University. 
GRINDSTONE, FLOWERS AND WHITE GRUBS 
There are two farming implements that I very 
much dislike—one is a quiescent grindstone, and the 
other a scythe. A grindstone is all right when it is 
whirling (and I am not supplying the motive power), 
because I am very fond of sharp tools; and I like to 
sit in front of a rapidly-whirling stone and put a 
razor-edge on every cutting tool I am obliged to use. 
I can hold the tool while its dullness is being removed, 
or I can turn the stone, if occasion re¬ 
quire ; but to do both at the same time, 
is exceedingly wearisome. Where is the 
genius who will invent a cheap, double- 
duplex-adjustable holder that will hold 
tools of all kinds on the stone at just 
the proper angle, pitch, etc.? If such 
a genius has ever been born, let him 
make himself known to us. To be sure, 
it is easy enough for anybody to sug¬ 
gest a windmill, a horse-power, or an 
electric motor ; but the getting of any 
of these things involves the expendi¬ 
ture of goodly shekels ; and if we hap¬ 
pen to be short of shekels—which we 
generally are—the suggestion will have 
to pass unheeded. Has anybody invented 
any kind of a homemade contrivance 
that will make a grindstone spin easily, 
or that will hold tools on the stone prop¬ 
erly ? If sucn is the case, let us see a 
picture of it without delay. 
That relic of barbarism, the scythe, 
seems to be a stayer. Here we are close 
at the latter end of a century of inven¬ 
tions—a century that has produced more 
labor-saving devices than all previous 
centuries—and still bending over our 
diaphragms swinging a relic of dark 
ages ! We have improved handles and 
improved fastenings, on an improved 
snath ; but still it’s the same old scythe, 
as clumsy and far-back as the orthog¬ 
raphy of its name. Some men can swing 
it through grass and weeds almost as 
easily as they can eat a boiled cabbage ; 
but for some occult reason, I never could 
get on to the combination, and, there¬ 
fore, scythe swinging is severe punish¬ 
ment. I am patiently awaiting the com¬ 
ing of the genius who will produce a 
light hand mower that I can push along 
before me, while its sickle is whirred by 
a small motor on top of it. Then I shall 
take the greatest pleasure imaginable in 
mowing my lawn and cutting the forests 
of weeds that spring up wherever the 
soil is not constantly stirred. 
If there is any prettier flower for the 
lawn than the vinca, I don’t know wliat 
it is. The drier the weather, the brighter 
are its glossy green leaves and pretty 
flowers. A bed of vincas will please 
anybody ; it blooms all the time, does 
not overgrow itself, and so far as I have 
observed, no insect troubles it. The 
seed should be sown in a box in February to get 
strong plants for setting out early, or as soon as all 
danger of frost is past. It will bloom in the house 
quite as well as out-of-doors, and as it is so easily 
cared for, two or three plants should be potted for 
that purpose. 
Another flower that is easily cared for and excel¬ 
lent for the lawn, is the perennial phlox. When well 
cared for, a large bed of it is simply gorgeous, and 
remains so for a long time. When through blooming, 
remove the stalks and give the bed a good dressing of 
well-rotted manure, and you will be rewarded with 
plumes of flowers that will make an Easter bonnet 
ashamed of itself. 
I observe that the White Grub question is not yet 
settled. Let the discussion and investigations go on ; 
we will get at the facts before long. Last spring, I 
filled a large jar with a mixture of earth and well- 
rotted manure, powdering and sifting the whole in 
order to be sure that no grubs should get in. Last 
week, I noticed that one of the flowering plants set in 
it was looking sickly, as though there was a grub at 
its root. I carefully removed the soil and investi- 
gated, and sure enough, there was a great, full-grown 
White Grub chewing away. Further examination of 
the soil, which was more than half rotted manure, 
disclosed several more from one-eighth inch long to 
nearly full size. The earth had been in the jar seven 
weeks, and when put in did not contain a grub that 
was visible to the naked eye. Verily, they made a 
rapid growth. -Did you ever notice that White Grubs 
found in poor soil looked thin and half-starved, while 
those found in a soil that is rich, full of humus and 
roots, looked like Suffolk pigs ? I am of the opinion 
that we are yet quite a distance from a full solution 
of the White Grub question. fred grundy. 
THE ARMY WORM DOES BATTLE. 
ITS HABITS ; HOW TO FIGHT IT. 
The army worm is abroad in the land in very de¬ 
structive numbers in many localities. We are daily 
receiving letters and even telegrams and telephone 
messages from such widely separated localities as 
Lowville, Horseheads and Jamestown, N. Y., and 
THE ARMY WORM AND ITS WORK. Fig. 158. 
Ilonesdale, Pa. Pasture lands and crops of hay, rye 
and corn are being ravaged in these localities, by the 
caterpillars. 
The true army worm, the caterpillar of the moth 
known as Lucania unipuncta, is a naked, striped 
worm about IX inch long and one-quarter inch in 
diameter when full grown, and rather dark in appear¬ 
ance. The insect is widely distributed over the United 
States east of the Rocky Mountains, and in some 
localities, it occasionally appears in such enormous 
numbers as to overrun and destroy, in May and June, 
acres of the small grains and grass lands. The worms 
usually travel in one direction from one field to 
another, destroying the crop as they go. They have 
a habit of climbing the seed stalks and cutting off the 
heads of Timothy, and of the small grains. Under 
ordinary circumstances, the worms feed mostly at 
night and in damp, cloudy weather, remaining hidden 
during sunshiny days, resembling, in this respect, the 
closely allied cutworms. The adult insect is a brown 
moth with a white spot on the center of each front 
wing. The eggs are pushed down into the inner base 
of tlie terminal leaf sheaths of grasses or grains. The 
e SS s hatch in from eight to ten days, and the cater¬ 
pillars attain full growth in three or four weeks. They 
then go into the ground, and transform through a 
brown pupa to the moth. The number of generations 
each year varies with the climate aDd the season ; 
there may be six in the South. The winter is usually 
passed as a half-grown caterpillar, and sometimes 
the moths hibernate, in the South. It is usually the 
offspring of the worms that hibernate which cause 
alarm. 
At Horseheads, N. Y., the army was advancing 
across a lane from a 40-acre rye field in which not a 
leaf remained on the stalks, and about one-fourth of 
the heads had been cut off. The worms were so 
numerous that one could hardly take a step without 
crushing several of them. They had just begun their 
destruction in adjoining corn fields where the crop 
was disappearing at the rate of an acre or more per 
day. During the day, most of the worms were either 
on the march or resting from their destructive work 
under pieces of dirt or snugly hidden down in the 
cavities at the bases of the corn leaves 5 
evidently most of their feeding is done 
at night. In Fig. 158 are shown several 
of the worms at work on a corn plant, 
all nearly natural size. 
There is no practical method of rid¬ 
ding a badly infested field of ODe of 
these caterpillar armies, which would 
not also involve the destruction of the 
crop. However, the worms can be pre¬ 
vented from entering other fields, and 
may, in many cases, be killed before 
they can do much damage in new fields. 
In some cases, especially in corn fields, 
the advancing army can be checked in 
the middle of the field. If a deep ditch 
be dug or plowed before the advancing 
army, taking pains to have the side 
toward the crop to be protected as smooth 
and perpendicular as possible, it will be 
found that the worms cannot readily 
cross it, and will, after the first attempt; 
crawl along the ditch and tumble into 
deep holes which should be dug in the 
ditch at intervals of a rod or so ; bushels 
of the worms have been trapped in this 
manner, and in one instance the stench 
from their decaying bodies became very 
offensive to people riding along the 
highway. 
In some corn fields, it would be prac¬ 
ticable to spray or thoroughly dust the 
plants with Paris-green, using it as 
strong as the plants will stand. Much 
can, also, be done by drenching a strip 
of the crop toward which the worms are 
marching, with a strong Paris-green 
mixture. A combination of the ditch and 
spray, if thoroughly carried out, will 
check and destroy millions of these 
ravenous creatures. Prompt action will 
be necessary for, as we have seen, a 
day’s delay may mean the destruction 
of an acre or more of a promising rye, 
corn or hay crop. 
Judging from the many worms which 
we have seen, Nature will see to it that 
the next brood of worms which might 
naturally be expected later in the sea¬ 
son, will not appear, for a majority of 
the larger worms bear on their backs, 
small, white eggs laid there by an insect 
resembling a house-fly. These eggs mean 
that soon the little maggots hatching 
therefrom will burrow into the body of 
the worm, and there revel in the juices 
and fatty tissues, and finally cause the death of their 
host before it undergoes its curious.ehanges to the adult 
insect, the moth. Thus, while the litt 1 e parasitic friends 
are doing noble work in checking the future develop¬ 
ment of the pest, they do not give the present relief 
which the afflicted farmer needs, m. v. slingerland. 
• 
The Loganberry. —It is a thing worthy of note 
nowadays, to find a new type of small fruit, that ac¬ 
tually bears berries which have a value; but the Logan¬ 
berry appears to have this distinction. The plants 
are robust, and exhibit a curious intermingling of the 
peculiarities of the raspberry and the dewberry. The 
fruit is neither, but it is intermediate. It has the color, 
and in a mild form, the flavor of the raspberry, but 
the size and structure of the dewberry, and when 
cooked with sugar, makes an excellent sauce. I have 
observed the Loganberry only under good cultivation, 
the canes covered with earth in winter and supported 
on a wire trellis during the fruiting season. Under 
such conditions, it has proved prolific, the large 
berries ripening in advance of Cuthbert raspberries. 
Rhode Island Experiment Station, l. f. kinney. 
