1896 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
687 
and Washington, they are at home. In flavor, the 
morellos are sour, the dukes tart, and the hearts very 
mild or sweet. 
Dukes. 
2 May Duke. 
2 Cboisey, 
2 Olivet. 
2 Hortense. 
2 Magnifique. 
(To be continued.) 
Morellos. 
2'Dyebouse. 
2JRicbmond. 
2 i Montmorency. 
“l.Wl'Rgg. 
Hearts. 
2 Purple Guigne. 
2 Gov. Wood. 
2 Mercer. 
2 Napoleon. 
2 Windsor. 
THE RUSSIAN PLUMS IN ILLINOIS. 
As I was reading The R. N.-Y. of September 19 
(and an extra good one it was), I was freshly reminded 
of the great area which our country embraces, of its 
great diversity of soil and climate, and, also, how 
utterly foolish it is for any one to say, without 
qualification, that this or that variety is utterly 
worthless. Prudence should add, “At this place,” if 
the variety had been tried for many years, or, “ This 
season here,” upon a shorter trial—or some other 
such limiting phrase. On page 624, is an article prais¬ 
ing the Russian plums. While I am so strongly feel¬ 
ing that those I have tried are comparatively worth¬ 
less here, it is hard to make proper allowance, and 
remember that the country for which Dr. Hoskins 
writes, is, horticulturally, as different from this as 
the moon may be from Mars. 
I have as yet fruited only about a half dozen varie¬ 
ties of the Russian plums ; but with me, so far, they 
are very unfruitful, quite liable to black-knot—more 
so than the ordinary varieties of the Domestica to 
which type, I suppose, all the Russians belong. I 
have seen only one kind that I thought was “very 
good” in quality, and it was a stray, without name or 
number. Some, as Orel No. 19, Orel 21, and White 
Orel, I think, are very poor to eat out of hand. How 
they would taste canned, or otherwise preserved, I 
cannot say, for a dozen trees eight years planted, 
have not given enough fruit for a jar of preserves, 
they evidently intending to perpetuate 
themselves by sprouts rather than seed. 
Two trees of Russian No. 1 have died 
from black-knot ; what little fruit there 
was on the remaining three trees, has 
rotted with such avidity (as Mark 
Twain might have said), that only a 
few ripe specimens have been found for 
a taste, and this from trees planted in 
1885. Hungarian is a large, thrifty tree 
notwithstanding some black-knot. It 
is of fair prune quality, and rather 
large in size ; but a peck measure 
would hold all the plums it has given 
me so far. Communia (this may not 
he a Russian) has given me one crop, 
and the fruit was large and good ; but 
this is not very high praise for an 11- 
year-planted tree. Moldavka, from 
scions six years ago, may do to plant 
again. It is late, of good size, and of a 
kind of Abraham Lincoln shape. It is a cooking plum, 
and seems more productive than the other varieties 
named. On the whole, we, I think, don’t want any 
of the Russians here, or, indeed, any of the Domestica 
type, except the Damsons. Further, after losing 
totally from the blight, 10 or 15 varieties of Russian 
pears, with many other varieties nearly dead from 
the same cause, and no good pear found yet, I feel 
like abandoning the Russian pears along with the 
plums—cutting loose, never to be a slave to the Slav 
fruit any more. B. buckman. 
A GRASSHOPPER’S SNAKE STORY. 
HOW ‘‘worms’’ made life a burden. 
Grasshoppers are not often serious pests here in the 
East, but during the past few years, they have been 
unusually numerous, and have done considerable 
damage in many localities. This has caused more 
attention to be paid to them, with the result that sev¬ 
eral of our correspondents during the past two sum¬ 
mers, have testified to the following “ snake story ” : 
Certain grasshoppers seemed to have a pale and 
sickly look, and were especially sluggish in their 
movements ; in short, as one correspondent very aptly 
expressed it, some of them seemed to have “ that tired 
feeling.” It was, usually, the females that were thus 
afflicted. When these “ tired ” grasshoppers were 
captured, a close examination would reveal little un¬ 
usual about their external aspect. But when one’s 
abdomen was dissected or broken open, instead of 
the usual mass of eggs taking up the larger part of 
the interior, there would be revealed a mass of white, 
thread-like creatures wound about the internal organs 
in seemingly inextricable confusion. In a moment, 
the minute, hair-like cords would begin to move and 
work their way out through the break in the abdo¬ 
men. Fig. 220 shows this phase of the story on one 
of the “ tired ” grasshoppers ; it is represented twice 
natural size, and the name of the grasshopper is 
Melanoplus femoratus, one of our largest eastern 
grasshoppers. These white, wriggling, hair-like 
creatures we have all known since childhood as “hair- 
snakes ” or “ hair-worms.” Then we all used firmly 
to believe that these curious creatures were developed 
from horse hairs, and many of us have, for days, 
watched for the horse hairs that we had carefully 
placed in pools, to become snakes. Although this 
curious belief that horse hairs will turn into these 
“hair-snakes ” has been conclusively disproved many 
times, it is no rare occurrence, to-day, to meet grown 
persons who believe it as firmly as do our children ; 
however, lifeless horse hairs never have and never 
will turn into animated “ hair-snakes.” 
What are “hair snakes” ? They are classed among 
the vermes or worms of the animal kingdom. Among 
their nearest relatives, are the “vinegar eels” and the 
deadly Trichina of pork. They are ranked consider¬ 
ably lower in the scale of animal life than the insects. 
The ones commonly found in grasshoppers in the 
East bear the name Mermis albicans. They are the 
same “hair snakes” that farmers often find knotted 
together in the soil when plowing. This fact would 
indicate that these creatures could tell a curious life 
story ; and truly they can. 
If the “ tired” grasshoppers were placed in a box 
with moist earth, after a time, perhaps before their 
death, the “hair snakes” would be seen boring their 
way out through the anus or the thinner parts of the 
walls of their host’s body. All the “snakes” so 
leaving their victim are sexless, and, unless they are 
full-grown when their host dies, or unless they reach 
moist earth, they perish ; but if full-grown, and they 
succeed in reaching the surface of moist ground, they 
at once bore into it, and bury themselves out of sight. 
Here the sexual organs are developed from a fatty 
body that the parasitic form contains, and after shed¬ 
ding their skins once, the male or female form is 
assumed. During this underground life, no food 
seems to be required, though several months elapse, 
pile. Is it to be wondered at that the poor victim 
“had that tired feeling”? The worms measured 
from 1)4 to 4 )4 inches in length, and the grasshopper 
was still alive ! Rather a large-sized snake story to 
be told by one little grasshopper, but she has given 
us, in Fig. 220, a photographic verification of its 
truth. m. v. slingerland. 
A GRASSHOPPER THAT “ HAD SNAKES ”. Twice Natural Size. Fig. 220. 
and the winter is passed before the animal provides 
for the multiplication of the species. The sexes unite 
in knots (we often find these in the soil), and the 
female lays her eggs in the ground. They are, prob¬ 
ably, very prolific, for one female of the brown “hair 
worms” (Gordius), sometimes lays over 6,000,000 eggs 
in a slender cord measuring 91 inches in length. The 
young, white hair-snalces, which are hair-like, like 
their parents, at once worm themselves to the surface 
of the soil, and crawl into, as parasites, various soft 
insects, and mostly those that are found under leaves, 
moss, etc., near the ground. 
“Hair-snakes” are, also, frequently found infesting 
katy-dids, crickets, cockroaches, and, sometimes, in 
many other insects and smaller animals, and beetles, 
caterpillars or moths and butterflies, bees, flies, 
spiders and snails; they have several times been 
found, both in this country and Europe, in the worm 
that causes “wormy” apples—the Codling Moth cater¬ 
pillar. The only explanation that has been offered 
to account for their appearance in tree-inhabiting 
and fruit-inhabiting caterpillars, is that the newly- 
hatched worms may be able to crawl up the stems 
and trunks of plants and shrubs by aid of the mois¬ 
ture with which these are sometimes covered for 
hours, and even days in the spring. 
It is asserted that, in 1875, in one part of Minnesota, 
these “hair-snakes” destroyed as many grasshoppers 
as did any other enemy. Ordinarily, there is but one 
worm in each grasshopper, and five seems to be the 
most that have heretofore been recorded from one 
host. This year, “hair-snakes” must have been 
especially numerous, for almost every grasshopper 
sent to the insectary contained a dozen or more 
worms. The grasshopper shown in Fig. 220 was 
packed so full of the “ snakes” that I had a curiosity 
to know how many there were ; most of them were in 
the abdomen of their host, but many were, also, taken 
from the thorax, none occupied the head. Here is the 
astonishing result: I pulled out and pulled out “hair- 
snakes” until, by actual count, 53 lay before me in a 
WHAT THEY SAY. 
A Corn Shocker. —Fig. 221 is a sketch of a home¬ 
made tool used to draw a shock of corn fodder tight 
and ready to tie a twine string around. It is made of 
any light wood, say, 1)4 inch square and five feet 
long. Sharpen to a round point, and slip a wooden 
wheel shaped like the bobbin of a sewing machine, 
and about six inches in diameter, on this pointed 
shaft up to within about one foot of the large end. 
Mortice a crank on the extreme of the large end, and 
bore a hole for a rope through the space between the 
wheel and the crank. Also drive a staple in this same 
space. To use, thrust the spear through the untied 
shock, walk around it with the small rope, and catch 
the bridle snap at the end of the rope in the staple. 
Then turn the crank, and it draws the shock as 
tight as desired and from all sides at once. This 
avoids the pulling to one side which is the result of 
drawing a shock up with a rope and ring. If the 
crank doesn’t stay without holding till the shock is 
tied, bend a stalk out a little and let it hold the 
crank. We have such a machine, and it saves one 
man’s wages in tying, is as speedy as the old way 
with two, and does the work much better. Any 
farmer can make one at a cost of, not to exceed 10 cents. 
Indiana. e. h. collins. 
Apples for Cows.—We consider apples as a cow 
food, well worth the cost of picking up. We feed 
about a peck per cow twice a day just before or after 
their grain ration. An increase of milk 
immediately follows such feeding, and 
ceases when the apples give out. For 
grain with apples, we like wheat bran, 
corn meal and cotton-seed meal, 200 
pounds bran, 100 pounds each corn meal 
and cotton-seed meal. Apples are a 
nuisance in a pasture where cows are, 
as the cows chase from one tree to an¬ 
other, and use up too much of what 
ought to be turning into milk ; besides, 
they will get thin in flesh. If a cow 
get a chance, she will eat enough to 
make her drunk in short order, unless 
immediate attention is given her. If 
we can get them soon after their ex¬ 
cessive eating, or when they will not 
refuse grain, we give them from two to 
four quarts of corn meal and thus pre¬ 
vent any injurious effect. The oil 
of the meal counteracts the acid of 
the apple, and fermentation is not caused in the 
stomach. The corn meal remedy has been worth 
much to us. There are now in our barn three cows 
that got away yesterday, and had about seven hours 
of all the apples they wanted. They were too full to 
eat the grain, and are now lordly drunk. They look 
sorry, but they have ceased to give milk, neither will 
they, this season, give their full former flow. 
Connecticut. h. g. Manchester. 
Preparing Land for Winter. 
In traveling through New York State, and noticing 
the condition of the fields, it is evident that the 
majority of farmers have not yet learned how to pre¬ 
pare the land for winter. They may understand all 
about fitting it in the spring for the seed, but this 
preparation for winter is most important. More than 
one-half of the rain which falls during winter, and 
the larger part of the water from melting snow, is 
lost to the soil because the ground has not been put 
in condition to take up this water, and hold it as a 
supply to be drawn upon later in the season, by grow¬ 
ing crops. 
Fall plowing, especially of clay land, should be 
extensively practiced. If the ground is in poor physi¬ 
cal condition, leave it thrown up rough without har¬ 
rowing, that the clods may be acted upon by the rains 
and frosts, and pulverized. Then water, instead of 
running off on the surface, can sink into the soil and 
be saved. Fall plowing will destroy the larvge of 
many injurious insects. A clay soil which is in good 
condition, should have some cover crop growing on 
it. Drill in wheat or rye, and the growing plants 
will serve to bind the particles of soil together and 
prevent puddling. This cover crop may then be 
ganged under in the spring, and humus has been 
added to the soil. 
The corn fields, instead of being left bare after the 
corn is taken off, should now be covered with a 
growth of Crimson clover. This crop should be 
far better known to the farmers of the State than 
