Vrto V 
Me RURAL NEW-YORKER 
393 
The European Hornet 
Can you tell me anything about these | 
insects I send you? Evidently of the 
wasp family, they appeared last Autumn 
on the apple trees, and also on a young 
tree, of which they nearly destroyed the 
bark. They can fly, but are sluggish in 
their movements and usually hang to¬ 
gether on the trees in bunches of three to 
six. Their sting is very poisonous. A 
member of my family was stung on the 
leg last September, and is only just over 
the effects of the poison (January). In¬ 
deed. the place where the sting was had to 
Pc lanced and treated for weeks, s. l. 
Chappaqua, X. Y. 
The insect referred to. specimens of 
which were enclosed in the foregoing let¬ 
ter. is the European hornet (Vespa cra- 
brol. The letter and the specimens are 
.if considerable interest for several rea- ) 
sons. This hornet was introduced some 
years ago from Europe into this country 
in the vicinity of New York City and 
has already spread into Connecticut and 
New Jersey, and apparently is gradually 
working its way up the Hudson. In 
Germany and England the insect is 
troublesome because of its habits of gnaw¬ 
ing the bark from the branches of ash, 
alder, elm. linden, lilac and some other 
trees: and I suppose it maintains the tra¬ 
ditions of the family of hornets by sting¬ 
ing the meddlesome and obstreperous Eng¬ 
lish and German boys that try to interfere 
with its homes and domestic activities. 
Moreover, it would appear from the ex¬ 
perience of the correspondent that the 
hornet brought its sting right along with 
it when it came to this country, together 
with its other aggressive implements of 
warfare, namely, its strong jaws or man¬ 
dibles : for it has previously been com¬ 
plained of by residents of Connecticut, 
New York and New Jersey as having as¬ 
sumed its old role of girdling the branches 
of trees. These reports indicate that this 
giant hornet has been stripping the tender 
bark from branches half an inch in diam¬ 
eter. and from those of smaller size. 
Sometimes the bark will be taken from 
one side of the branch for a distance of 
10 or 11! inches: in other cases the branch 
will be girdled in several places. No one 
seems to know just why the hornets do 
this work. Perhaps they are after the 
sap flowing from the •wounds, but more 
likely they are at work gathering mate¬ 
rials with which to build their nests. 
Doubtless most of us are familiar with 
the great globular paper nests of our own 
native white-faced hornet that often hang 
fr >m the eaves of buildings or branches 
of trees. The European hornet builds 
similar paper nests, but nearly always 
constructs them in the hollow of a tree 
or stump, or sometimes underground, like 
our little fiery yellow-jackets. 
The sting of a wasp, like that of a bee, 
will vary in it<s intensity of effect with 
the individual stung. For instance, some 
people suffer very little discomfort from 
the sting of a bee or wasp, while others 
are subject to much swelling of adjacent 
portion of the body and to severe and last¬ 
ing pain. Undoubtedly this huge Euro¬ 
pean hornet injects a large amount of 
poison into the wound made by its sting. 
Yet its sting is probably not much more 
severe than that of our own native white- 
faced hornet, which is almost a.s large. 
It is quite probable that the person re¬ 
ferred to in the letter is very susceptible 
to the effects of the poison, and would 
undoubtedly suffer much from the sting 
"f any wasp or from that of an ordinary 
honey-bee. 
Upon the whole, it is likely that this 
wasp is about as useful as it is injurious. 
It lives upon other insects and probably 
destroys many that are injurious to our 
crops, trees and shrubs. Little can be 
said regarding methods of preventing 
them from gnawing the bark from 
branches. The nests may be located and 
destroy eel by burning them if one is so 
bold as to try it. It should be done at 
night, and care should be taken to pre¬ 
vent the escape of the insects while the 
work is going on. In addition the hornets 
might be poisoned by spraying the trees 
which they are attacking with arsenate of 
lead, four pounds to 50 gallons of water. 
In Europe it is recommended that long- 
necked bottles containing sugar water be 
hung in the branches of trees. The hor¬ 
nets:. attracted by the sweetened material, 
crawl into the bottles and are trapped, 
not being able to escape. 
GLENN W. HERRICK. 
Can the Farm Compete 
|5 with the Factory for Labor? 
Fertilizers 
is not enough profit to pay the wages. 
B F iTlIr^rom y 7h^ e fn!-i ht ^T da ^- constant employment-have steadily drawn 
.a^a r S , f T,hato , f a X , f°a™s. ,aC ' 0ry ' TlM C “ y P ° Pulati "" is •»«* *»*, 
modern t^woYo?fourth USi " g imPr ° VC<1 Four 
But now conditions are changed, 
file greatest demand is far bread and 
fats. Better prices are here. The pro¬ 
ducing power of our land will be taxed 
to the utmost. There are no more free 
lands and free fertility to demoralize 
prices. How can the farmer get the 
labor? Can he compete with the fac¬ 
tories ? 
He cannot compete for labor if that labor 
be used on poor unproductive land. There 
i-.r.rt 1 J f“ J ' *•“="'•‘sys. He can compete if labor be used on rich fertilized 
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.those factories with modern methods get the biggest return from labor and r ar > 
7 beSt Wages - S °u k is with the farm - Fertilizer enables you ?o grow more 
with the same acreage-the same labor-the same machinery. g 
yield of' e co?S IO S0 St ne t r O cPn t | ,e Tv of , fertl « ers ove r a series of years increased the 
• COrt rr ^ cent - This when the crop was grown in rotation with grass 
and clover. Every hour spent in growing the fertilized corn brought in half fgain 
as much grain as that spent on poorly fertilized land. g 
fertilized e i*>nT !llen i S s j ,owed ■ 1 tha , t every hour spent in growing wheat on 
fertilized land produced two bushels, while the same hour spent in grow- 
mg it on unfertilized land produced barely one. The food and feed frops 
req a lre ^u 12 °, acres , V Vr re , Srown on forty acres when fertilizer was 
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IT J v t0 Save money is t0 s P end mor e money for fertilizer 
Use V-C Fertilizers on your corn, hay and pastures. Raise 50% to 80% 
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Why build to burn? Use Galvanized Roofing for 
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Write 
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back 
guar¬ 
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A mulcher, smoothing harrow, cultivator, 
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