134. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
[April, 
success attended the plantations that were made 
many years ago in Georgia and Mississippi. 
Saw Filing. 
It is a great art to file a saw well. Few men 
do it who attempt it, yet almost all who try 
make the saws run so much better that they are 
quite satisfied. In saw filing it is an important 
tiling to have the blade firmly held at a con¬ 
venient higlit and in a good light. We figure 
a simple vise for holding the saw. An upright 
board about four feet long, having a piece of 
wood, shaped to form one of a pair of vise-jaws, 
nailed upon the upper end, is fixed against a 
bench or window sill. Upon this, near the mid¬ 
dle, a two-inch strip is fastened, and a shorter 
board with the mate 
jaw upon it is nailed 
upon the strip to match, 
the nails being in a 
straight line. The jaws 
of the vise will be found 
to have a very little play 
—enough to receive the 
saw-blade—and by gent¬ 
ly driving a wedge, to 
spread the boards apart 
below, the grip or bite 
of the vise will be found 
considerable. The art 
of filing a saw well is 
only attained by a per¬ 
son having a steady 
hand and a true eye. 
Having the saw firmly 
grasped by the jaws de- saw-holding vise. 
scribed close to the teeth, first make sure that the 
points of the teeth are on a true line. If any 
extend above the line, file them squarely down 
to it. It is better that a tooth should not touch 
at all than that it should have all the work to 
do, and nearly all the work comes on teeth 
which project beyond the line, if any do so. 
The file used must be in proportion to the size 
of the teeth, in order to go in deeply between 
them and leave a sharp, clean angle. File so 
as to retain the bevel of the points and the 
shape of the teeth unaltered, unless you choose 
to take the responsibility of making a complete 
change in the saw. The guide to a correct 
bevel is the glance of light from the window, 
which should be the same from each tooth, both 
before and after it is filed. The whole length 
of two teeth must be touched by the file at each 
motion. The teeth of each “set” are filed sep¬ 
arately, but more minute directions would only 
confuse one wdio has not practiced saw-fifling. 
There is no mystery whatever about it. 
Bark-Lice—Scale Insects. 
Quite a quantity of communications have ac¬ 
cumulated upon “ the Bark-louse,” the writers 
using the same term when speaking of very 
different insects. The most common Bark-louse, 
tiie bark-louse. 
as well as the most destructive, is the Aspidotus 
conchiformis, which from its shell-like shape 
is by some called the Oyster-shell Bark-louse. 
The appearance of the insect in winter and early 
spring is shown in the engraving. One corre¬ 
spondent thinks he has discovered the whole 
story of the Bark-louse, and sends us a long com¬ 
munication describing the manner in which the 
insect throws off her eggs, which fall to the 
ground, where they remain until spring, when 
they are hatched and the young insects ascend 
the tree. The scale he regards as only the dead 
body of the mother, left after “throwing off her 
eggs.” Had the writer carefully lifted one of 
these scales he would have seen the difference 
between guessing and observation, for he would 
have found under each quite a number of little 
white eggs. These are not thrown off at all, 
but remain under the scale and are hatched 
there. The history of this insect is briefly this. 
The young lice are hatched in June, travel to 
the twigs, where they fix themselves by the pro¬ 
boscis, and subsist like other plant-lice by suck- 
ingthe juices. After they have undergone their 
changes, the perfect male being winged and the 
female wingless, the female increases much in 
size and finally dies, leaving her eggs enclosed 
in the remains of her body, which form a pro¬ 
tecting scale, of the color of the bark. The scale 
itself is not injurious; itisarecordof past injury 
and a warning of trouble to come. This Bark- 
louse is believed to be imported, and is death to 
the trees if neglected. Another Bark-louse 
shows itself in the scale state as milk-white spots; 
underneath this are the eggs which are of a 
red color. Mr. Walsh considers this an Ameri¬ 
can species, and has named it Coccus(?) Harrisi — 
Harris’ Bark-louse ; it is less common than the 
other. The practical point is the destruction of 
these insects. Mr. B. D. Walsh, in the Practi¬ 
cal Entomologist (ajournal we much miss), states 
that the scale is so impervious to solutions of 
soda and potash that they do but little good un¬ 
less applied soon after tlie insect is hatched. 
He tried kerosene, but that killed a share of the 
limbs as well as the insects. Mr. C. V. Riley, in 
the Prairie Farmer, suggests the use of Carbolic 
acid. This acid, or its equivalent, is used in the 
“ Cresylic Soap,” and as this has been found effi¬ 
cient in destroying other insects, we hope to 
hear that it has been useful with the Bark-lice. 
The natural enemies are the Lady-birds and 
birds. Watchfulness is another help—never 
plant a young tree with scale upon its bark. 
No nurseryman who cares for his reputation 
will send out trees thus affected. We shall be 
glad to hear of any successful attempt to stay this 
pest, which threatens to destroy young orchards. 
Weeds — Rib-grass. —(Plantago lanceolata.) 
One of the common weeds of cultivated 
grounds, especially in the older settled portions 
of the country, is the Rib-grass, which is also 
known by the names of Ripple-grass and English 
Plantain. The much reduced engraving will 
recall it to those who do not know it by name. 
It belongs to the same genus as the common 
Plantain, so frequently found about door-yards, 
although the flower spikes of the two are so 
unlike that the relationship is not striking to 
any but a careful observer. Under favorable 
circumstances this species grows two feet high, 
and its perennial root forms a large stool. The 
Rib-grass cannot be classed among the worst 
weeds, as it is eaten by animals, and is not 
particularly aggressive. The chief harm it does 
is to occupy the soil to the exclusion of other 
plants. It has been recommended as a forage 
plant, but is so inferior in quality and product¬ 
iveness that it is at present not esteemed. In 
clover fields it is often the most abundant weed, 
being generally soivn with the seed. The 
seed of the clover and the Rib-grass are so near¬ 
ly alike in size that their separation is difficult, 
and as they resemble one another in color, the 
presence of the weed seed is not noticed in 
ordinary inspection. A magnifier of moderate 
power shows the difference at once; the seed of 
the clover is in shape somewhat like a miniature 
bean and alike on both sides, while that of the 
Rib-grass is convex on one side and concave on 
the other. Prof. Buckman, of England, who 
some years ago made a careful examination of 
rib-grass— (Plantago lanceolata.) 
the seeds in the London markets, found Red 
Clover seed to contain from one million to two 
and a half millions of Rib-grass seeds to the 
bushel, quite enough, should the seed start be¬ 
fore that of the clover, to stock the land. An 
examination of samples of seed from our best 
dealers showed them to be remarkably free 
from seed of Rib-grass, as well as other weeds. 
The White French Turnip. —The people 
of the State of Rhode Island and Providence 
Plantation have long had a most excellent va¬ 
riety of turnip, known as the White French. 
Tradition says that it came in with the French 
fleet in the Revolution. However that may be, 
it was mainly a Rhode Island institution until, 
some years ago, we distributed it far and wide 
among our seed premiums, and we have learned 
from numerous sources of the satisfaction it 
gave. It is a white winter turnip, and raised the 
same as rutabagas, to which it is vastly superior. 
To our taste it is the best of all turnips. That 
it holds its own in Rhode Island is shown by 
some excellent specimens from the farm of 
Col. Geo. E. Waring, at Newport, and that it is 
upon the lists of the principal seedsmen. Its 
only fault is that it grows less smooth than 
some others, and is not so taking to the eye. 
