160 
JOURNAL  OR  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
February  17,  1898. 
But  after  all  we  may  sometimes  make  a  slight  mistake;  we 
forget  that  we  are  looking  at  our  own  and  our  neighbour’s  troubles 
from  different  standpoints — we  see  our  own  through  a  microscope, 
magnified  in  every  detail ;  our  friend’s  troubles  through  the  reversed 
end  of  a  telescope.  In  this  country  we  are  not  often  subject  to 
insect  invasion ;  insect  life  does  not  assume  such  vast  proportions 
here  as  in  some  countries.  True,  some  years  ago  Great  Britain 
suffered  much  from  the  diamond-backed  moth,  but  if  we  mistake 
not,  the  visitation  was  only  for  two  seasons,  and  the  ravages  were 
confined  to  the  Turnip  crop.  This  was  quite  serious  enough  in  all 
conscience,  but  still  the  pest  was,  as  it  were,  localised.  We  need 
not  specify  certain  pests  that  attack  garden  produce,  that  is  not  our 
subject  to-day,  or  we  might  refer  to  the  Onion  maggot  and  the 
Currant  moth,  with  a  host  of  others. 
We  have  been  much  interested  in  an  article  appearing  in  a  recent 
number  of  “  Harper’s  Magazine  ”  headed,  “  A  State  in  Arms  Against 
a  Caterpillar.”  This  caterpillar  is  known  in  England,  being  found 
plentifully  in  fenny  districts,  but  is  not  generally  common.  We  have 
a  specimen  of  the  moth  caught  in  or  about  the  New  jForest,  Hamp¬ 
shire.  The  name  is  Hypogymna  dispar  (the  gipsy  moth),  so  called 
probably  from  the  brown  tanned  colour  of  the  male,  which  is  always 
much  deeper  toned  and  smaller  than  the  female.  On  the  Continent 
it  is  often  a  real  pest,  and  will  strip  the  whole  of  the  trees  in  given 
districts.  The  caterpillar  appears  from  June  to  August,  then  changing 
into  a  moth,  after  a  short  and  busy  life  of  egg-laying,  dies. 
This  pestiferous  insect  is  not  indigenous  to  America.  It  was 
brought  over  to  Medford,  a  suburb  of  Boston,  Massachusetts,  about 
twenty-six  years  ago  by  a  Frenchman.  His  idea  was  to  cross  this 
insect  with  the  silkworm,  and  so  produce  a  hardier  type  of  silk 
spinner.  Unfortunately,  however,  these  creatures  got  their  liberty, 
and  used  it,  and  in  1892  had  spread  over  220  square  miles  of  territory 
■ — a  territory  bounded  by  the  ocean  on  the  east,  Boston  bn  the  south, 
Waltham  and  Lexington  west,  and  Beverley  n  Tth.  In  1889  they 
came  in  such  remorseless  hordes  as  to  sweep  fields,  gardens,  orchards 
and  trees  bare  ;  they  not  only  ate  every  green  thing,  but  the  country 
li'erally  stank  of  them,  as  Egypt  did  of  old  in  the  days  of  the  dead 
frogs. 
Private  enterprise  did  what  it  could,  but  when  one  considers  that 
e.ich  gipsy  egg  cluster  contains  on  an  average  600  eggs  the  work  was 
herculean.  A  calculation  has  been  made  that  a  pair  of  gipsy  moths 
could  produce  sufficient  caterpillars  in  eight  years  to  destroy  the 
entire  vegetation  ot  the  United  States.  Not  only  could  they  devour 
all  vegetation,  but  they  would  pollute  all  water  supplies  by  their  dying 
hosts.  Then  the  State  took  the  matter  in  hand,  an<l  treated  the  cater¬ 
pillar  to  arsenic  spray.  To  this  the  tent  caterpillar  and  canker-worm 
succumb,  but  not  so  this  new  pest.  Indeed,  it  seemed  an  open 
question  whether  the  arsenic  did  not  act  as  a  tonic  rather  than  a 
jioison. 
Next  a  plan  was  tried  for  catching  the  male  moth.  This,  in  a 
measure,  reduced  the  fertility  of  the  eggs;  but  it  was  only  like  a 
child’s  dam  stopping  up  the  course  of  a  stream.  Then  experiments 
were  tried  by  extremes  of  cold  and  heat,  but  neither  mrterially 
affected  the  creature.  A  well  grown  caterpillar  will  live  four  days  in 
water,  and  will  subsist  nine  days  without  food.  The  eggs,  too, 
covered  as  they  are  with  down,  seem  capable  of  resisting  rain,  frost, 
or  fire. 
The  Board  of  Agriculture  tried  the  effect  of  intense  flame  of 
vapourised  petroleum  waste  applied  by  a  hose.  This  had  the  desired 
effect,  and  in  the  heat  the  eggs  exploded.  But  eggs  are  not  easily 
found,  or  rather  they  are  so  carefully  hidden  in  heaps  of  waste,  hollow 
trees,  interstices  of  stone  walls,  the  under  side  of  branches,  the  highest 
twigs  that  reach  the  sky,  the  eaves  of  houses,  the  crannies  of 
buildings,  that  it  is  well-nigh  impossible  to  reach  them  all. 
Birds  have  not  been  found  of  any  material  use  in  diminishing  this 
scourge.  Most  of  the  birds  will  eat  a  few  of  the  caterpillars  or  in 
pupa  form,  but  they  do  not  take  to  this  food  with  any  sort  of  relish. 
There  is  a  talk  of  importing  the  ring-necked  pheasant,  as  it  is  believed 
she  feeds  her  young  on  this  pupae.  One  of  the  schemes  tried  is 
certainly  ingenious  in  its  nature.  In  an  infested  district  it  is  not  an 
uncommon  sight  to  see  whole  plantations  of  trees  adorned  with  a 
strip  of  bagging,  about  5  feet  from  the  ground.  The  caterpillar  likes 
the  dark,  and  gladly  finds  shelter  under  these  strips  as  the  sun  touches 
the  tops  of  the  trees.  These  traps  arc  carefully  and  systematically 
searched,  and  all  life  killed.  In  searching  suspected  ground  for  eggs 
sometimes  three,  or  even  four,  searchers  follow  one  another,  so 
thoroughly  is  the  work  done. 
Then,  again,  a  system  of  covering  over  with  pieces  of  tin  and 
catliking  of  coal  tar  is  resorted  to  as  a  means  by  which  to  prevent  the 
depositing  of  eggs  in  cavities  or  wounds  in  trees.  This  method  also 
must  do  something  towards  the  preservation  of  the  wood.  Then,  too, 
if  trees  are  hadly  infested  they  are  burned,  as  the  surest  means  of 
stopping  the  plague. 
By  all  these  means  carefully  carried  out  the  plague  has  been 
confined  to  one  district.  Were  it  to  cross  the  boundaries  there  is  no 
knowing  where  it  might  be  stayed.  The  caterpillar  is  a  tatal  enemy 
to  the  staple  crop  of  the  Southern  States  (we  mean  cotton),  but  so  far 
it  appears  to  have  a  dislike  to  tobacco. 
In  Eastern  Europe  it  has  been  known  to  defoliate  immense  regions 
in  a  short  space,  and  in  Eussia  only  lately  its  ravages  have  been  most 
extensive.  Unlike  other  insect  pests  (save,  cf  course,  the  locust)  it 
takes  every  green  thing,  and  leave  s  the  land  bare  as  a  desert. 
The  Board  of  Agriculture  in  Massachusetts  does  not  intend  to 
curtail  its  energies  till  it  has  extirpated  the  caterpillar,  and  destroyed 
the  last  egg.  If  our  Board  of  Agriculture  took  similar  steps  with 
regard  to  sheep  scab,  swine  fever,  and  anthrax,  we  as  a  nation  would 
rise  up  and  call  the  Chaiiman  “  blessed.” 
WORK  ON  THE  HOME  FARM. 
Though  we  have  had  at  least  two  frosty  nights  during  the  last  week, 
and  one  day  a  slight  covering  of  snow,  the  weather  could  hardly  be  called 
wintry.  But  although  the  general  appearances  are  those  of  spring,  we 
must  remember  that  February  does  not  belong  to  the  spring  quarter,  and 
not  shout  before  we  are  out  of  the  wood. 
The  great  feature  of  the  present  season  is  its  dryness,  and  the  rainfall 
is  still  quite  insignificant,  so  that  even  without  a  powerful  sun  and  con¬ 
sequent  evaporation,  we  find  the  land  dry  enough  to  work  with  drag  and 
harrow  ;  so  we  keep  at  it,  and  if  nothing  hinders  there  is  no  reason  why 
the  land  should  not  be  ready  for  Turnips  this  month,  if  it  were  Turnip 
time.  We  said  “  if  nothwig  hinders.”  Alas!  The  influenza  fiend  is  on 
the  move,  and  as  we  write  nearly  half  our  hands  are  down  with  it.  The 
horses  had  a  threatening  but  a  slight  attack,  but  it  soon  yielded  to 
remedies.  For  influenza  in  horses  the  best  thing  is  to  rest  them,  keeping 
the  animals  warm,  rub  their  throats  w'ell  with  Elliman’s  embrocation,  and 
give  them  as  much  boiled  linseed  as  they  can  be  induced  to  take. 
Though  we  are  getting  very  forward  with  the  horse  work,  illness 
amongst  the  men,  and  a  scarcity  of  skilled  labour  generally,  tends  rather 
to  accumulate  arrears  in  the  manual  labour  department.  Several  items 
of  hedging  and  ditching  are  stilt  on  hand,  and  though  we  are  prepared  to 
pay  a  good  price  to  a  good  workman,  they  are  likely  to  remain  so. 
When  will  the  youth  of  the  village  see  that  it  is  to  their  great  interest  to 
become  skilled  workmen  1  We  have  plenty  of  men  (so  called),  but  they 
are  nearly  all  the  wrong  sort. 
We  have  not  yet  got  the  Wheat  harrowed,  but  hope  soon  to  do  so. 
The  early  sown  Wheat  is  now  very  big  for  the  time  of  year,  and  the  later 
s  )vvn  crops  look  quite  well  enough. 
Turnips  are  still  very  plentiful,  but  those  unpied  are  growing  and 
losing  quality  very  rapidly,  perhaps  they  would  pay  for  storing  now. 
Grass  is  now  much  more  like  May  than  February,  will  it  be  like  February 
in  May  ? 
METEOROLOaiCAL  OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden  Square,  London. 
Lat.  .^1°  .12'  40"  N.;  Long.  0°  8'  0"  W.:  Altitude  111  feet. 
Date. 
9  A.M. 
In  the  Day. 
1898. 
■ometer 
2°,  and 
i  Level 
Hygrometer 
Direc¬ 
tion  of 
Wind. 
Temp 
of  soil 
at 
Shade  Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Tempera¬ 
ture 
Rain. 
February. 
^2  ? 
Dry. 
Wet. 
1  foot 
Max. 
Min. 
in 
Sun 
On 
Grass 
Sunday  .... 
Monday  .... 
6 
inchs 
29-738 
deg. 
43-1 
deg. 
4-2-8 
S.W. 
deg. 
39-6 
deg. 
46-9 
deg. 
,  32-8 
deg. 
60-3 
deg. 
27-9 
inchs. 
0-068 
7 
29-790 
37-4 
35-2 
W. 
39-6 
46-0 
33-7 
79-2 
29-1 
— 
8 
30-061 
38-2 
37-0 
W. 
38-9 
49-3 
!  32-6 
76-4 
27-6 
0-004 
Wednesday 
9 
30-248 
35-C 
.34-6 
W. 
38-7 
46-3 
i  31-1 
60-0 
26-6 
— 
Thursday  . . 
Friday . 
Saturday. . . . 
10 
30-315 
44-8 
42-8 
s.  w. 
39-4 
49-4 
35-1 
58-9 
31-4 
— 
11 
30  -.333 
45-4 
42-9 
s. 
40-9 
49-1 
44-1 
64-7 
40-9 
0-016 
12 
30-356 
45-1 
44-9 
w. 
41-9 
52-2 
i  44-2 
60-3 
40-7 
0-096 
30-1-20 
41-3 
40-0 
39-9 
48-5 
j  36-2 
64-3 
32-0 
0-174 
6th. — Steady  rain  from  4.30  a.m.  to  9  a.m.,  and  showers  after;  a  little  sun  in 
afternoon  ;  clear  night. 
Tth. — Bright  sun  almost  throughout,  but  occasional  sprinkles  of  rain  mixed  with 
soft  hail  between  noon  and  1  p.m. 
8th. — Sunny  morning  ;  shower  at  3  P.M.  and  spots  of  rain  at  4  p.m.  ;  clear  night. 
9th. — Hazy  early  ;  faint  sunshine  generally,  bright  at  times  in  morning. 
10th. — Fair  with  a  little  sunshine  in  morning. 
11th. — Overcast  almost  throughout ;  a  gleam  of  sun  at  sunset. 
12th. — Dull  and  damp  early  ;  fair  day. 
Another  v^eek  of  high  temperature  and  pressure  with  little  rain.  — G.  J.  SYMONS. 
