MANN SPEC. LORE: QL 46Z. = 544 En cata ae a ale i ane. ae ~~ +» a i ae . a, ne saosdnyzueg URA'D FOUNT aNAvegry wosdnyqueg ueAD F {or mAsOs-IAY JO NIOW) wv SlILW Wel SAD Sl SMI . Ss ; - REPORT OF DR. FITCH ON THE NOXIOUS AND OTHER INSECTS Detrimental to Agriculture. ALSO AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE NEW YORK STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. INSECTS INFESTING GARDENS, 9, Norrnern Topacco-worm, Porato-worm, Tomato-worm, Sphina: qwinguemac- ulata, Haworth. (Lepidoptera. Sphingide.) Plate 4, fig. 1. Enting the leaves of potatoes, tomatoes, and tobacco, in July and August, a large green worm, the size of one’s finger, with a black horn at the end of its back and along each side a row of seven white or pale yellow marks resembling the letter < with its pointed end forward; lying under ground in its pupa state during the winter and spring, aud producing a large gray moth, four and a half inches wide across its extended wings, having a row of five yellow spots along each side of its body and two narrow black zigzag bands across the middle of its hind wings. Hon. William Kelly, in a letter enclosing to me one of the millers which had been obtained from the tobacco-worm by Charles L. Roberts, Hsq., of Taviffville, Ct., well remarks that the culture of tobacco has become so important an interest now at the North, that any information in regard to its insect enemies will be read with interest. Mr. Roberts alludes to this tobacco-worm as being quite prevalent in his vicinity. And the pains which some other correspondents and friends engaged in the culture of tobacco have taken to transmit specimens of the worm or the miller to me is an evidence of the importance they attach to this insect. And it may well be regarded as an important enemy; for this tobacco-worm makes the growing of tobacco twice as laborious a task as it would be if we had no such insect in our country. This is currently supposed to be a new insect here at the North, unlike anything which we previously had, and that its presence here is due to the extensive growing of tobacco which has recently been commenced. It, however, is the same worm which, from time immemorial, we have been accustomed to meet with in midsummer upon our potato vines, and 1 2 TOBACCO-WORM. THE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN SPECIES. with which we have become more familiarly acquainted from seeing it so frequently upon the tomato vines ever since this vegetable came into general cultivation in our gardens. And it has obtained the names Potato-worm, Tomato-worm, and now Tobacco-worm, as it occurs t:pon one or the other of these plants, most persons supposing it to be a different insect in each case. These three plants are closely related to each other, all pertaining to the same Natural Order, Soranace” and this insect feeds upon each of them without appearing to manifest any preference for one over the other. It feeds equally well, also, upon other species of the genus Solanum, to which the potato pertains. I once met with two full- grown worms upon a vine of the bittersweet (Solanum Duleamara) which was growing so distant from any potatoes that it was evident they could not have strayed from that plant, but must have come from eggs which the parent had laid upon this vine, knowing it to be perfectly adapted for nourishing her young, It is probable that it can also nourish itself upon the stramonium, henbane, and most other plants of this Natural Order. The tobacco-worm which is common at the South and such a great pest to the plantations there, is a different species, but so closely like this in its size, colors, markings and habits, both in its larva and perfect state, that the two insects were for a long time confounded together. It is now just a century ago that the miller or moth of the southern tobacco worm was scientifically named Sphinx Carolina by Linneeus; and it was fifty years later in 1802, that our insect was separated as a distinct species by Mr. Haworth, who gave it the name Sphina 5-maculatus, or the Five-spotted Sphinx, Hubner some years afterwards giving it the name Celeus. I sup- pose it to have been through an oversight that authors generally have copied ‘the original name from Mr, Haworth in its masculine form, which is evi- dently an inaccuracy. Mr, Clemens, in his Synopsis of North American Sphingidee, (Journal Acad. Natural Sciences, new series, vol. IV, p. 166,) cites Dr. Harris as describing the Carolina in his Catalogue of North Ameri- can Sphinges (Silliman’s Journal, vol. XXXVI, p. 294), whereas it is clear- ly the 5-maculata which is there described under the name Carolina. He also gives both these species as being distributed generally throughout the United States. But over most of New England and New York the 5-maculata is the exclusive species, I have no knowledge of the Carolina as occurring except in the southern sections of our State, where, and throughout the middle States, the two species are found associated togeth- er; whilst farther south this disappears and the Carolina alone is met with, its geographical range extending onward through Mexico and the West Indies, and into South America, probably as far as the tobacco grows. As already remarked, the two insects are closely alike both in their larva and their perfect states. The worms are of a bright green color, their skin is wrinkled transversely and is commonly dotted over with white, and they are both marked with a row of oblique white stripes along each side of the body; but in the southern worm there are no longitudinal white streaks meeting the lower ends of these oblique ones to form the V-like marks which we. invariably see upon our northern worm, In their perfect state the 3 TOBACCO-WORM. THE PARENT MOTH. HER LONG TONGUE. MER FOOD. HER EGGS. millers of both species are of a gray color with a row of five yellow spots along each side of the body, these spots being bordered with black, and the wings are varied with brown clouds and obscurely marked with black lines, and on their undersides the hind wings are crossed by two blackish zigzag bands, which are also obscurely traced upon the forward pair. Thus they are so alike in their colors, and in so many of those spots and marks which are most conspicuous, and which the eye first notices, that you feel quite certain on looking them over, that they are both one species. It is only when you come to closely inspect some particular points that you de- tect such discrepancies as assure you they really are different insects. The plainest mark of distinction between them is the black bands which cross the upper side of their hind wings. In the moth of our northern Tobacco- worm you see two zigzag bands on the middle of the wings, the same as on the underside. But in the southern you observe in place of these a single broad band, which is very slightly, if at all, toothed or jagged along its sides. In addition to this, on the hind body of the former, you notice a slender black stripe along the middle of the back, of which there are no vestiges in the latter. These marks will suffice to enable any one who has either of these millers under his eye to decide which species of the two it is. We will next relate the biography of our insect. The moths do not all make fer appearance simultaneously, but come out one after another, mostly.in the month of July, though continuing to ocew! abroad until the frosts of autumn have destroyed the flowers from which they are fed. During the day time they remain at rest, hid from view, and come out in the evening to feed and lay their eggs. From its thus appearing abroad upon the wing at the same hours when the musketos are most numerous and annoying; Drury states that the southern species has in some parts of the West Indies obtained the name of the Musketo Hawk, it being also supposed that it is attracted forth at that particular time in order to feed upon these petty torments, This, however, is a great error: The sole food of these moths is the honey of flowers, for obtaining which: they are furnished with a remarkably long slender tongue, which, when not in use, is coiled up like a watch spring, and concealed between the palpi or feelers. It may be unrolled and drawn out by inserting a pin into the coil, and when fully extended is five or six mches in length. Thus it is especially adapted for probing flowers which have long slender tubes, such as the tobacco, stramonium, petunia, &c., whose nectaries are beyond the. reach of bees and other honey gathering insects. The moth resembles a humming bird in its motions, and also in the sound made by its wings as it is hovering around flowers and sipping the honey from them. The tongue is _ fully extended at such times; and hereby the moth is poised on its wings at a distance of some inches from the flower on which it is nourishing itself. The eggs are probably placed on the underside of the leaves of those plants on which its young feeds. The worms which come from these eggs’ are voracious feeders, consuming a large quantity of foliage and growing rapidly, whereby some of the earliest ones attain their full size by the end of July; but it is during the month of August that they are present upon 4 TOBACCO-WORM. ITS HABITS. THE PUPA. DEPTH OF ITS INTERMENT- the plants in the greatest numbers. They move about but little during the daytime, and being of the same green color as the stalks and leaves, they are difficult to discover. Usually, the presence of one of these worms upon our tomatoes is first indicated tous by the large black pellets of excrement which it drops, some of which frequently lodge in the forks of the stalks or adhere to the glutinous hairs of the plant. These pellets are of a short cylindrical form, and deeply grooved lengthwise; and the worm, as if to guard against its presence being betrayed hereby, when it is crawling along the stalks, if it chances to come to one of these pellets, it pauses and takes it up in its jaws and drops it to the ground. When the worm is grown to its full size it leaves the plant on which it has hitherto been living, sometimes wandering away to a distance from it, and roots down into the ground to the depth of some inches below the surface. It here becomes quiescent, and casting off its larva skin it appears in its pupa or chrysalis form. By this change it is diminished a third in its size and is now of an oval form, four times as long as thick, and covered with a hard crustaceous shell of a glossy bright chestnut color. This pupa of the tobacco-worm is particularly curious from having its for- ward end prolonged on one side into a long slender limb which is bent backwards, reaching the middle of the body, where its end touches and is firmly soldered to the surface, thus forming a kind of loop resembling the handle to a pitcher—this being the sheath in which the tongue is enclosed, which in the perfect insect becomes developed to such a remark- able length. In this state the insect remains through the winter and spring. It is currently stated that it lies so deep in the ground as to be beyond the reach of the winter’s frost, but this point requires further inves- tigation, for frequently in harvesting potatoes this chrysalis is disinterred, lyiag only a few inches below the surface. Every laborer who has been much employed in digging potatoes, and every boy who has been assigned the task of picking them up, will recollect having noticed it, the curious loop or pitcher-like handle on one side having particularly drawn his attention to it. In the garden, also, where tomatoes have been grown, I have met with it only slightly underground. The subsoil, moreover, beneath where it is loosened by the plow, is in most situations so compact and hard that it would be # very arduous labor for the worm to penetrate downward in it twelve inches or more; and for the moth, after it comes out from the pupa shell, to force itself up such a distance through this compact subsoil, would seem to be quite impossible. We know, furthermore, that the pupe of the other lepidoptera, several of them equalling this in size, pass the winter, some in cocoons elevated above the ground, others upon the surface, others slightly under the surface, where they one and all become congealed by the winter’s cold without impairing their vitality. I am therefore led to conelude that the repeated instances in which I have ‘ met with this pupa lying but a few inches within the loose surface soil were not abnormal, but that this is the depth to which it is commonly buried; and that previous accounts, which represent it as lying deep in the ground, beyond the reach of the frost, are erroneous. When tho, 5 TOBACCO-WORM. MOTH DESCRIBED. ITS HEAD. ITS BODY. warmth of spring has penetrated the earth sufficiently to quicken it again into life, its internal parts continue their growth and development, until the perfect insect becomes formed within the pupa shell. This shell then cracks open and the moth withdraws itself from it, crowds its way upward through the ground, and comes forth in its perfect form. We next proceed to describe this insect in its different states. The Morn or perfect insect (Plate 4, fig. 1, is densely coated over with hairs and scales, wholly hiding the surface of the body from view. Its dimensions vary in the two sexes—the body of the female being somewhat shorter and more thick than that of the male. The former usually mea- sures two inches in length, the latter a quarter of an inch more. Its width from tip to tip of the extended wings is much the same in both sexes— seldom varying but a trifle from four inches and a half. The Heap is pale gray with a brown spot upon each side forward of the eye. The eyes are large and protuberant. The palpi are large and ap- pressed {o the under side of the head, with their ends projecting forward and forming a bluntly-rounded apex to the head. The long spiral tongue is glossy, yellowish brown, with its basal portion black on each side. ‘The antenn are almost half the length of the body, and somewhat shorter in the female than in the male, They are brown, and on the exterior side hoary gray. They are nearly straight, and of a thick clumsy appearance, increas- ing in thickness very slightly and gradually from the base almost to the tip, and then rapidly taper into a sharp point, which is curved backward. In the males they have along the two flattened faces of their inner side a fine fringe of short hairs placed at the end of each joint. The ‘THorax is gray, and in front is crossed by two curved black lines meeting at their ends, forming the outline of a crescent having its convex side forward, And on each side of the middle are two black lines parallel with each ether through most of their length, extending backward and out- ward along the edges of the shoulder cover. The hind part of the thorax is brown, with a large black spot upon each side—each of these black spots having on its fore side a roundish blue gray spot, which is edged an- teriorly with a transverse line of white or sky-blue hairs. The sides are pale gray, with a brown streak extending from the eye backward to the under side of the wing socket. The Aspomen has the form of a cone nearly three times as long as thick. In the males it is composed of seven rings—the last ones becoming grad ually shorter, and ending in two compressed tufts of hair, which are of a broad elliptical form, and tapering to a point at theirends. In the females the abdomen is plainly shorter and thicker, composed of but six rings—the last one larger than that which precedes it, and ending in a crown of hairs forming a short cylindrical brush. On the back it is of a gray color, with a slender black stripe along the middle, a white band at the base, and a row of white spots along each side placed in the sutures—the opposite spots being in some instances prolonged into each other, and thus forming a white band upon each suture. Upon the sides the ground color is coal black— this color being notched into at the sutures by the above mentioned row of 6 TOBACCO-WORM. THE MOTH. ITS LEGS. PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON THE WINGS. white spots along its upper side, and more deeply along its lower side by a similar row of larger white spots; and on the middle of each of the five first rings is a large round spot of a bright ochre yellow color—the hind ones smaller. The under side is pale gray, with a row of round black spots along the middle, from three to five in number—the second one being the largest. The Lees are gray, paler on their undersides, the feet becoming brown towards their tips, with white rings on the joints. The middle and hind shanks have a pair of spurs at their tips on the underside, and the hind ones have a second pair placed a short distance above the first. These spurs are gray, with naked brown shining thorn-like tips, one spur of each pair being Jonger than its mate. The feet are five-jointed, the first joint being much the longest, and the following ones successively shorter, with a pair of sharp hooks at the end, On their undersides are rows of small black or brown prickles, with a crown of larger ones at the apex of each joint, and along the hindside of the forward feet and shanks is a series of much larger ones. Preliminary to our description of the wings of this moth the reader should be apprised of some generalities respecting the markings of the wings in the insects of this order. In the immensely numerous group which in com- mon language we designate as millers or moths, and which are scientifi- eally termed the Crepuscular and Nocturnal Lepidoptera, an almost endless diversity in the spots and marks upon the fore wings is met with. Upon looking them over, one after another, no one will suspect there is any sys- tem, any uniformity, to these spots and marks, except it may be here and there among the individuals of a particular genus or tribe, And yet, when we come to inspect them more particularly, we shall discover that the same general designs are repeated, the same pattern is copied, more or less com- pletely and distinetly, all through this vast series of objects, it being vari- ations only in the minor details of the figures, as to their particular form, size, colors and distinctness, that make up the wonderful diversity which exists. These markings, which are common to the wings of such numbers of these motlis, are situated’ and designated as follows: First, between the centre of the wings and its outer margin we observe sometimes one but more commonly two small spots of a peculiar aspect. These are called the stigmas or stigmata, this name stigma having been anciently given to a mark burned with a hot iron upon the foreheads of slaves who had been convicted of theft or other crime. Second, extending across the middle of the wing and between the two stigmas is frequently a darker cloudIness, which has been termed the median shade, Fiually, the wing is also crossed by three bands, bars or strige, as they are differently termed by different writers; first, the anterior, extra-basal or sub-basal, which is placed immediately forward of the anterior stigma; second, the post-medial or elbowed band, immedi- ately back of the posterior stigma; and third, the sub-terminal, sub-apical or penultimate, which is usually more slender and distinct than either of the others and is parallel with and a short space forward of the hind mar- gin... _In the moth which is now before us the spots and marks upon the 7 TOBACCO-WORM. THE MOTH. ITS WINGS DESCRIBED. fore wings appear to have been regarded by previous writers as being so confused and obscure that they have attempted to give no full description of them, Yet we here find the same series of bands extending across the wing's as are mentioned above, though portions of some of them are so modified, so faint and irregular, that they can be satisfactorily made out only in specimens which are most perfect, and by an eye that is well exer- cised in tracing the very obscure marks which so frequently occur upon the wings of this order of insects. The Wines are long and narrow, the hind ones twice and the forward ones nearly thrice as long as broad. They are traversed by strong longi- tudinal veins, of which there are eight in number ending in the hind mar- gin of each wing and running nearly parallel and equidistant from each other. The upper wings are gray with a large faint brown cloud occupy- ing the disk and apex. Two bands, each formed of three parallel brown or blackish lines extend across these wings, very irregularly, the one before, the other behind the middle. The anterior band we describe ag follows. On the inner margin towards the base are three parallel lines, usually very distinct, running obliquely backward and outward half way across the wing to the anterior end of the brown cloud, each line being turned abruptly forward and forming an acute angular point upon the seventh one of the eight longitudinal veins. Beyond this, these lines become very obscurely traced, only one or two of them being dimly per- ceptible, extending along the outer side of the anterior end of the brown cloud, till they nearly reach the small stigma spot, where they again turn obliquely forward and outward, here becoming more distinct for a short distance on the inner side of the first vein, across which they are continued in three very oblique streaks to the outer margin, the anterior one ending about opposite to its commencement on the inner margin. The stigma is a very small egg-shaped spot, placed obliquely, with its smaller end towards the in- ner base of the wing, its centre gray and no paler than the ground color around it, it being in most instances marked only by the dusky ring around its margin, The three lines forming the post-medial band commence near the middle of the inner margin, the two anterior lines running backwards parallel with the inner margin, till they reach the inner vein of the wing, between which and the next vein they each form a mark shaped like an arrow-head, at a considerable distance apart. They then pass upon the brown cloud which occupies the central portion of the wing, where they are widened into two broad, dusky streaks, which are cloud-like and obscure, running obliquely and nearly parallel with the hind margin until they reach the fourth vein, where they abruptly turn to a transverse direction and extend onward to the margin at right angles therewith, these lines being formed of conflu- ent arrow-headed spots, which are more distinct in the anterior line, particu- larly at its outer end, The third line of this band extends across the wing parallel with the second one, the space between them being grayish, this. color forming three or four pale cloud-like spots on the inner side of the middle of the wing occupying the angles formed by the arrow-heads com- posing this portion of the second line. Where this third line crosses the 8 TOBACCO-WORM., THE MOTH. ITS UNDER WINGS. inner vein it juts backward, forming a very acute angle, as it does also in a less degree in crossing most of the other veins Extending across the three lines of the post-medial band, in the space between the third and fourth veins, are two very slender black lines, which are united at their ends, forming a very narrow, elongated ellipsis, its anterior end very acute and reaching almost to the stigma, And parallel with this on its inner side, in the space between the fourth and fifth veins is a similar ellipsis, which is less than half the size of the outer one. These ellipses some- times appear merely as gray streaks, the black lines along their edges being obsolete, that along the outer edge of the outer one being most prominent and near its forward end widened into a small oval spot. For- ward of the hind margin is a coal black line, the sub-terminal, the most dis- tinct and conspicuous of all the marks upon the wings. Itis waved towards its inner end, conforming to corresponding but more slight curvatures of the third line of the post-medial band, with which line itis parallel through its whole length, a narrow brown space intervening between them. It is frequently deflected forward as it crosses the fourth vein, and it here ter- minates in the hind end of the elongated ellipsis. Behind this line, extend- ing aiong the border of the wing near its extreme edge, is a white line, the space between it and the black line being clouded with bluish gray. Finally, upon the brown ground at the apex of the wing is an oblique coal black line, extending from tip forward and inward to the post-medial band, where it ends between the second and third veins, Its hinder por- tion is margined on the outer side by a pale streak, and where it crosses the second vein it curves forward and forms an acute angle. The fringe is short and brown, alternated with small gray spots placed half way between the ends of the veins. The under wings are blackish at their base, and have a broad, gray hind border, all their middle portion being dull white, and crossed by four black bands, ‘The anterior band is curved, and is commonly united with the second band inside of the middle, and again at its inner end. The second and third bands are parallel or slightly recede from each other towards their outer ends, their inner ends being usually curved almost to a half cirele, with the coneaye side facing forward, the second band being widened and often becoming double inthe middle of its curvature. Through the remainder of their length these bands are zig-zag or composed of arrow heads united at their ends, which form acute points projecting backward upon each of the veins. The fourth band is broader than the others, but towards its inner end it tapers and gradually becomes slender, its outer end being curved forward. It is parallel with the hind margin, and forms a border to the gray color of the hind part of the wing. The fringe is short, and of a brown color alternated with white, and becoming wholly white at the inner angle. On their undersides their upper wings are dull brownish gray, more clear gray along the outer border, and ave crossed in their middle by two ob- scure dusky bands, sometimes with a third band very dimly perceptible between them. These bands, asis particularly obvious in the hind one, are 9 TOBACCO-WORM. THE WORM DESCRIBED. formed of a series of curves on the spaces between the veins, with their ends turned backward and forming angles upon the veins; and at the tips of these wings is a black oblique line, corresponding with that upon the upper side, but much more slender and simple. The hind wings are gray, with their hind border down, and are crossed by two blackish bands, which are repetitions of the two middle bands of the upper surface, but more dim, more slender, and running back upon the veins in longer and sharper points. The Larva grows to the thickness of one’s little finger, and is somewhat over three inches in length or three and a half inches when it is crawling, it being then more elongated than when at rest. Its surface is destitute of hairs or bristles. It is divided into thirteen segments, those at each end SNS AWS aay, WO _— _ aim FEBEUBON ALBEE Tobacco Worm. being shorter and less distinct. The surface of each segment of the body is crossed transversely by impressed lines and roundly elevated intervening spaces, giving them a ribbed appearance, there being eight of these eleva- ted ribs to each segment. In viewing this larva the eye first of all notices a formidable looking, stout, thorn-like horn, placed at the hind end of the back, and projecting obliquely upward and backward, about as long as the segment which is next forward of it, slightly curved, and its surface rough from little projecting points. Low down upon each side is a row of large oval dots, which are the spiracles or breathing pores. The head is small, horny and shining, of a flattened spherical form, and the mouth furnished with a pair of stout jaws. It has three pairs of small tapering feet placed anteriorly upon the breast, each having a sharp hook at its end, and four pairs of short, thick, fleshy pro-legs along the underside of the body, with two similar ones at the tip. The color of this worm is commonly bright green marked with white. Numerous faint whitish dots are usually perceptible, at least on the fore- part and underside of its body, and along each side are seven straight oblique stripes, the last one of which is prolonged more or less distinctly to the base of the curved horn, These stripes are usually margined along their upper sides by a faint dusky cloudiness; and meeting their lower endsis a longitudinal stripe, placed low down upon each segment, and forming with the oblique stripe, a V-shaped mark, having its point directed forward, with the breathing pore placed in the angle which is thus formed. The hind- most breathing pore also has a much shorter and more faint white stripe 10 TOBACCO-WORM. VARIES GREATLY IN COLOR. TIE PUPA DESCRIBED. on its apper and another on its lower side, the two stripes uniting together forward of it; and at the anterior end a faint white streak is commonly. visible for a short distance forward of the lower end of the first oblique stripe. At the hind end of the body is a flattened triangular space which is margined with white upon each side. The head is green, sometimes with a vertical black streak upon each side. The anterior legs are dusky towards their tips, and on their inner sides are a few small black bristles. The soles of the pro-legs are black, as is also the curved horn at the end of the back. This larva is liable to vary in its colors to a surprising extent. Many persons from noticing in their gardens worms which are so totally dissimi- lar in their colors confidently suppose there are two or three different spe- cies of them infesting their tomatoes. And the same varieties occur upon the potato, and probably also upon tobacco, Its most common color is leek green. From this it varies to lighter yellowish green, and on the other hand to various shades of darker brownish and blackish green. In other instances the green color wholly vanishes, and the wormis pale or deep amber brown, blackish brown, purplish black or pure black. In these brown and black varieties the head sometimes retains its normal green color, but is usually the same color with the body. The dots upon the skin and the oblique stripes along the sides are very often light yellow instead of white; and where the ground color of the worm is dark brown or black, these markings are always yellow, or sometimes pale pink red. The breathing pores are black, but sometimes dark red or dull yellow, and are surrounded by a ring of white or pale blue, which is usually inclosed in a second ring which is sometimes brown, sometimes black. The curved tail-like horn, so far as my observation goes, is the only part which is constant in its color, this being always black. » The Pera or chrysalis is of an oval form, its opposite sides nearly parallel through most of its length, and tapering at each end. It is four times as long as thick, its length being two to two and a half inches. It is of a chestnut brown color, paler in some places and blackish in others. The anterior end is irregularly narrowed and gla ee at its apex is prolonged into a remarka- bly long cylindrical tongue-case the thickness of a coarse knitting-needle, which projects downward and is curved backward at a distance of nearly a fourth of an inch from the surface of the breast, becoming straight through the last half of its Jength and reaching half the length of the body. It is thickened and bluntly rounded at its end, which slightly touches the surface of the body and is firmly soldered thereto. It is evenly ribbed transversely, appvaring as though the enclosed tongue were divided into a number of short joints like the antenne, and along its outer and its inner sides are two elevated lines extending its whole length. The wing-sheaths are smooth and glossy, with faint elevated lines marking the veins of the inclosed wings. They are firmly soldered 11 TOBACCO-WORM. KILLED BY INTERNAL PARASITES. THEIR HABITS. to the body, and reach two-thirds of its length, and interposed between them at their ends is a single pair of the leg-sheaths, which exactly equal them in length. Along their lower edges are the antenne-sheaths, regu- larly marked with transverse impressed lines, and tapering to a very acute point on each side of ‘the end of the tongue-case. The rings of the body are closely and confluently punctured on their anterior sides and show numerous transverse irregular scratches and fine wrinkles towards their posterior edges. The breathing pores form a row of oval impressions along each side, each having two acutely elevated lines and between them a narrow elliptic cleft, On the back at the base of the abdomen is a smooth black transverse ridge interrupted in its middle. The three short rings at the hind end are rapidly narrowed, forming a conical point having at its tip two small thorn-like points, one larger than the other. We come in the next place to consider the natural enemies and destroy- ers which restrain this insect from becoming excessively multiplied and numerous. Large and vigorous as this tobacco-worm is, enveloped in such a tough, leathery skin, and jerking its body about with the force and spite- fulness it does when anything molests it, we should scarcely suppose any other creature would care to encounter it. And yet it finds its mortal foe in a little four winged fly, scarcely a thousandth part of its size. It is truly wonderful that such a pigmy as is this fly is able to attack and destroy such an elephant as is this worm. “The fly alights upon the worm, and with the short sting or ovipositor with which it is furnished pierces its skin and inserts a minute egg in the puncture. It continues to repeat this opera- tion at one point and another upon the back and sides of the worm, until its whole stock of eggs, amounting to a hundred or more, is exhausted. These eges hatch minute maggots, which distribute themselves all through the body of the worm, feeding upon its fatty substance, but without attack- ing any of its vital parts. And thus the worm continues industriously to feed and elaborate nourishment for feasting and pampering these greedy parasites which are luxuriously rioting within it. If a worm which is thus infested be cut into, it appears to be everywhere filled with these little fat maggots. When they have got their growth they gnaw out through the skin, but instead of dropping to the ground and there secreting themselves as they would be expected to do, they still cling to the unfortunate worm, each maggot spinning for itself a little oval white cocoon, one end of which it fastens to the skin of the worm at the orifice where it has issued from it. Thus the worm comes to present the remarkable spectacle of being clothed, as it were, with a hundred or more of these cocoons, resembling little white seeds like kernels of rice adhering to and in places wholly cov- ering its back and sides. I have counted one hundred and twenty-four of these cocoons upon a single worm, and a still larger number will probably be found in some instances, These parasitic cocoons are milk white and of a regular oval form, 0.15 long and 0.06 broad. Their walls are no thicker than thin writing paper, but are very dense and firm. Their surface is minutely uneven, with a few loose, wrinkled threads at one end, whereby they are held to the skin of 12 TOBACCO-WORM. PARASITE DESCRIBED. ITS HEAD. ITS BODY. the worm, yet so slightly that they are liable to be detached by the slight» est force, some of them falling off, sometimes, merely from the motions of the worm. When these parasites issue from it the worm has become so weakened and exhausted that it ceases feeding and moving about, and in about three days afterwards all traces of its vitality have vanished. The multitude of minute hooks with which the soles of its pro-legs are furnished, however, continue to hold the dead worm to the stalk of the plant, with its head hanging downwarks and its body shrunken and flaccid from the evapora- tion of its fluids, until some agitation of the plant by the winds or other violence detaches it and it falls to the ground. In the meantime the parasites change to pupe, and after remaining in the cocoons seven days they come out from them in their perfect form, The flies ave black, with clear transparent wings, and legs of a bright tawny yellow color, the hue of bees-wax, with the hind feet and the tips of the hind shanks dusky. They belong to the order Hymenorrera, and to that group of the Ichneumon-flies, which in works of science have been termed Ichneumonides adsciti or the family Braconipm. Several of the species of this family present the singular character of having the eyes pubescent, numerous fine short erect hairs arising from their surface. These pertain to a particular genus which has received the name Microgaster, from two Greek words, equivalent to our English term “small-bellied”’ It is to this genus that these parasites of the Tobacco-worm belong. And they were described by Mr. Say, in a posthumous paper which was published in the year 1885, in the Boston Journal of Natural History, vol. i, p. 262, under the name Microgaster congregata or the Congregated Microgaster, in allu- sion to their young being found together in such numbers upon a single worm, The Topacco-worm Parasite, Microgaster congregata, is of a coal black color and 0.14 long when living. After death it contracts in drying and is then scarcely 0.12 in length, and the male is a size smaller, not exceeding 0.10. Its head is spherividal, or of a flattened globular form, with the an- tenn inserted in the middle of the front side. ‘The antenne are coarse, thread-like, and longer than the body in the male, shorter in the female. They are composed of about seventeen joints so closely connected that their articulations are difficult to perceive. ‘The joints gradually become slightly shorter and less thick as they approach the tips. The palpi and jaws are white, The eyes are distant from each other on the sides of the head, and in a strong light their surface is seen to be closely bearded over with mi- nute short hairs. Between them on the crown the eyelets or ocelli appear as three small glassy dots placed at the corners of a triangle. The thorax is the broadest part of the body. It is egg-shaped, its surface minutely and closely punctured, and back of the middle it is crossed by a deep groove, The abdomen is oblong oval, and about the same length as the thorax. It is smooth and shining, except the two first segments which are rough from obscure shallow punetures, with an elevated longitudinal line in the middle, On its underside the three first segments are pale yellow, with a dusky 13 TOBACCO-WORM. PARASITE DESCRIBED. ITS WINGS. spot on the middle of each, that on the third segment being large, and as the sutures contract in drying these spots become united. At its tip the abdomen in the female is compressed and vertically truncated, with the sting forming a conspicuous projecting point at the lower end of the trun- cation. In the male the tip is rounded and without any projecting point, though when living it may sometimes be seen to protrude two styles or slender cylindrical processes pointed at their tips, and between these a thicker process from the apex of which a fine bristle is occasionally thrust out. The legs are bright tawny yellow, becoming more dull and pale in the dried specimen. The hind feet and tips of the hind shanks are smoky or blackish. The hind thighs are also blackish at their tips, and frequently show a dusky line along their upper sides, extending nearly to the base. The wings are hyaline, glassy and iridescent. The forward pair have the stigma appearing as a large, opake, triangular, brownish black spot on their outer side slightly beyond the middle. The vib or marginal vein is thick and brownish black, becoming paler brown towards its base. The basal portion of the wing is traversed by two pale longitudinal veins, which are parallel, the outer one straight, the inner one curved towards its base. The outer vein sends off a long and nearly straight branch obliquely outward and backward to the anterior end of the stigma, this branch bounding the discoidal and the first cubital cells on their fore sides. The discoidal cell is triangular, with the vein on its inner side brown and angu- larly bent at one-third and again at two-thirds of its length, giving off at each of these angles a short oblique veinlet, the first one of which is brown and the other colorless. The first cubital cell is of the same size with the discoidal, and is irregularly six-sided, the anterior and the inner sides being quite short; and the veinlet bounding this cell posteriorly is thick and brownish black, the inner half of its length being oblique and the outer half transverse, ending in the inner angle of the stigma. Beyond this, traversing the apical third of the wing are three longitudinal veins, which are very slender and colorless. The middle one of these veins is abruptly thickened and blackish brown for a very short distance at its base, this thickened portion forming, with the oblique inner end of the veinlet last described, two of the sides of the small triangular cellule which is common in the wings of the insects of this genus and family, but the short veinlet which should complete the enclosure of this cellule on its hind side, is wholly wanting. Mr. Say is wholly silent respecting the interesting habits of this insect, merely remarking that he obtained eighty-four of the flies from the larva of a Sphinx in the month of June. As I have had the flies come from the cocoons in July and also in September, it is probable that they are abroad upon the wing during the whole summer season, actively searching for suitable worms to inoculate with their eggs. As will be seen from a state- ment in one of the following pages, this parasite does not appear to be limited to the tobacco-worm, but preys upon the larvee of other species of Sphinx also, And some of our other species of Microgaster have the same habit of fastening their cocoons to the larvae from which they respectively 14 TOBACCO-WORM. PARASITE’S COCOONS MISTAKEN FOR EGGS. ITS RAPID INCREASE. issue. It is notrare, therefore, to meet with a worm which is thus burthened and shackled; and they are justly regarded as great curiosities. Correspond- ents have frequently sent me examples of this kind; some of them suppos- ing in the fullest confidence that the little cocoons adhering to the back of the worm were eggs which the worm had laid, thus demonstrating, as it was thought, that the statements made in these Reports were erroneous, that it is only in their perfect and never in their larva state that insects produce eggs. This is an error into which every one who is not acquainted with insects and their wonderful habits and transformations will be very apt to fall, the shape, color and size of these cgcoons being so much like eges which a large worm like this might be expected to generate. And it shows in a strong light how important it is that our population should be correctly informed and measurably intelligent in this science. For a person destroying one of these worms will be particularly careful to also destroy all these supposed eges; deeming that in each one of them he in effect destroys another worm; instead of which he hereby protects and insures the upgrowth of another worm—thus doing the very thing which he is aim- ing to prevent. Of the hundred flies which are bred from one of these Ichneumonized tobacco-worms, we may assume that fifty at least will on an average be females, to destroy fifty more worms. We thus see what efficient agents these insects are in checking the increase of this moth, and what an important service they hereby render us. Indeed, when we recur to the fact that these parasites attain their growth in a space of time so very much shorter than does the tobacco-worm, whereby there is probably two generations of them to one of the latter, it will appear that the parasites issuing from a single Ichneumonized worm will suffice to destroy two thousand and five hundred other worms within the time that one brood of these worms is growing up to maturity. They would therefore speedily exterminate these worms from existence, were they permitted to go on multiplying themselves without any check. And they are so well secreted and protected that there would seem to be little risk of their being dis- covered and destroyed by any enemy. For during their larva state, when they are soft and tender and without feet or any other means of defence or escape, they are lodged within the body of the tobacco-worm where they are secure from harm; and when they issue therefrom they immediately enclose themselves in tough paper-like cocoons, in which they lie hid until they have acquired wings wherewith to fly away from any danger which menaces them. Thus they would seem to be protected and safe from injury. Yet the artifice of enclosing themselves in cocoons fails to procure them immunity. Another minute insect has been created and endowed with the sagacity to discover them in the little pods in which they hide themselves, and there this creature metes ont to them the same treatment which the tobacco-worm receives from them. Thus the tobacco-worm does not die unavenged. The lingering, miserable death which it has suf- fered, its enemies, as if by an act of retributive justice, are doomed to undergo in their turn.: 15 TOBACCO-WORM. A DESTROYER OF THE PARASITE DISCOVERED. On one occasion, when I was contemplating one of the tobacco-worms which I met with covered over with parasitic cocoons, I noticed a very small fly wandering about among the cocoons. My first thought was that this fly was probably one of the Microgaster parasites which had just then come from some one of these cocoons ; but the query soon arose in my mind, whether it might not be an enemy, stinging the cocoons to destroy their inmates in the same manner they had destroyed the tobacco-worm. Its very small size did not enable the eye to discover whether it really was one of the Microgaster flies. I was so fortunate as to succeed in enclosing it in a small vial, and then upon examining it with a magnifier, 1 became assured it had not come from the cocoons, for I perceived it pertained to a different group of parasites from that to which the Microgaster genus belongs. But how could the highly interesting and important point be ascertained, whether it actually was a destroyer of the inmates of these cocoons? With the hope of obtaining further light upon this subject a portion of the stalk of the plant with the tobacco-worm adhering to it was cut off and enclosed in a glass jar. On the fifth day thereafter, two Microgaster flies made their appearance in the jar, and the worm now being dead and beginning to become putrid, the cocoons were all removed from its surface and enclosed in a vial. It was feared that this slight vio- lence to them had destroyed their inmates, as day after day now elapsed and no more flies came from them. But, three months later, in December, they being kept in a warm room, a dozen flies were discovered, wandering around in this vial ; and for some weeks after, others continued to come forth from the cocoons. And these proved to be identical with the single fly which had been captured among these cocoons so long a time before. It was therefore evident that that fly was the parent of these which were now issuing from the cocoons ; and so industrious had that little creature been, that it had punctured and dropped one of its eggs into all save two of the cocoons, which were more than a hundred in number; and these two, it is probable, would not have escaped, if the fly had not been inter- rupted and taken away from its work. These destroyers of the insect which destroys the tobacco-worm are very small four-winged flies of a shining dark green color, with pale yellowish legs and white feet. They belong to the order Hymenorrera and the family Cratcipim, and are closely related to the Hessian fly parasite, Semiotel- lus destructor, figured in my Seventh Report, plate 3, fig. 1, which figure will also serve to represent this insect in almost every particular. It per- tains to the genus Pleromalus, a name derived from two Greek words, meaning bad wings, the wings in these insects being nearly destitute of ribs or veins. As they, by destroying the parasite of the tobacco-worm, cause that worm to be more numerous and hereby move injurious to the tobacco, and as they will often occur lurking about this plant in search of the cocoons upon which to bestow their eggs, they may not inappropriately be named the Tobacco Pteromalus. All the flies which came from the cocoons were females, from which the following description is drawn, The Tosacco Prrromatus (Pleromalus Tabacum), is one-tenth of an inch 16 TOBACCO-WORM. PARASITE’S DESTROYER DESCRIBEDs long to the end of its body, and is of a dark or bottle green color with a brassy reflection, and finely shagreened upon the head and thorax. The head is large and placed transversely, about three times as broad as it is long, convex in front and concave at its base. Viewed in front it is nearly circular, with a large oval eye slightly protruding upon each side, of a dull red color fading to brown after death, On the crown three ocelli or eyelets appear as glassy dots placed at the corners of a triangle. The jaws are yellow, their ends brown, with four minute teeth. The palpi or feelers are dull white. The antennz are inserted in the middle of thejface and when turned backward reach about half the length of the thorax. They become a little thicker towards their tips, and are of a brown color with the long basal joint dull pale yellow, and are clothed with a short incumbent beard. They are composed apparently of nine joints, the first joint being long and smooth, and forming an angle with the remaining joints. The second joint is the smallest of the series, being but little longer than thick and obconic in its form. ~ The third joint is thrice as long and nearly thrice as thick as the preceding, and has the shape of a pear, the contracted portion of its base being formed of two rings or small joints which are rarely perceptible even in the live specimen when highly magni- fied, except these organs be put upon the stretch. The fourth and fol- lowing joints are a third shorter than the foregoing, and are nearly equal and square in their outline, each successive joint very slightly increasing in thickness and diminishing in length. ‘The last joint is about thrice as long as the one preceding it, of an oval or sub-ovate form, rounded at its base and bluntly pointed at its apex, and is probably composed as in the other species of this genus of three joints compactly united together. The thorax scarcely equals the head in width and is egg-shaped and thrice as long as wide. On each shoulder is a slightly impressed line extending obliquely backward and inward. The abdomen is a third shorter than the thorax, and in the live insect surpasses it in thickness, is egg-shaped and convex with its tip acute pointed. When dried it scarcely equals the thorax in thickness, and becomes strongly concave on the back and trian- gular when viewed from one side. It is smooth, polished and sparkling, of a green black color, the middle segments each with a broad purple black band visible in partienlar reflections of the light. Beneath it is black and at the tip shows some fine impressed longitudinal lines forming the edges of the groove in which the sting is inclosed. The legs are slender, pale wax yellow, with the feet and ends of the shanks dull white, the hips of the hind legs being stout and black, with their outer faces green blue and their tips pale yellow. The feet are five-jointed and dusky at their tips. The wings are transparent and reach slightly beyond the tip of the abdomen when at rest. The anterior ones are broad and evenly rounded at their ends, and have, near the outer margin, a thick brown rib or sub- costal vein extending more than a third of their length and then uniting with the margin and terminating some distance forward of the tip, after sending off ashort straight stigmal branch which is thickened at its end, with its apex notched. Towards the inner margin an exceedingly fine longitu- 17 TOBACCO-WORM, PARASITE AND ITS DESTROYER. THEIR DIFFERENT MOTIONS. dinal vein is perceptible, which, near its middle, gives off a branch running almost to the inner hind end of the wing. The hind wings are much smaller and without veins, except a brown subcostal one, which extends into the outer margin and abruptly ends a little beyond the middle, All the examples of this species, which I have obtained from cocoons upon the Tobacco-worm, haye been females. The last of August, 1862, I received from Dr, Allen of Saratoga Springs, a larva of the Sphina Kalmice to which thirty-six cocoons were adhering. And the middle of July, the following year, H. Markham, Esq., of Stony Brook, Long Island, sent me the same larva, similarly infested. It may here be incidently observed that both these gentlemen met with these larve upon the leaves of the grape-vine. As I have repeatedly observed it, in different years, upon the lilac, the leaves of which are certainly its usual food, the interesting query arises, whether, when it is infested internally with parasites, they do not cause a morbid appetite in the worin, whereby it ceases to relish its natural food and comes to crave the leaves of the grape in place of those of the lilac? Flies were obtained from more than half the cocoons upon the first mentioned worm, and these being all of one species, I supposed they were probably the true parasites of the Lilac-worm. But I now find on comparing them, that they are identical with this species which is now under consideration. It thus appears that the cocoons ad- hering to the Lilac-worm had been formed by a species of Microgaster, probably this same species which infests the Tobacco-worm, and that the flies I obtained were its parasites and consequently were protectors instead of destroyers of the Lilac-worm. The cocoons from Mr. Markham, might perhaps have given more light upon this subject, and Inow regret that, when they came to hand, supposing they would only produce the same flies which Thad examined the preceding summer, I felt that it would be a waste of time to attend to the rearing of their inmates, Of the flies obtained from the Lilac-worm, four were males, whereby it appears that this sex differs from the females above described, in the fol- lowing particulars: 1st, their color is lighter and more bright, being bril- liant metallic green, when dried becoming blue green; 2d, their antenne are tarnished yellow, longer, and not at all thickened toward the tips, their joints being cylindric and a third longer than thick, with the last joint egg-shaped and but little longer than its predecessor; 3d, the abdo- men is flattened oval and rounding at its tip, with a large translucent pale yellow spot near the base; 4th, the legs are paler and pure yellow without any mixture of orange or tawny. One who is acquainted with this insect and the Microgaster fly, will readily distinguish them by their motions, notwithstanding their smallness and similarity in size, The Microgaster is very brisk and active in its movements, running about with agility and flying away if any danger menaces it. This insect on the other hand, appears tame and sedate, walk- ing around slowly, and as if with deliberation as to what it is duing; and if any annoyance approaches it, to escape therefrom it gives a slight skip, throwing itself about an inch, and repeating this leap again and again if pursued, it being not at all inclined to take wing. 2 18 TOBACCO-WORM. WAS A SECOND PARASITE. REMEDIES. And after these flies have left their cocoons, it is readily told by the appearance of each cocoon, whether it is a Microgaster or a Pteromalus fly which has come out from it. The Microgaster, by which all the cocoons are constructed, makes an opening for its escape in a more neat and artistic manner than does its destroyer. When it passes from its pupa state and awakens to life in its perfect form, it finds itself closely pent up within its narrow cell —so closely that about the only motion it is able to make is to turn its head from side to side. And it discovers that by grasp- ing with its jaws the wall of its cell, it is hereby able to gradually roll itself over in its bed. And now, with the minute sharp teeth at the ends of its jaws, it cuts a slit transversely through the wall of its cell, lengthen- ing this slit more and more as it gradually turns itself around. Thus it cuts the end of its cocoon smoothly off in the form of a little lid, a few ursevered fibres being left on one side, which serve as a hinge to hold this lid in its place. The inclosed fly then pressing its head against this lid raises it up and crawls forth from its prison. Thus the evacuated cocoon has its end smoothly cut off, with the severed portion usually ad- hering to it. The Pteromalus fly, on the other hand, being a size smaller, is able to move about and can probably turn itself around inside of the cocoon. And to make its escape it gnaws a hole through the side near one end, of sufficient size for its body to pass through; this hole in different instances being round, oval, or irregular, and its edges ragged and uneven. In addition to the eggs of the Microgaster, which are inserted under the skin of the Tobacco-worm and thus are not visible externally, I have occasionally met with a worm having one or more eggs glued upon its surface, usually placed in a crease of the skin to render the attachment to -it more secure. These eggs are about three-hundreths of an inch long and a third as thick, oval, white, smooth and glossy like enamel. Within them a minute soft white worm or maggot becomes formed, which is hatched by gnawing through the shell of the egg at one end, and as it is coming out, it sinks itself downward through the skin of the worm and into its body, a blackish dot upon the skin near the end of the empty egg marking the point where it has entered. Its history I have not been able to trace further than this. The facts show it to be another parasite des- troying the Tobacco worm, and that it is probably a two-winged fly belong- to the order Dirrera. The remedies for this insect are remaining to be spoken of. But as we have had no personal experience in combatting it, it will not be expected that we dwell upon this branch of the subject at any length. The leaves of the potato and tomato being of no value, the presence of this worm upon them is wholly diregarded, as its limited numbers never consume the foliage to such an extent as to perceptibly diminish the growth of the tubers in the one or of the fruit in the other of the plants. But with the tobacco it is very different. The whole value of this plant depends upon its leaves; consequently every morsel which this worm consumes from them is a loss, and if the leaves are much eaten the loss is great. The utmost vigilance is therefore required to save the tobacco from injury from 19 POTATO-BEETLE. ITS LOCALITIES. ITS NAME. this enemy. At the South, where they have had long and sore experience with the twin sister of our insect, the only remedy found to be effectual is searching out and destroying the worms. This “‘ worming” of the tobacco fields, as it is termed, is an indispensable measure, forming a regular part of the tobacco culture. After the leaves are grown to a sufficient size for the worm to begin to feed upon them, not a day is suffered to pass without examining them. The leaves are so large and so very tender and brittle, except for a short period at mid-day, when they become pliant from being somewhat wilted by the heat of the sun, that the utmost care is requisite in passing among them to avoid breaking and tearing them. Notwith- standing the closest scrutiny some of the worms will be overlooked, at each search which is made. Moreover, new moths are coming out and depositing their eggs day after day, whereby a succession of worms are appearing. Thus it becomes necessary to repeat this examination daily, searching out and destroying every worm while it is yet young and small. When these ugly looking worms first began to be noticed upon the toma- toes in our gardens, some sensitive persons were much alarmed with fears that they were poisonous and would render the fruit deleterious if they happened to touch or crawl over it. But such fears are wholly groundless, The sharp, thorn-like tail of this worm, however, if it chances to penetrate the skin, inflicts a painful wound. This is the only thing to be guarded against. 10, Ten-Livep Porato-neette, Doryphora 10-lineala, Say. (Coleoptera. Chry- scmelide.) Plate 4, figure 6. Eating the leaves of the potato inimmense numbers through the whole summer; a thick, oval beetle nearly half an inch long, and of a pale yellow color with five black stripes on each wing cover, accompanied by its thick-bodied, worm-like larva of a pale yellow color with rows of black dots, and six legs upon its breast and a pro-leg at the pointed end of its body. In connection with the foregoing potato-worm, some account may here be given of anew enemy which, within the past two or three years, has fallen upon the potato-vines in numerous places all over the Northwestern States, stripping them of every vestige of their foliage and eating the stalks also, and hereby arresting the formation and growth of the tubers. Speci- mens of this insect are being frequently sent me for information respecting it, whereby I am able to present a description of it in its different stages of life and several important facts respecting it. Fortunately for us, it is not an inhabitant of our State, being found only in the valley of the Mis- sissippi at a distance from our borders. This insect was first discovered as being common on the Upper Missouri, by Mr. Say, when accompanying Long’s Exploring Expediton to the Rocky Mountains. He met with it upon the Arkansas river also. In 1823, he published a description of it (Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences, vol. ili, p. 453), naming it from the number of the stripes upon its wing- covers, Doryphora 10-lineata or the Ten-lined Doryphora—this genus having been separated from the old genus Chrysomela, by Illiger, to include a number of South American species which have the middle portion of the 20 POTATO-BEETLE. ACCOUNTS OF ITS DESTRUCTIVENESS. breast prolonged into a horn-like point, wherefore the name ; Doryphorus being a Greek word meaning a spear-bearer, and peitioalanty memorable as the name of one of the most celebrated statues of the sculptor Polycle- tus. But our insect and a few other species of this genus are destitute of the sharp, thorny point alluded to. Chevrolat, in Dejean’s Catalogue, pro- posed to form these into a distinct genus, named Polygramma—i. e., many- lined. But this step has not been approved of by subsequent authors. The year after Say described this insect, the distinguished German ento- mologist Germar also published it, under the name Dyrophora juncta, which, of course, will be merely a synonym of the anterior name. The first notice of this as being an injurious insect, appears in the Prairie Farmer of August 29th, 1861 (vol. viii., p. 116), in a letter from J. Edger- ton, of Gravity, Iowa, saying that “they made their appearance upon the vines as soon as the potatoes were out of the ground, and there being a cold, wet spell of weather about that time, they devoured them as fast as they were up.” They appeared most fond of the Prince Albert variety, doing but little injury to several other kinds. Several generations appeared to grow up in the course of the summer. The specimens were sent to D. Thomas, Esq., of Marion, Williamson county, IIl., who in reply announces them to be the species above named, and says that this same insect ‘‘ is found in abundance in Southern Illinois ; but so far I have only discovered it on worthless weeds and low shrubs ; and here it has not proved injurious to useful vegetation,” wherefore he thinks it is only accidental that it has fallen upon the potatoes in Mr. Edgerton’s vicinity, and that some pecu- liarity of the plants, state of the atmosphere, or other influence may next year:cause it to forsake the potato and take up its residence upon some other plant. The next year, Thomas Murphy, of Atchison, Kansas, sent a number of the beetles to the Valley Farmer, with an accompanying letter, published in that periodical July, 1862 (vol. xiv., p. 209), saying that in August, 1861, “ soon after a heavy shower of rain, these bugs suddenly made their appear- ance in large numbers on the potato vines. They were so numerous that in many instances they would almost cover the whole vine. It is no exag- geration when I tell you that we have often, in a very short time, gathered as many as two bushels of them. When the cold weather set in they dis- appeared. Early this spring I was setting out some apple trees, and away down in the hard yellow clay, I found these bugs apparently dead, but put them in the sun and they immediately came to life. They have again (May 22) made their appearance in large numbers in my garden. Last year they first ate up everything green on the potato vines, then commenced on the tomatoes, and so on, on everything green. Strange to say, they trouble no one else.’ Some of the beetles had been forwarded to Benj. D. Walsh, Bsq., of Rock Island, Illinois, who communicates their name and a good figure, but is singularly unfortunate, not to say erroneous, in several of his statements made in connection with this subject ; for instance, that the New York weevil is “an exclusively western species,” “ Mr. Murphy’s account is the first on record of this beetle occurring in gardens in such 21 POTATO-BEETLE. ITS EGGS AND LARVA DESCRIBED. numbers as to be injurious,” &. He regards the fact of Mr. Murphy’s finding the beetles under ground in the spring, as full proof that this insect always goes under ground to pass its pupa state; overlooking the additional fact that Mr. M. found these beetles lying dormant and apparently dead, which indicates that no warmth had at that time penetrated the earth sufficient to change them from their pupa to their perfect state. Mr. M’s. recital of his observations would seem to make it plain that it is in their perfect, not in their pupa state that they hibernate. He says the beetles were immensely numerous; but when the cold weather set in they disap- peared, LHarly the next spring he again found them away down in the hard yellow clay, apparently dead but immediately reviving when exposed to the sun. And finally, May 22d, they had again made their appearance abroad in large numbers. Hverything thus appears to show that these beetles remain abroad in full force until a frosty night cuts off their food and chills them, whereupon they hasten into any crack they can find in the hard clay soil, or under any log or stone lying on the surface. They there becume dormant and thus repose through the winter, and with the warmth of returning spring revive and issue from their retreats. . Specimens of this beetle, its eggs and larvee, we received first from John S. Bowen, Elkhorn city, Nebraska, in May, 1863. Similar remittances have since come to hand from different parts of Iowa. A correspondent at Web- ster City writes that these insects are “very voracious feeders, not only denuding the vines of every vestige of leaf, but also devouring the stalks. Killing them seems to do no good, they breed so rapidly; and as they fly through the air, they would soon be re-established were they all extermina- ted from a field. It is now August Ist, and few if any tubers are yet set upon by my potatoes, though the planting was very early.” And from New Sharon we are told that some have been discouraged from planting pota- toes, the ravages of this potato-bug have been so great. The beetles though sent from such a great distance have in every instance reached me aive, whilst the larve accompanying them have been nearly or quite dead, except in two or three instances. The eggs also uniformly hatch and the young from them perish before they come to hand, Kept in confinement, the beetles usually live so long as they are supplied with food. I have thus kept an individual captured in May, until the frosts of autumn destroyed my supply of potato and tomato leaves. And beetles newly born, if gradually exposed to the cold, will undoubtedly become torpid and dormant, and lying in this state through the winter will revive and return to activity with the return of warm weather. The female in confinement drops her eggs in little clusters upon the leaves on which she has been feeding. The eggs are bright yellow, smooth and glossy, 0,06 long and 0,035 broad, of an oval form with rounded ends, The Larva, when full grown is over a half inch in length and half as thick, being thickest back of the middle and tapering to a point at its tip. Tt is a thick plump grub, strongly arched above, and when viewed on one 22 POTATO-BEETLE. THE BEETLE DESCRIBED. side its outline is nearly the form of a crescent. The head is small and much narrower than the fore part of the body, of a flattened spherical form. Its mouth is furnished with short conical, jointed feelers and large jaws which are blunt at their ends, with little sharp teeth like those of a saw. Immediately above the mouth on each side cf the head is a small conical and jointed projection which is the antenna. The thorax has a large transverse space on the top of its first ving, of a firmer and somewhat coriaceous texture and broadly margined with black on its hind side and with dusky at each end. The abdomen is the thickest part of the body und is distinctly divided into nine segments. It is very plump and rounded, but flattened on its underside. It gradually tapers posteriorly into a conical point the apex of which is blunt and serves as a pro-leg, two small vesicular processes on its lower side at the end serving as feet. There are six legs, placed anteriorly, upon the breast, each leg being com- posed of three joints and ending in a small claw. The larva is of a pale yellow color, often slightly dusky or freckeled cn the back with minute blackish dots, and along each side are two rows of large black dots, those of the upper row larger, seven in number, not being {continued upon the thoracic or the last abdominal rings, each dot having a small breathing pore in its centre. The head is black and shining, and more or less mottled on the face with dull yellowish. ‘The neck or first ring has a black band near its hind edge; the second ring has also either a short black band or two black dots, whilst the third ring usually shows two small black dots on its back. On the narrow tip of the body are two black bands, the anterior one having at its end on each side a small black dot, and beyond this a large biack dot which is the last one of the lower row of dots along the sides. On the next ring forward is a transverse row of six small equidistant black dots, in addition to the two large dots on each side, whereof the upper one is the last of the upper lateral row, and the lower the penultimate one of the lower row. The legs are black; and often aloug the middle of the body, on the underside, is a row of transverse black spots or clouds, and also a row of small black dots upon each side. The Berrie or mature insect is 0,40 long and 0,25 thick, the female being slightly larger. It is of a regular oval form, very convex above and flat beneath, of a hard crustaceous texture, smooth and shining, of a bright straw color, the head and thorax being sometimes tawny yellow, which is the color of the underside; and is dotted and marked with black. After death its colors often fade, becoming more dull and dark. The head is neat- ly spherical and little more than half the width of the thorax, into which it is sunk nearly or quite to the eyes. It is sprinkled over with fine punctures and shows on the front an impressed medial line, and on each side of this a wider shallow indentation, On the crown is a triangular black spot. The nose piece or clypeus, occupying the space between the antenne, is nearly semicircular and placed transversely, and is coarsely and closely punctured. The jaws are coarsely punctared, black at their tips, and have a slender black line along their outer edge. The tips of the palpi or feelers are dark brown. The antenne reach nearly to the base 23 POTATO-BEETLE. THE BEETLE DESCRIBED. REMEDIES. of the thorax when turned backward. They are gradually thickened towards their tips, twelve-jointed, the last joint being quite small, conical, and sunk into the apex of the preceding joint. The five first joints are pale yellow or tawny, obovate, the basal one largest, and the third one longer than. either of the other three. The remaining joints are black and somewhat globu- Jar. The thoraris transverse, twice as broad as long, broadly notched in front for receiving the head, and its hind side convex. Five punctures are scat- tered over its surface, these punctures becoming more numerous and coarser towards the outer sides. It is commonly margined all round by a slender black line. In the centre are two oblong black spots which diverge for- ward. Back of these is a small black dot which is often wanting; and on each side are about six small black spots; one towards the base, of an oval form and placed transversely; and two round ones, nearly upon a line for- ward of this, the three being equidistant from each other; two towards the hind angle, placed close together and often united, the inner one of these being largest of the six; and the sixth one placed half way between the two last and the forward angle. The scutel isdark brown, The wing- covers have the sutural edge dark brown, and five equidistant black stripes on each. The first or inner stripe is shortest and tapers backward as it gradually approaches the suture, terminating in a very long slender point a considerable space forward of the apex. The two next stripes are broadest and are united at their tips, beyond which they are sometimes prolonged into the end of the fourth stripe. The outer stripe is the most slender and longest of all, placed on the outer margin but terminating before it attains the apex. The wing covers are also punctured in rows extending along the margin of the stripes, the rows being uneven and the middle ones double; and the outer interspace is also punctured. Beneath, the sockets of the legs are black or edged with black, and on the hind breast is a trans- verse black spot on each side, forward of the insertion of the hind legs, and also a black stripe on the outer margin of the hind breast, outside of which ou the parapleura is a triangular black spot. The abdomen is finely punctured on the disk and base, and has a short black band on the middle of the anterior edge of each segment except the last, and neav the outer margin a row of six black dots. The legs are tawny yellow, with the hips at least of the hind pair black and also the knees and feet. Say mentions a variety of this beetle having the wing-covers white. This is probably always their color when recently disclosed from the pupa. What will be the best remedies for this new insect enemy can only be ascertained by experiments with it in its native haunts when its habits are more fully observed. We know not whether turkeys and other fowls relish these beetles, whereby they may be employed to aid in lessening their numbers, The large size of the beetles and their sluggish move- ments favor their being readily noticed and picked from off the vines. But their numbers are so immense as to dishearten from attempts to thus get rid of them unless some way can be devised to gather them rapidly in large quantities. The method that has been resorted to with some suc- cess against the blistering flies where they have been numerous on the 24 GARDEN TIGER-MOTH. 11S AMERICAN HISTORY. MOTH DESCRIBED. potato vines, may be of utility, namely, holding a pan with an inch. or two of water in it, under the vines here and there, and shaking and knock- ing the insects off into it, the water holding them from escaping until a quantity are gathered, when they may be emptied into a bag, and another quantity gathered. ‘They can be killed by immersing the bag in boiling water, and its conteuts may then be fed to the swine. 11, Garpen Ticer-morn, Arctia Caja, Linneus. (Lepidoptera. Arctiidae ) Eating the leaves of lettuce, strawberries, &c., a large thick-bodied caterpillar nearly two inches long, of 2 black color witha row of white shining dots along each side and thickly clothed with long soft hairs which are black upon the back and red on the neck and sides; enclosing itself in a thin pale brown cocoon from which towards the end of July comes a large beautiful brown moth with white spots and many irregular stripes crossing its fore wings, its hind wings ochre yellow with about four large round blue black spots, This truly elegant insect, named Caja or the bride by Linnzus, and the caterpillar of which is popularly called the Garden Tiger in England, is abundant all over Europe, but as yet is quite rarein this country. Several specimens were met with in our State at Trenton Falls, by Mr. Edward Doubleday, in 18387. A male has long been in my collection, which I think was taken the same year at Canajoharie and presented me by Wm. S. Robertson; and when closing these pages for the printer, on the evening of July 27th, 1864, a female came in at the open door of my study, flying slowly around with a rustling of its wings which indicated it to be some moth of a large size and heavy body. One of Mr. Doubleday’s specimens was presented to Dr. Harris, by whom, first in the year 1841, in his Report to the Legislature on the Insects of Massachusetts Injurious to Vegetation, it was described as a new species under the name Arctia Americana, although Godart had previously regarded it as identical with the Caja, in which opinion Boisduval and other French naturalists have since continued to concur, In Agassiz? Lake Superior, Dr. Harris gives a more full description and a figure of this moth, in which he says the white spots and rivulets on its fore wings are the same as in the European insect, but that it is distinguished from that by the white band margining the thorax in front. But in a European specimen which I have before me, this white band is present and conspicuous as in the American examples, except that it is less broad; which is a ciream- stance of no importance in an insect subject to such great variations in its colors and marks. Thus we are left without any grounds for regarding this as different from the European species. This moth measures from two and a half to three inches across its wings when they are extended, the males being a trifle smaller than the females. Tt is of a rich brown color, the hue of burnt coffee, with some of its parts bright ochre yellow or orange red, and it is variegated with spots and marks of milk white, crimson red, dark blue and black. But it varies astonishingly in its colors and marks. I draw the following description of the spots and markings chiefly from the living specimen before me, in which they appear to occur in their most usual and perfect condition, The head is brown, The palpi or feelers form two conical points project- 25 GARDEN TIGER-MOTH. ITS ASTONISHING VARIETIES OF COLOR. ing obliquely forward and downward from the lower front part of the head, of a darker brown with longer and less dense hairs of a red color along their underside and around the mouth, Coiled up between them is the spiral tongue, of a white color, and only equaling them in length when extended, The antenne reach a third of the length of the wings. They resemble slender, tapering threads, white, their tips brown, their basal joint red, and a brown stripe alung their underside. Inthe males they are pectinated, each joint sending off two short brown branches. The thorax is globular and brown, with a broad white band in front, occupying the base of the collar and extending backward across the shoulders and uniting with the white stripe or spot upon the middle of the base of the wings. The collar is edged all around with crimson red, forming a slender margin along the lower edge of the white band and on each side crossing this band and forming a narrow arched band above it. The base of the thorax is also slenderly margined with red, which color widens on each side into a small spot. The sides of the thorax are pale brown, with a pencil of red hairs in the axilla of the wings, The abdomen is bright ochre yellow with a row of brownish black spots along the middle of the back, the spots transverse, four or five in number, the hind ones largest. The underside is pale brown with the edges of the segments yellow. The wings are brown, slightly pale towards their hind ends, Their base is white, which color near the middle of each wing is prolonged backwards into a long acute point, forward of which are two long egg-shaped brown spots placed side by side, and on the outer edge are two larger brown spots slightly parted from each other by a curved line, with a fifth spot on the inner edge. Towards the middle of each wing on the outer edge are two large white spots of an irregularly triangular form. Beyond these, crossing the wing transversely from the outer margin to the inner angle is a wavy white band which is thickened at its ends. From the middle of this band a curved branch extends forward and inward to the inner margin; and from the same point on the opposite side of the band another branch extends back- ward, nearly to the hind edge, when it abruptly turns outward and forward and then outward and backward, reaching the outer margin of the wing forward of the tip. In the closed wings these markings upon their hind part are observed to be beautifully symmetrical, having some resemblance to the Greek letter omega with a bar placed horizontally across its middle. The lower wings are deep ochre yellow with four large round blackish blue spots having a black margin, whereof three are situated in a row forward of the hind margin, the inner one of these being the smaliest, and the fourth one, which is slightly transverse, is placed forward of the centre, The undersides are colored and marked similarly but much more pale and dim. The legs are brown with the thighs crimson except upon their under- sides, and the shanks and hind feet are yellow on their undersides. In respect to its coiors and spots, this moth is truly protean, varying to an extent which is most astonishing. Thus the fore wing's are sometimes black instead of brown, with all vestiges of the white spots and rivulets upon them vanished. In other instances they are of the same bright yellow 26 GARDEN TIGER-MOTH. ITS EGGS. CATERPILLARS DESCRIBED. THE COCOON AND CHRYSALIS. or red evlor with the hind wings, with a few brown spots upon them; and in still other instances they are white with but a faint tinge of yellow. The hind wings sometimes haye their spots diminished and nearly obliterated. Tn other instances these spots are increased in number and in size; again, they become confluent, forming two broad black bands across the wing; and finally, the whole wing is black and without spots. The Arctia Par- thenos it cannot be doubted is one of the latter varieties of this species, in- termediate between the banded winged and black winged varieties. It is erroneously credited to Kirby in the Smithsonian Catalogue of Lepidoptera. It was described and figured by Dr. Harris, in Agassiz’ Lake Superior, and is essentially distinguished as having the base and inner margin of its hind wings black with the remaining portion yellow crossed by a broad black band. The female moth above mentioned dropped seven hundred and forty-four eggs in the course of four days after her capture. Being so prolific it is evident this insect would very soon become as abundant in our country as it is in Europe if it were not checked in its increase. It must be that nearly all the caterpillars of each generation are destroyed, probably by birds. Judging from the proceedings of the female when in confinement, her eggs are laid upon the surface of leaves and firmly glued thereto in clusters of from fifty to one hundred, the eggs in each cluster being placed for the most partin contact with each other inregular rows. The eggs are quite small, being about 0.034 in diameter. They are globular, shining, white, with a large faint spot on their summit of a watery appearance. The caterpillars which come from these eggs grow to about two inches in length and have athick cylindrical body which authors describe as being of a deep black color, densely covered with long soft hairs which arise in bundles from elevated warts. These hairs are of a bright red color on the three first rings and along the sides, and on the rest of the body are black with their ends gray. The warts from which the red hairs arise are of a bluish gray color; those from which the black ones come are blackish brown. Three of these warts of a blue color and placed in a row one above the other on each side of each ring are most obvious to the eye. The breathing pores form a row of shining white dots along each side. The head is shin- ing black; the underside and feet are blackish brown, From all the other caterpillars of our country this is particularly distinguished by the three blue warts on each side of each segment, and the conspicuous row of white dots along each side of the body. As it approaches maturity, however, its unusually large size will alone suffice to point it out. It would appear to be this creature to which Hiawatha is represented to refer, in Longfellow’s much admired poem, as «The mighty caterpillar Way-muk-kwana, with the bear skin, King of nll the caterpillars!” When it is fully grown it encloses itself in a grayish brown cocoon of a soft closely woven texture, intermixed with the hairs of its body. In this it changes to a chrysalis, having the form of an elongated egg, of a shining black color with the sutures yellowish brown and the pointed end two-lobed 27 CUT-WORMS. THE INJURIES THEY DO. and studded with little rust-colored points. The insect remains in the co- coon from eighteen to twenty days and then comes forth in its perfect state. Like other caterpillars of the group to which it belongs, this is a general feeder, subsisting upon low herbaceous plants of almost every kind, and on a pinch feeding also upon the leaves of trees and shrubs. An incident related by Duponchel (Hist. Nat. des Chenilles), shows how able it is to sustain itself upon any substance of a vegetable nature which is sufficiently soft for it to masticate, Having forgotten one of these caterpillars which he had wrapped up in a paper envelope and inclosed in a wooden box, he afterwards discovered it had nourished itself upon the paper, as was pro- ven by the dry pellets of excrement in the box, and had after this com- pleted its transformations, producing a moth which was a dwarf in its size but with very bright colors. Some curious facts ave reported, showing the colors of this moth to vary according to the quality of the food on which the caterpillar is nourished, Thus if it be fed upon lettuce or other vege- tation of a similar succulent nature, the colors of the moth are more dim and pale than when it is reared on substances which are less watery. The German collectors are said to obtain the varicty having the under wings black by forcing the caterpillars to feed exclusively upon the leaves of the walnut. Some of the French, however, are stated to have tried this with- out success. It may be that some concurring atmospberical influences, some peculiarity of the season, is also necessary to insure the particular result. The species certainly presents a most interesting subject for the experiments of amateurs. 12. Corn Cur-Worm, Agrotis nigricans, Linn., Var. Maizi. (Lepidoptera. Noctuide.) Plate 4, fig. 2, 3. In June, severing the young Indian corn and other plants, half an inch above the ground, by night, and by day hiding itself slightly under the surface; a thick, cylindrical, gray worm an inch and a quarter long, with rather faint, paler and darker stripes, the top of its neck shining black with three whitish stripes. The insects from which our farmers experienced the greatest vexation and injury the past season (1863), were the Cut-worms—the same worms which are sometimes called corn-grubs, and which in English agricultural works are termed surface grubs or surface caterpillars. The name Cut- worm, however, is most commonly given to them in this country, both in print and in common conversation, and appears to be the most appropriate and best term by which to designate them, having allusion as it does to a habit which is peculiar to these worms, namely, that of cutting off tender young plants as smoothly as though it was done with a keen-edged knife. These Cut-worms are among the most important injurious insects of our country. It is mostly in our fields of Indian corn and in our gardens that their depredations are noticed. They are so common as to occasion some losses almost every year; whilst every few years they make their appear- ance in such numbers as to nearly or quite ruin the corn-fields, obliging the proprietors to plant their ground a second and even a third time, or to re- plow it and sow it with a different crop. Thus, in consequence of the pre- 28 CUT-WORMS. EARLY NOTICES AND RECORDS OF THEIR INJURIES. sence of this worm in our country, the labor of the husbandman is fre- quently doubled to obtain from his land a crop either materially diminished in amount or of a less valuable kind from that which he would be able to harvest were it not for this enemy. The attention of the farmers of our State was this past season prominently directed to the rearing of flax, and a breadth of land was given to this crop far exceeding what has ever before been assigned to it, But soon after the young flax appeared above the ground, these Cut-worms began their depredations, feeding upon and wholly consuming the small tender plants to such an extent that many fields had large patches in them which were eaten perfectly bare, whilst in others the crop was totally destroyed. Many of our injurious insects are new pests which have but recently been observed in our country. But these Cut-worms appear always to have! been here, depredating upon and despoiling the cultivated crops in centuries gone by, the same that they are now doing. Before European settlers arrived upon this continent, the cornfields of the Indians are said to have been ravaged at times by these worms, this being of all others a disaster to them of which they were most fearful, and one which they felt themselves wholly powerless to avert, their only resort for protecting their fields from this calamity being that indicated in the lines of the poet: ¢«Draw a magic circle round them, So that neither blight nor mildew, Neither burrowing worm nor insect, Shall pass o’er the magic cirole.”? And this is well known to have been a casualty of frequent occurrence all along since the soil of our country has been cultivated by civilized men, In those diaries which have occasionally been kept in different parts of our land by persons who have been curious to preserve a record of local inci- dents of interest, we are sure to meet ever and anon with the statement, “Tndian corn was this year greatly injured by the worms,” ‘The season avas wet and cold, and the worms made extensive ravages on the ¢orn,” and other entries of the same purport. From one of these sources we learn that a century ago there had been a distressing drouth in 1761, followed by an unusually long and severe winter and a late spring, “ When at last the corn was planted, millions of worms appeared to eat it up, and the ground must be planted again and again. Thus many fields were utterly ruined.” (Flint’s Second Report, Mass. Board of Agriculture, p. 40.) It, however, may have been the Wire-worm which occasioned at least a por- tion of the destruction here related, for usually when one of these worms is numerous the other is so likewise. It is unnecessary to mention other years in which we have little more than the mere fact stated that these corn Worms were yery injurious. In addition to such manuscript mementoes, the published allusions to these pests date far back. Upwards of seventy years ago, when the old Agri- cultural Society of our State was first organized, in a circular which the Society issued, containing inquiries upon different topics on which informa- tion was solicited, the first query respecting insects Was, “Is there any 29 CUT-WORMS. HAVE NEVER YET BEEN INVESTIGATED. way of destroying the grubs in corn and flax?” No answer to this inquiry, of sufficient importance for publication, was received. But, although these Cut-worms have always been such a formidable foe in this country, against which the cultivators of the soil have had to con- tend, they have not, down to the present day, been subjected to any care- ful scientific examination. It was formerly supposed they were all of but one kind, one species of insect. In our day it has been ascertained that they are of several different kinds, and that they are bred from a particular group or family of millers or moths, of a dark color, which fly about in the night time and remain at rest and hid from our observation during the day— most of them belonging to the genus named Agrotis by naturalists. But the observations which have been made upon these Cut-worms have been so hasty and superficial, that, when we see one of these worms cutting off the young corn in our fields or the cabbage plants in our gardens, we are unable to give it its exact name; we are unable to say what particular species of miller or moth it is which has produced that worm. All that has yet been done towards a scientific investigation of this sub- ject may be narrated in a few words. Upwards of forty years ago, Mr. Brace, of Litchfield, Ct., in a short arti- cle published in the first volume of Silliman’s Journal, gave what he evi- dently regarded as a snflicient elucidation of this matter. It appears that in a patch of ground planted with cabbages, where the worms had been numerous, he found their pupee to be common, lying a few inches below the surface, just after the worms had disappeared. From some of these pups he obtained the miller or moth. In the article alluded to, he merely des- cribes this miller as being the insect which produces the Cut-worm, naming it the Phalena devastator or the Devastating miller. As he supposed all the Cut-worms were of one kind, he gives no description of the worm from which this miller is produced. And thus it remains unknown to this day what the characters and appearance of the worm are which belongs to this miller which Mr. Brace described. : Some ten years after this, Dr. Harris, one season, gathered a number of full grown Cut-worms from different situations, to breed the moths from them; but what is most surprising, he took no notes of the differences in the appearance of these worms. He obtained from them four different moths in addition to the one which Mr. Brace had previously obtained. These he names and describes, but is unable to give any account of the worms which belong to either one of these species. In the Second Report which I presented to this Society, I gave very exact figures of the miller which Mr, Brace described, and of two others of the most common millers of our country belonging to the same group; and I also described five of the Cut-worms which I had noticed as being common kinds in our cornfields and gardens. Finally, in my Third Report I was able to give an account of one of our Cut-worms, and the moth which was raised from it. ; And this is the posture in which this subject now stands. Seven of the moths or millers of our country, which produce Cut-worms, have been named 30 CUT-WORMS. OUR ILL SUCCESS IN REARING THEM. and described. But only one of them is known to us in its larva state. We also know that at least five other Cut-worms, in addition to this one, are formidable enemies to us, depredating every year, more or less, upon the young plants in our fields and gardens, but we know not the species to which they respectively pertain, and consequently are unable to distinguish either of them definitely, by giving to it its correct name. I have for a great many years regarded these Cut-worms as a most important subject requiring to be elucidated. And accordingly, almost every year, upon meeting with some of these worms, I have written in my notes a particular description of them, and have endeavored to feed and rear them to their perfect state, but without success. They are very intol- erant of confinement, especially when they are not grown to their full size. Upon discovering that they are imprisoned, they lose all relish for food, and become intent on one thing only, namely, to find some orifice in their prison walls through which to escape. Accordingly, when the shades of evening arrive, they come out from the earth in the box or pot in which they are placed, and crawl hurriedly and anxiously around and around, the whole night long, as I have found on going to them witha light. The vegetables transplanted into the box for them te feed upon remain un- touched. In this manner, they in a few nights wear their lives away, and are fuund lying stark and stiff on the surface of the dirt of their cage. From the experience I have had, I regard them as among the most difficult insects which I have ever taken in hand to feed and rear from their larva to their perfect state. It had accordingly become evident to me that a suitable knowledge of these Cut-worms could never be gained in the manner I had attempted— by casual observations made at moments snatched from other investiga- tions. It was only by making them the leading subjects of examination; devoting to them ample time and care and vigilance; studying them as they were growing up in tle fields and gardens; watching them from day to day, there, in their natural haunts, until they became fully matured and were done feeding, and then placing them in cages to complete their trans- formations and reveal to us what they are in their perfect states; I say, it had become evident to me that it was only in this manner that the requisite knowledge of these creatures could be obtained, to prepare such an exact history of them as their importance and the advanced state of science at this day demand. I have, therefore, for several years, had it in contemplation, when a season occurred in which these worms were numerous, to devote my chief attention to them. And accordingly, on becoming aware last May, that these worms would be quite common in my vicinity, I resolved to make them the subjects of special investigation. And I now proceed to give a summary account of these insects and their habits, and the progress which the researches of the past season has ena- bled us to make towards a more full and exact knowledge of them. It is in midsummer, mostly in the month of July, that the moths or mil- lers come abroad and lay the eggs from which the Cut-worms are bred. 31 CUT-WORMS. YOUNG WORMS IN AUTUMN. FALL PLOWING TO DESTROY THEM. The eggs are dropped at the surface of the ground, around the roots of grass and other herbage. The worms hatch and feed during the axtumn, coming abroad by night and eating the most tender vegetation which they are able to find, and during the daytime withdrawing themselves under the ground to hide from birds and other enemies, and feeding upon the roots of the vegetation which they there meet with. Grass appears to be ‘their favorite food, and its young, tender blades and rootlets furnish most of these worms their subsistence through the first stages of their lives. During the autumn the earth is so profusely covered with vegetation and these worms are so small that no notice is taken of them or the trifling amount of herbage which they then consume. They become about half grown when the cold and frosty nights of autumn arrive, whereby they are no longer able to come out to feed. They then sink themselves deeper than usual into the ground, going down to a depth of three or four inches; and there, each worm, by turning around and around in the same spot, forms for itself a little cavity in which to lie during the winter; and it there goes to sleep, and lies torpid and motionless as though it were dead. The soil at the depth where these worms are lying very slowly and gradu- ally becomes colder and colder as the winter comes on, and at length freez- ing, these worms reposing in it are also frozen. And when the warmth of spring returns, the ground thawing and becoming warm in the same gradual manner, these worms slowly thaw and awake from their long sleep and return again to life. The case is analogous to what occurs with our- selves when we have a finger or a foot frozen, On coming into a warm room, if we keep the frost-bitten part covered with snow or immersed in ice-cold water, whereby it very slowly thaws and the circulation gently and gradually returns to it, the part readily recovers; whereas, if instead of this, we hold it to the fire and thaw it suddenly and abruptly, high in- flammation and gangrene follows, and we lose the limb. And so, if these ‘Cut-worms lying in the ground should be suddenly frozen or thawed, it would ke fatal to them. This brings to our view an important measure which is much practiced for the purpose of destroying these worms and securing the corn crop from their depredations. Our farmers quite generally endeavor to break up their planting ground in the autumn, rather than in the spring, under the idea that they thereby disturb these worms in their winter quarters and expose them to the cold and frost, whereby a considerable portion of them are destroyed. And I believe it is the general experience of our farmers that corn planted upon ground which has been thus broken up in the autumn is less liable to be injured by these worms than where it has been broken up in the spring. But these worms, in common with all other insects, continue to be active in autumn so long as the weather remains warm. It is not till they feel the chill of the autumn frosts that they retire into their winter quarters. Therefore, if the ground be broken up early in autumn, when the weather is still warm and the worms are in full life and activity, it can be of little, if any avail, for the purpose intended, as they will readily crawl into the ground to the depth which they require for their 32 CUT-WORMS. THEIR HABIT OF SEVERING YOUNG PLANTS» protection. In order that this fall plowing should be efficacious, it is obvious it should be deferred until near the close of the season, when the worms have withdrawn themselves downwards and are lying torpid and inactive in their winter retreat. If the turf under which they are reposing be then turned up to the surface, they will be incapable of crawling away into any new quarters, and the sudden freezings by night and thawings by day to which they will be alternately exposed, we are confident must destroy a large portion of them. When the spring has returned and we are engaged in making our gar- dens, a Cut-worm is occasionally turned up to our view in digging and working in the earth there; and if grass has been permitted to grow and form a turf around the roots of currant bushes or elsewhere, upon digging up and rooting out this grass, we are quite sure of finding a number of these worms nestled among it, indicating to us that grass more than any- thing else furnishes them with the covert and food which they desire. Although we thus find these Cut-worms lying in the soil of the garden early in May, it is not until the close of that month and the beginning of June that they begin to attract our notice by the injury they do in our gardens and cornfields. It is when they are grown to about two-thirds of their full size that they commence the work which renders them so perni- cious to us,—that of severing the young, tender plants. Previous to this, during all the first period of their lives, as has already been stated, they lie concealed under the ground during the day time, feeding there upon the roots of plants, and only venture out by night to feed upon the green vege- tation above ground. Although in England they are called surface grubs, I discover they are not restrained to the surface of the ground, but mount up the stems of young cabbages and beans and eat portions of their leaves. But, about the commencement of June, the nights have become so short and the days so long, and the worms are now grown to such a size and their appetites have become so ravenous, that they are forced to a most singular change of their habits. The insipid roots of plants fail to yield them the amount of nourishment they require during the eighteen hours of daylight. They must either stay out to feed upon green herbage during the daytime, or they must, so to speak, set their wits to work to devise some way by which they can get this herbage down under the ground so that they can there feed upon it. We accordingly see them adopting the curious expedi- ent of cutting off tender young plants in order to draw them into the ground, whereby they may feed upon them during the long hours of the day. Is it not wonderful, that such sluggish, stupid looking creatures as these worms are, should have the intelligence to perform such a feat as this—cutting off the plant, to enable them to get the end of it down into the ground, so that they may cosily lie there and feed upon it in safety— gradually drawing it in, more and more, until by the close of the day the whole of the plant and its leaves are consumed; a feat strikingly analogous to that for which the beaver is so renowned, cutting down small trees and drawing and swimming them away to build a dam with them. Surely we should admire this loathsome-looking worm for such a skillful performance, 33 CUT-WORMS. THE STRIPED WORM FOLLOWED BY THE LARGER YELLOW-HEADED Worm. were it not that it is this very act which renders this creature such a pest, such a nuisance to us ! As to the kinds of plants which these worms thus sever to feed upon them, they appear to have but little if any preferences. They relish every- thing that is young and tender and succulent. Thus they attack the corn, the flax, the potato stalks in our fields, and in our gardens the cabbage plants and beans, cucumber and melon plants, beets and parsnips, and also the red-rood and several other weeds. Nor are they limited to herbaceous plants. Where a sucker starts up from the root of a tree, while it is yet young and tender it is liable to be severed, if one of these worms chances to find it. They appear to have no discrimination in their taste, but relish equally well the most acrid and bitter plants, with those which are mild and aro- matic. Thus the onion stalks in our gardens are about as liable to be cut off as any other plants; and I have known the acrid smart-weed to be severed by them. The past summer, I set out in my garden a few tobacco plants, that I might notice what insects would come upon this filthy weed; and within a few days after, one of these Cut-worms gave me a very palpa- ble reminder that he would not tax me for cabbages and beans if I would only furnish him with what tobacco he wanted to chew. Ihave known a piece of writing paper to be partially consumed by one of these worms en- closed in a box where it became pressed with hunger. And where several worms are enclosed together in a box of dirt, over night, without any food, it is a common occurrence for the larger ones to devour the smaller ones. The past season, it was upon the 22d of May, in a hot bed, that I first no- ticed a plant severed by a Cut-worm; and the query at once arose, how could this worm get into such a close and secure place as that was? The loam forming the top of the bed had been obtained from the garden; and it was evident this worm must have been lying in the soil there, and had been brought from thence, in this soil, when the bed was being made. And the warmth of the bed had quickened the growth of this worm and brought it forward in advance of all its fellows. Three days later, the first bean plant in the garden was found cut off by another of these worms; and from that time they continued to become more common until about the first of June, when they were out in their full force, both in the fields and in the gardens. At first I supposed the worms in the cornfields were different from those in the gardens. But the more I exam- ined and compared them, the more assured I became that they were all of one species, although they varied greatly, some being pale and others dark, and some having very distinct stripes, whilst others had them scarcely per- ceptible. It was the same species which I named the Striped Cut-worm, in the Transactions of 1855, p.545. Tt continued out in full force, depredating every where in the fields of flax and corn and in gardens, for a period of three weeks, when, the worms having got their growth, began to be less nume- rous, and had all disappeared at the end of the month, Just as this worm was about to vanish, another one, larger and more voracious, came out to occupy its place and continue the work of destruc- 3 34 CUT-WORMS. DIFFERENT OPERATIONS OF THE TWO WORMS. tion in the fields, none of them being met with in the gardens, It was on the 20th of June that, in examining a cornfield, I first noticed this second worm, lying under the sods, it being of a white or pale smoky color with a bright tawny yellow head, and the same kind which I have heretofore named the Yellow-headed Cut-worm. This cornfield had been broken up just before planting, and the roots of the grass were still juicy, succulent and unwithered, at least in all the larger masses of turf; and this worm evidently preferred these grass-roots to the young corn; for on examining a multitude of the hills of corn in which one or more of the young plants had been cut off, it was invariably the Striped worm first mentioned, which was discovered there; not one of these Yellow-headed worms had as yet molested the corn. Five days afterwards, this same cornfield was again visited, The weather in the interval had been warm and dry, whereby the grass-roots in the clumps of turf had become dry and withered, unadapted for feeding the worms any longer. And now on examining where the blades of young corn had been newly cut off, the mischief was discovered to have been done in nearly half the instances by this Yellow-headed worm, which was found lying in the earth contiguous to the severed plant. Thus, it was sufficiently demonstrated that so long as it could find any roots of grass for its nourishment, this worm did not molest the corn. Therefore the corn remained unattacked by it, until about the date specified, namely, the 25th of June. A few years before, however, I found this same Yellow- headed Cut-worm making severe havoc in a cornfield at the very beginning of June—there probably being no juicy roots of grass in this field, on which it was able to sustain itself. Having the fact thus established, that these worms will not trouble the corn, so long as they are able to find grass in the field on which to nourish themselves, it becomes an important ques- tion to be considered, whether, after all, it may not be better to break up our corn gzound in the spring than in the fall; so that hereby, a portion of the roots of the turf may remain sufficiently fresh and unwithered to feed these Cut-worms and hereby keep them back from falling upon the corn. This is a difficult subject to determine; and it is only by repeated observations, carefully made, that it can be satisfactorily settled. The operations of these two worms were so very different that upon see- ing a severed plant it was readily told which worm it was that had cut it off, and would be found lying in the ground by its side. The smaller Striped worm, which first appeared, cut off the plants half an inch or an inch above the surface of the ground; and many of the plants, being sever- ed at this height, survive the injury, new leaves pushing up from the centre of the stump. Instances were noticed, in which the worm had cut off the plant below the lower leaf, which leaf remaining, green and thrifty, the plant would thereby be vigorously sustained while new leaves were putting forth from its centre. The larger Yellow-headed worm, on the other hand, severs the plants almost an inch below the surface of the ground, whereby they are effectually killed in every instance. This worm also lies deeper in the ground than the other, it being usually met with about two inches below the surface, whilst the smaller worm only goes down 35 CUT-WORMS. THEIR PUPA STATE. STRIPED CUT-WORM DESCRIBED. sufficiently to hide itself from view. It is also much more irritable, more ferocious and combative. If two of them are enclosed in a box together, and one crowds against or attempts to crawl over the other, it spitefully resents this freedom and snappishly tries to bite the intruder. These Yellow-headed worms continued to cut off the corn for more than a week after the others had disappeared, remaining out till about the close of the first week in July. When the Cut-worm is done feeding it crawls down into the earth to the depth of three or four inches, where it is not liable to be disturbed by any other worms inhabiting the superficial soil. It here doubles itself together in the shape of a horse-shoe, and by turning around and around in the same spot, presses the soil outward from around it, compacting it into a thin brittle kind of shell which the wet from any showers of rain will not penetrate, forming a large. oval cavity with a smooth sur- face on its inside. In this cavity the worm lies motionless and be- comes contracted in size and of a stiff and more firm consistency. The forward part of its body becomes swollen, more and more, till at length the skin bursts open upon the back and the hard shining yellow skell of the pupa begins to protrude from this opening. By slight sudden starts or shrugs, the skin is gradually thrown off and remains in a shrivel- led mass at the end of the insect, which is now in its pupa form, without any mouth or feet, its shape being that of an elongated egge of a shining chestnut yellow color, thrice as long as thick, but only half as long as was the full grown worm, This pupa or chrysalis lies quiet and motionless in its oval cell under the ground for about four weeks, when its outer shell- like covering cracks open upon the fore part of the back, and the moth or perfect insect crowds itself out from it, and upward through the loose earth to the surface. The first moth from the Striped Cut-worm presented itself to us this year on the evening of the sixth of July, and upon the evening of the tenth the same moths had become exceedingly numerous, The worms had been so diversified in the depth of their color and the distinct- ness of their stripes, that I had confidently expected to see a similar diver- sity in the moths which they produced. I was, therefore, greatly surprised to find the latter remarkably uniform, no differences occurring to my obser- vation this season that were susceptible of being described as varieties. Now that we have ascertained the moth of this, one of our most common Cut-worms, it is important that we give the most accurate description of it and of the worm from which it comes, that we are able to draw up from the numerous specimens we have examined, and thus place this species on record so distinctly that it may ever hereafter be readily recognized, The Striped Cut-worm, as we have heretofore termed it, is a cylindrical worm, usually about an inch in length when disturbed beside the severed plants in our gardens and corn fields, and upwards of an inch and a quar- ter when it is fully grown, Its ground color is dirty white or ash gray, occasionally slightly tinged with yellowish; the top of its neck shining black, with three white or pale longitudinal stripes; a whitish line along the middle of its back between two dark ones; on each side three dark stripes 36 CUT-WORMS. MOTH OF THE STRIPED WORM DESCRIBED. separated by two pale ones, whereof the lower oneis broader; often asome- what glaucous white stripe below the lower dark one, and all the underside below this dull white. This is the best concise general description of the worm that I am able to give, the characters stated being sometimes quite faint, but in most instances sufficiently plain and distinct. I proceed to give a more full description of the several parts. The,head is shining black, with a white stripe in the middle, which stripe is forked, resembling an inverted letter Y. The nose piece and upper lip are whitish, the former being wrinkled or longitudinally striated, and the latter having a trans- verse row of white bristles. The jaws are black and four-toothed. On each side is usually a white spot, and in other instances the whole head is more or less mottled with white, or is throughout of a tarnished white color with only a dusty streak on each side of its base. The neck above is of the same shining black color and horny substance as the head, with a white stripe in the middle, continuous with that upon the head, and a stripe on each side, curving slightly outward at its hind end. The sides of the neck are dull white, with ashort double blackish stripe across the middle. The back is ash gray, this color forming a stripe along each side of the middle, where are two dusky lines, and between them a whitish line of the same thickness. ‘lhe sides are dark gray or of the same dusky shade as the two lines on the middle of the back, this color being divided into three stripes of equal width by two faint pale lines, the lower one broader and formed of spots mottling the surface. These pale lines sometimes take on a glau- cous white appearance, and sometimes adjoining the lower dusky stripe on its underside is a third glaucous white stripe, which is broader than those above it, and along its lower edge are the breathing pores, forming a row of oval coal black dots. The underside, including all below the breathing pores, is dull whitish, the legs being varied with smoky brown, and the pro-legs having a ring of this color at their base. The Morn is represented, plate 4, figure 2, with its wings spread, and figure 8 as we usually see it when at rest and with its wings closed. It measures 0.70 in length and 1.30 across its extended wings, and is of an ash or dusky gray color, and distinguished principally by two coal black spots, one nearly square, placed outside of the centre of the fore wings, and the other nearly triangular, a little forward of it, a roundish nearly white spot sep- arating them. Its head is gray, and its palpi or feelers are blackish upon their outer side, These organs are held obliquely forward and upward and are densely covered with erect hairy scales, giving them a short, thick outline of a compressed cylindrical form, and cut off transversely at their ends, with a small naked joint protruding therefrom, little longer than thick, and scarcely a third of the thickness of the joint from which it pro- jects. Coiled up between the palpi and slightly visible on their underside is the long spiral tongue or trunk. The antenne are slender, thread-like, but tapering towards their tips. They ave simple in the females, and in the male are toothed like a saw along their opposite sides, the teeth being sharp and fringed with minute hairs at their tips. The thorax is the thickest part of the body and is of a square form, as is very evident when the 37 CUT-WORMS. WINGS OF THE MOTH DESCRIBED. wings arespread. It is gray, witha black band in front, edged on its hind side with an ash gray one, paler than the ground; and on the shoulder at the base of the fore wings is usually a small spot of dull pale yellow. The abdomen is tapering and somewhat flattened, dusky grayish, paler towards its base, its tip more blunt in the male than in the female and covered with a brush of hairs, The legs are blackish gray and hairy on their undersides, the spurs at the end of the middle and hind shanks being black in theic middle and white at cach end. The feet are five-jointed, long and tapering, the first joint much the longest and the fellowing ones suc- cessively shorter. They are gray, gradually passing into black at their ends, each joint having a white ring at its tip. The wings in repose are laid flat, one upon the other, in a horizontal position, sometimes so closed together that their opposite sides are parallel, but oftener widening back- ward (as represented in figure 3), and forming a broad shallow notch at their hind end. The fore wings vary in color from ash gray to dusky gray, and sometimes have a tawny reddish reflection. Their outer edge is gray- ish black, with irregular alternations of black spots having an ash gray spot between them, and towards the tip are about three equidistant pale gray dots. The costal area or narrow space between the outer edge and the first longitudinal vein is pale ash gray, gradually becoming dull and obscure beyond the middle. At the base, on the outer edge, are two black spots or short transverse streaks, with a pale gray siveak between them, and opposite these, on the basal middle of the wing, are similar streaks placed obliquely, which are frequently faded to a blackish clond-like spot, with a pale gray streak crossing its middle. Outside of the central part of the wing are the stigmas, two large roundish pale gray spots, having a square coal-black spot between them and a triangular one forward of them. ‘Lhe anterior one of these stigmas is broad oval, almost circular, and placed obliquely, with its outer end more towards the base of the wing than is the inner end. It is of a uniform pale gray color, slightly paler than any other part of the wing. Its edge is well defined by the black color surrounding it, except at its outer end, where it is incom- plete, being confluent with the ash gray color of the costal area. The hinder stigma is kidney-shaped, being concave on its hind side, and occupying this concavity is a pale gray spot or cloud, quite variable in its size in different specimens, and frequently taking on a buff or cream yellow tinge. This stigma is brownish or watered gray, becoming paler along its anterior edge, its ends, particularly the inner one, being vague and indefinite, blending with the adjacent coloring, sometimes so much so that only its middle portion is distinct. Between these stigmas is a large square spot of a coal-black color, occupying the whole space between the two midveins of the wing, its fore and hind sides made concave by the rotundity of the stigmas which bound it wpon these sides. Forward of the anterior stigma is a second black spot of a somewhat triangular form, also occupying the whole space between the two midveins at this point. Onits hind side it is concave and cut off obliquely by the obliquity of the stigma, whereby it is prolonged along the inner vein, usually into a long acute 88 CUT-WORMS. DESCRIPTION OF THE WINGS CONTINUED. point, Its anterior end is cut off, either transversely, obliquely or irregu- larly, by a faint pale grey streak, which is a portion of the anterior or extra-basal band. (See generalties preceding the description of the wings of the Tobacco-worm moth). In the best specimens this pale streak is dis- tinctly seen to be prolonged backwards along the outer side of the black spot almost to the Stigma, and then suddenly turning at a right angle, it runs obliquely foward and outward in a straight line to the outer margin, between the two small black spots which are here placed on the margin. In the opposite direction this pale streak is also prolonged from the for- ward end of the black triangular spot, inward and backward and curves slightly foward to the inner longitudinal vein, and beyond this, with another similar curve, is extended to the inner edge of the wing, it being margined on both sides by a black line, that along its hind side being commonly more conspicuous. And a short distance back from this line, equidistant between the inner midvein and the inner vein, may always be seen a black dot or short dash, which is the extreme point of a black stripe called the teliform stigma, which is common upon the wings of the moths of this genus, but in this variety of this species is wholly wanting, except this minute vestige of its apex. And also crossing this inner half of the wing obliquely at about two-thirds of the distance from the base to the hind edge are two other parallel blackish lines, representing the post-medial band. The anterior one of these lines is irregularly wavy and angular, and turns obliquely forward as it approaches the posterior stigma, and appears to pass into the inner hind angle of the square black spot. The posterior line, as traced from the inner edge of the wing, curves slightly backward till it reaches a point a short distance back of the inner end of the hind stigma, when it becomes nearly transverse, and then curves foward and obliquely outward to the outer edge of the wing, ending in the posterior one of the two black spots which are on the outer edge oppo- site to the anterior side of the hind stigma. This line, in the middle of the wing, is festooned or made up as it were of crescents united at their ends, these ends projecting backwards and forming about four acute angu- lar points; and sometimes this line is made more distinct by a faint pale gray line bordering it on its hind side, at least in the concavities of the crescents. But both these blackish lines are commonly quite faint and entire- ly vanish in many specimens. Beyond this, a broad space on the hind bor- der of the wing is darker colored and trayersed by a whitish line, which is wavy and often broken into a series of small irregular spots, these spots sometimes having larger black cloud-like spots adjoining them on the fore side. Back of the outer end of this line the tip of the wing is occupied by a triangular gray spot. The hind edge is faintly sinuated, with a series of slender black crescents surmounting the sinuosities. The fringe is con- color with the portion of the wing immediately forward of it. The hind wings are smoky whitish, with a broad dusky hind border, dusky veins, and an obscure dusky crescent near the centre, Their fringe is dull white with a dusky band near its middle. On the underside they are clearer white, with a broad, dusky hind border and sprinkled with dusky scales 89 CUT-WORMS. NAME OF THE MOTH. DESTROYER OF THE CUT-\WorRMS. towards the outer side. The veins are not marked with dusky, except a spot or short streak upon each of them, forming a transverse row forward of the hind border, which row becomes obsolete towards the inner edge and towards the outer edge is confluent, forming a dusky band. The cen- tral crescent is more distinct than on the upper side, and on the hind edge is a row of slender black crescents. The fore wing's are dusky, of the same shade with the border of the hind pair, becoming slightly paler towards their bases, They show an oblique black streak on the outer edge between the middle and the tip, and immediately beyond this is a very faint band crossing the wing parallel with the hind margin. The description now given makes it apparent, I think, that this moth is not essentially different from the species of Agrotis named nigricans by Lin- nus, which species we have upon this continent with the same varieties described by authors as occurring in Europe. In this species the teliform stigma is marked by two parallel lines connected by a rounded mark at their ends, But in the examples which I bred from the Cut-worms of the corn, and all those which I captured that season a mere dot was the only remaining vestige of this stigma. Therefore to facilitate future references to this particular variety of which I have here treated, it may be well to separate it under a distinct name, which I have accordingly done. The larger Yellow-headed Out-worm which came out as this was disap- pearing, produced as I expected, the same moth which was described in my Third Report, under the name Hadena amputatrix, the Amputating bro- cade moth, Thus it was the larvae of these two insects which were so numerous and did all the injury to our crops the past season, neither of these being the species which Mr. Brace describes as the insect which produces the Cut- worm. And it is therefore evident that in different years and at different localities, it is sometimes one sometimes another of the insects of this group which becomes multiplied and injurious to us; whereby it will require a series of observations extending through several seasons to obtain a full acquaintance with them, Before leaving this subject I may advert to one of our most efficient na- tural destroyers of these Cut-worms, which correspondents are occasionally sending me, for information as to its name, its origin, &c. It is the larva of a large black beetle, (Plate 4, fig. 4), having rows of round dots upon its back resembling burnished gold, the brilliancy of which dots cause it to be frequently noticed as it is wandering about in plowed fields and pas- tures in search of food, the beetle as well as its larva subsisting upon these Cut-worms. It is the Bold Calosoma, Calosoma calidum as it is named in scientific works, and pertains to the order Co.rorrera and the family Oara- BIDE, Its larva (Plate 4, fig. 5,) is a flattened, black, worm-like creature, having six legs inserted upon its breast, and a pair of sharp hook-like j jaws projecting in front of its head, giving it, in connection with the agility of its movements, a very ferocious and formidable appearance. It is curious to watch this little creature when it is upon a hunting excursion, in pursuit 40 CUT-WORMS. THEIR DESTROYER’S MODE OF KILLING THEM. of its prey. It wanders about over the plowed land, until it comes upon @ spot where it perceives the surface has been newly disturbed. This indi- cates to it that a worm has probably crawled down into the ground at that spot. It immediately thereupon roots down into this loosened dirt, and disappears from view, the motion of the dirt indicating its movements, as it pushes itself along. At times it lies perfectly still, to discover if any worm is moving in the dirt anywheres near it. Now it is the habit of the Cut-worm, the same as of most other worms, when any other creature ap- proaches and disturbs it, to give at short intervals a sudden, spiteful jerk, to menace and frighten away the intruder. But now, aware by the brisk motion made in the dirt near it, of the proximity of its mortal fue, it restrains itself from its wonted habit, and lies as still as though it were dead. It is only by some motion in the dirt, or by coming abruptly against it with its head and feelers, that this destroyer can discover the worm, for T have seen it draw the hind part of its body along the side of a worm which was lying perfectly still, and crawl away, without being made aware of the worm’s presence by touching it in this manner. One of the most interesting and wonderful exhibitions of insect economy which the world affords, is this Calosoma larva murdering a Cut-worm. The larva it may be is young and less than half the size of the worm, but the lit- tle hero never shrinks from the encounter. Upon discovering a worm he is instantly on the alert, all vivacity and as if crazy with excitement. The worm perhaps holds its head bent down stiffly upon its breast. The larva hereupon briskly roots and pushes the worm about and pinches it with its jaws, whereby he gets it to throw back its head, whereupon he instantly grasps the worm by its throat, sinking his sharp jaws through the skin, and cling- ing thereto with the grip and pertinacity of a bull dog. The worm mad- dened by the pain, writhes and rolls over and over and thrashes his tor- mentor furiously about to break him off from his hold; he coils his body like a Boa constrictor tightly around him to pull him away: he bends himself into a ring with a small orifice in the centre, and then briskly revolving, draws him through and through this orifice to tear him off; but every expedient of the poor worm fails. The larva clings to his grip upon the worm’s throat, till the latter, exhausted by his violent struggles, gradually relaxes his efforts, becomes more and more weak and powerless, and finally succumbs to his fate. Having thus killed the worm the larva leisurely pro- ceeds to feed upon it, biting two or three holes through the skin in differ- ent places to suck out its contents. It is occupied three or four hours in completing this work. And the larva becomes so gorged hereby that its own skin is distended almost to bursting. It then crawls slightly under ground, and there lies and sleeps off its surfeit, and then comes out and wanders off in search of another meal of the same kind. When this larva is small a single Cut-worm suffices it for one or two days; but as it approaches maturity it devours one or two worms daily. 41 BBE-KILLER. ANEW INSECT. 179 CLASSIFICATION AND NAME. 13, Nepraska Bee-kurer, Zrupenea Apivora, new species. (Diptera. Asilidze.) Plate 4, fig. 7. Killing the honey bee in Nebraska; a large slender-bodied two-winged fly, an inch long. Whilst we are occupied in closing this Report to place it in the printer’s hands, July, 1864, a new insect comes under our examination, of such an interesting character that we herewith present a figure of it, and the fol- lowing eccount, the principal portion of which we have also communicated to the Country Gentleman. R. O. Thompson, Esq., Florist and Nurseryman, in a note dated Nursery Hill, Otoe county, Nebraska, June 28th, 1864, says: ‘I send you to-day four insects or animals that are very destructive to the honey bee, killing a great number of them, and also of the Rose bugs. What are they 7 Many wish to know what this Bee-killer is. Is it the male or the female that has ihe three-pronged sting ?” The specimens, two of each sex, laid between pledgets of cotton wool in a small pasteboard box and forwarded by mail, came to hand in good con- dition, admitting of a very satisfactory examination. They are a large two-winged fly, having a long and rather slender and tapering body, about an inch in length, with small three-jointed antenna, the last joint being shorter than the first, and giving out from its end, and not from its side, a slender bristle. The ends of its feet are furnished on the underside with two cushion-like soles, and the crown of its head is hollowed out or concave, and in this hollow is seen three little glassy dots or eyelets. These charac- ters show it to pertain to the order Dirrera, and to the group which Lin- neus a century ago separated as a genus, under the name Asilus, but which is now divided into several genera, forming the family Asilidw. On inspecting its wings we see the two veins which end one on each side of the tip of the wing are perfect and unbroken, and towards the middle of the outer one they are connected together by a small veinlet or short transverse vein. This indicates these flies to pertain to the genus named Trupanea by Macquart. About a half dozen species inhabiting the United States and pertaining to this genus have been described by Wiedemann, Say, and others. This Nebraska fly appears to be different from either of those, and 1 am, there- fore, led to regard it as a new insect, hitherto unknown tothe world. And & more appropriate name cannot be given it than that by which it is called by Mr. Thompson and his neighbors, the Bee-killer or Zrupanea Apivora. The general definition of this species, or its brief essential characters will be, that it is dull black with the head yellow, the fore body butternut brown, the hind body on its underside and the legs pale dull yellow, the thighs being black on their foresides, and it is coated over with hairs which are * gray in the female and grayish yellow in the male, the end of the body inthe latter sex having a conspicuous silvery white spot. In this Asilus group of flies the species are separated from each other by marks which are often very slight and obscure, It is, therefore, im- portant that a detailed description of these Nebraska flies should here be 42 BEB-KILLER. DESCRIPTION OF THE INSECT, given, that they may not be confounded with any other species which may be closely similar to them. They measure to the end of the wings 0.85 to one inch, and to the end of the body 0.95 to 1.15, the males being rather smaller than the females. The head is short and broad, shaped like a plano-convex lens, flat on its hind side and convex in front. Its summit or crown is deeply excavated, leav- ing a vacant space between the upper part of the eyes, in the middle of which excavation are the oceli or eyelets, appearing like three black glassy dots placed at the corners of a triangle. The ground color of the head is yellow, All the face below the antennwe is covered with long hairs form- ing a moustache of a light yellow color, with a tuft of short black bristles at the mouth, and on each side are whiskers of a yellowish gray color. The base of the head has a sort of collar formed of radiating gray hairs, and behind the upper part of each eye is a row of black bristles. The eyes are large and protuberant, occupying two-thirds of the surface of the head, and are finely reticulated or divided into an immense number of minute facets. ‘The antenne are inserted at the anterior edge of the excavation in the crown of the head. They are small, scarcely reaching to the base of the head if turned backward. They are black and composed of three joints, the first one longest and cylindric; the second shortest and obconic; the third thickest and egg-shaped, its apex ending in a bristle which is about equal to the antenna in length, and is slightly more slender towards its tip, where it becomes a little thickened, The trunk or proboscis is as long as the head, its end projecting out from the bristles of the face. It appears like a long, tapering tube of a hard crustaceous texture, black and shining, blunt at the end, with a fringe of hairs around the orifice. In one specimen the tongue protrudes from the orifice in the end of the trunk, sharp pointed and like the blade of a lancet in shape, hard, shining and black. The thoraz or fore body is the broadest part of the insect, and is of a short oval form, with bluntly rounded ends. It is of a tarnished yellow- ish brown or butternut color, with two faint gray stripes along the middle of the back, alternating with three darker brown ones, It is bearded with black hairs and posteriorly with long yellowish gray ones, which are inter- spersed with black bristles. The abdomen or hind body is long, slender and tapering from its base in the male, and is more broad and somewhat flattened in the female. It is black above and covered with prostrate hairs, which are dull yellow in the male and gray in the female. On the sides and beneath the ground color is dull yellow in the male and gray in the female, and clothed with gray hairs in both sexes. ‘The two last segments, the eighth and ninth, are conspicuously protruded, making two or three more segments than are usually visible externally in insects. In the female these segments taper to an acute point, and are black and shining. In the male they appear like a cylindrical tube with a projecting valve under- neath at the base, and are coated over with dull yellow hairs, and on the upper side with silvery white ones, pressed to the surface and forming a conspicuous oblong spot of this color, which is two-lobed or notched at its ends. And in the dead specimens before me three bristle like processes 48 BEB-KILLER. LEGS AND WINGS DESCRIBED. DELIGHTS IN THE SUNSHINE. over a tenth of an inch in length, of a tawny yellow eolor, polished and shining, project from the blunt end of the body. These are termed a three- pronged sting in the above letter. But the magnifying glass shows they are abruply cut off at their ends and do not taper to a sharp point capable of piercing the human skin. The legs are long and stout and of a pale, dull yellowish color. The thighs in the males are chestnut brown, and on their anterior sides they are dull black in both sexes, the hind pair being entirely black, except a stripe of dull yellowish along the under side, The hind shanks also are frequently black on their anterior sides The legs are covered with gray haixs and have several black bristles in rows running lengthwise. In the males the four anterior shanks and feet have the hairs yellow, and on the feet the bristles also are of this color. The wings are long and narrow, and in repose are laid flat, one upon the other. They are transparent, with a smoky tinge, and are perceptibly darker at their tips, Their veins are black, except the parallel ones in the outer border, which are dull yellowish brown, The broad pane or panel at the tip of the wings, which is technically termed the second sub-marginal cell, rapidly narrows as it extends forward into the wing, for two-thirds of its length, the remain- ing third being quite narrow, with its opposite sides parallel. Along the vein which forms the boundary of this cell on its outer side, is a percepti- ble smokiness, which is not seen along the sides of the other veins. This yein is slightly bent in the form of a bow two-thirds the length of the cell, when it abruptly curves in the opposite direction, and is then straight the remainder of its length. A veinlet connects it to the next longitudinal vein, thus forming between the anterior portions of these two veins a third sub-marginal cell, which is very long and narrow. The arrangement of the veins in the wings, forming three submarginal cells as above described, induces me to refer this species without hesita- tion to Macquart’s genus Trupanea; although the silvery white spot on the tip of the male abdomen would indicate it to pertain to the genus ram, as restricted by the same author. The brief note of our correspondent gives us no particular information upon the habits of these flies or the manner in which they attack and kill the bees. But the members of this Asilus group are all so similar in their habits that we are aware what the operations of this species will be. And some account of the habits of these insects may be of suflicient interest to the reader to be here related. These Asilus flies, like some other of our most rapacious insects, parti- cularly delight in the hot sunshine. One or two evidences of this may here be adduced. Flies of this kind are rare in my vicinity. I suppose I might hunt for days without being able to find a living specimen. And I do not recollect to have ever seen one of them, hitherto, about my house or yard. Three days ago, however, when occupied in preparing this account, I casually spread some damp newspapers beforemy door to dry in the hotsun. On stepping out to gather up these papers I was most agreeably surprised to see alighted upon one of them and basking in the sun, what proves to be a 44 BEE-KILLER. IS PETID ODOR. CRUEL MODE OF KILLING ITS PREY. species of Trupanea which I had never met with before, and which is closely like though probably distinct from this Nebraska Bee-killer. The genial warmth reflected from the white surface of the paper lying in the clear sun had evidently attracted it to this unusual situation. So late as the month of October, ten years ago, upon a clear warm day, jn a sunny nook upon the south side of a forest, I came upon quite a num- ber of the Bran rujfibarbis, flying about and alighting upon the leaves—a species I have never met with except in that instance. They were warmed into such quickness of motion, and were so extremely vigilant and shy of my approach, that with my utmost skill I was able to capture but two in- dividuals which were impeded in their movements from being paired to- gether. I infer these Nebraska flies to be common and far less wary than the species alluded to—else our correspondent would have been unable to secure two individuals of each sex to transmit to us. And I suspect these specimens were obtained when they were copulated, If so, it is probable that the three sting-like bristles which I have described above, are not protruded and visible externally, except at such times, In flying, these insects make a very loud humming sound, which can scarcely be distinguished from that uf the bumble-bee; and when involved within the folds of a net, they utter the same piping note of distress as does that insect. This very probably contributed to impress our correspondent with the thought that the three bristles which are extruded by the male are a formidable three-pronged sting. Another fact which I do not see alluded to by any author, is the fetid carion-like odor which some of these Asilus flies exhale. I noticed this odor in the #rax rufibarbis which was captured as above related. And in these Nebraska specimens, though they have now been dead a fortnight and freely exposed to the air the latter half of that time, this disgusting scent still remains, and so powerful is it that on two occasions nausea has been produced when they have happened to be left upon the table beside me. As the newly captured fly above mentioned is wholly destitute of this fetor, it may be that it is only at the period of sexual intercourse that it occurs. These flies are inhuman murderers. They are the savages of the insect world, putting their captives to death with merciless cruelty. Their large eyes divided into such a multitude of facets, probably give them most acute and accurate vision for espying and seizing their pray; and their long stout legs, their bearded and bristly head, their whole aspect indicates them to be of a predatory and ferocious character. Like the hawk they swoop upon their prey, and grasping it securely between their fure feet they violently bear it away. They have no teeth and jaws wherewith to bite, gnaw and masticate their food, but are furnished instead with an apparatus which answers them equally well for nourishing themselves, It is well known what maddening pain the horse flies occasion to horses and cattle, in wound- ing them and sucking their blood. These Asilus flies possess similar organs, but larger and more simple in their structure, more firm, stout and powerful, In the horse flies the trunk or proboscis is soft, flexible and sen- 45 BEE-KILLER. ITS HABITS AND DESTRUCTIVENESS. sitive. Here it is hard and destitute of feeling—a large, tapering, horn- like tube, inclosing a sharp lance or spear-pointed tongue to dart out from its end and cut a wound for it to enter, this end, moreover, being fringed and bearded around with stiff bristles to bend backward and thus hold it securely in the wound into which it is crowded. The proboscis of the horse flies is tormenting, but this of the Asilus flies is torturing. That presses its soft cushion-like lips to the wound to suck the blood from it ; this crowds its hard prickly knob into the wound to pump the juices there- from. It is said these Asilus flies sometimes attack cattle and horses, but other writers disbelieve this. Should any of our Nebraska friends see one of these bee-killers alighting upon and actually wounding horses or cattle, we hope they will inform us of the fact, that this mooted point may be defin- itely settled. Certain itis that these flies nourish themselyes principally upon other insects, attacking all that they are sufficiently large and strong to overpower. Even the hard crustaceous shell with which the beetles are covered fails to protect them from the butchery of these barbarians. And formidably as the bee is equipped for punishing any intruder which ven- tures to molest it, it here finds itself overmatched and its sting powerless against the horny proboscis of its murderer. These flies appear to be par- ticularly prone to attack the bees. Robineau Desvoidy states that he had repeatedly seen the Asilus diadema, a European species somewhat smaller than this of Nebraska, flying with a bee in its hold. But it probably does not relish these more than it does other insects. We presume it to be because it finds them in such abundance, as enables it to make a meal upon them most readily, and with the least exertion, that these Nebraska flies fall upon the bees and the rose bugs. And so large as they are, a single one will require perhaps a hundred bees per day for its nourishment. If these flies are common, therefore, they willinevitably occasion great losses to the bee keepers in that part of our country. No feasible mode of destroying this fly or protecting the bees from it at present occurs to me. Indeed such an accurate knowledge of the particu- lar habits of this species as we do not at present possess, is necessary, to show in what manner it can be most successfully combatted. Since the foregoing account was written, Mr. Thompson has favored us with another communication, giving some most interesting observations upon the habits and destructiveness of this insect, which we here append in his own words. He says, My attention was first called to this fly destroying the honey bee by a little boy, a son of D. C. Utty, Esq., of this place. After sending you the specimens I watched its proceedings and habits with much care, and find that, in addition to the honey bee and rose bugs, it devours many other kinds of beetles, bugs and flies, some of which are as large again as itself. It appears to be in the months of June and July that it is abroad upon the wing, destroying the bees. None of them are now (August 2d) to be seen. When in pursuit of its prey it makes quite rapid dashes, always capturing the bee on the wing, When once secured by wrapping its legs about it, pressing it tightly to its own body, it imme- diately seeks a bush or tall weed, upon which it alights and commences 46 R BEE-KILLER. ITS TENACITY OF LIFE. devouring its prey by eating (piercing) a hole into the body and in a short time entirely consuming it (sucking out the fluids and soft internal viscera) and leaving only the hard outer skin or shell of the bee. Upon the ground beneath some favorable perch for the fly near the apiary, hundreds of these shells of bees are found accumulated in a single day—whether the work of one fly or of several I am not able to say. I have just returned from a pro- fessional tour through the northern portion of our Territory, taking Nur- sery orders; and in many things this business and the apiary are closely connected. In no case have I found a hive of bees that has thrown off a swarm this season! ‘The dry weather, bad pasture and other reasons were assigned as the cause. But many persons, since they have found this fly at his work of destruction, now believe it to be the cause of the non- swarming of their bees ; and I am led to the same opinion. I have only to add further, that this Bee-killer delights in hot, dry weather, and is very invulnerable and tenacious of life. I have observed the honey bee and also the hornet sting it repeatedly, but with no other effect than to cause it to tighten its hold upon them. Once when I forced the assassin to release his prey, he gave me such a wound in the hand as has learned me ever since to be cautious how I interfered with him. He will live an hour with a pin thrust through his body which has been dipped in the solution of eyanuret of Potassium. CE HOP A2PriS: From an Address delivered before the Annual Meeting of the State Agricultural Society Albany, February 8th, 1865. The insect which the past season attracted the most notice and did the most damage in our State, was the Aphis or Plant-louse upon the hops. Although the hop has been growing, both wild and cultivated, in this country, from time immemorial, I am not aware that this enemy has ever attacked or been observed upon it, until two summers ago, when it sud- denly made its appearance in excessive numbers; and in consequence of its advent, the two past years have been the most disastrous to the exten- sive hop growers in the central section of our State, which they have ever experienced. In some yards the hops have not been picked, and in other © yards a portion of those that have been gathered, it is said, ought never to have been dried and put up for market, they are so small and worthless; whilst the best that have been grown are of an inferior quality, the bitter principle, on which their value depends, being deficient, according to the published reports, to the extent of from 15 to 25 per cent. The newspapers and agricultural periodicals have abounded with notices of this failure of the hop crop. From the extended accounts which some of these publications have given, it would appear that there are three dif- ferent maladies with which the hop vines have recently become affected, namely, the Aphis or plant-lice, the honey dew, and the black blight. The piant-lice are soft pale yellowish-green insects, not so large as the head of a pin, which remain stationary upon the under sides of the leaves, crowded together and wholly covering the surface. The honey dew appears on the upper surface of the leaves, as a shining, clear and transparent fluid, sticky, like honey smeared over the surface. The black blight also occurs on the upper sides of the leaves and resembles coal dust sifted upon and adhering firmly to them, or the leaves look as though they had been held in the smoke of a chimney until they had become blackened over with soot, This black blight is deemed to be a kind of fungus growing from the leayes, analogous to the rust and smut in grain, and it is stated that in some hop yards sulphur has been dusted over the leaves to kill or check its growth, but without having the slightest effect upon it. Which of these maladies is the most pernicious, it would be difficult to judge from the published accounts, one writer seeming to regard the Aphis as the principal evil, whilst another wholly ignores this insect and dwells upon the black blight as being the cause of the failure of the crop. And it is not a little amusing to observe how very wise the reporters to some of the newspapers appear in giving an account of these diseases, and what a display of scientific lore they make, when their statements betray to us 48 the fact that they have not the first correct idea upon the subject on which they are writing. The truth is, these three maladies, about one and another of which so much has been said, are all one thing—differing merely as cause and effect. If there were no lice on hops there would be no honey dew and no black blight. I am aware the hop growers will be much surprised at this state- ment, and will scarcely credit it, they have been so accustomed to regard these things as distinct from and in no wise connected with each other— deeming the honey dew to be a fluid which has exuded from the leaves in consequence of some disease therein, and the black blight to be, as already stated, a kind of fungus growing from the leaves, whilst the plant lice, occurring only on the opposite or under side of the leaves, appear to be wholly separated from these substances upon their upper surface. But I am perfectly assured of the correctness of what I say, and can produce specimens which will demonstrate that I am correct. I regret that this subject did not occur to my mind last summer, or I would have had such specimens for exhibition here at this time. Upon the first opportunity, I will procure and place in the Museum of our Society, specimen of leaves showing this honey dew upon them, and others showing the black blight; and by the side of these leaves I will place white paste-board cards having the same honey dew and the same black blight upon them—thus demon- strating that these substances do not exude and grow from the leaves unless they also exude and grow from the paste-board cards. I will now briefly explain how these two substances come upon the leaves. Hach Aphis has two little horns projecting from the hind part of its back, which horns are termed the honey tubes. From these tubes the fluid called honey dew is ejected, in the form of minute drops, like particles of dew, which, falling upon the leaves beneath them, the upper surface of the leaves becomes coated over with this fluid, more or less copiously as the Aphides producing it are more or less numerous. And now, ths deposit of honey dew being exposed to the action of the atmosphere and alternately moist- ened by the dews at night and dried by the sun by day, is gradually decom- posed, changing from a clear, shining, transparent fluid, to an opake, black substance resembling soot, and it is then the black blight. In this simple manner do we account for and explain these phenomena—these three impor- tant diseases of the hop, about which so much has been said and such eru- dition has been displayed by some of the writers in our newspapers. These same phenomena, called honey dew and black blight, are not pecu- liar to the hop, but occur on other kinds of vegetation when infested by plant-lice; and an abundance of authority will substantiate my statement that this honey dew is caused by these insects, But I find no allusion to the black blight in any author, and what I state of that is the result of my own observations. It is proper, therefore, that 1 here adduce some of the evidence which I have, upon this particular point. It is over twenty years ago that I first noticed this blackness as being occasioned by plant-lice, Among several willow trees by the side of a stream near my residence, there was one sothronged with the willow aphis 49 that I went several times to that tree to contemplate the spectacle which these insects presented. And all through the following winter, no person passing within sight of that tree could fail of noticing the blackness of its trunk and limbs, it being the more remarkable as none of the other willow trees around it had any tinge of this color. The thought thereupon became impressed upon my mind, that it was the plant-lice with which this tree had been so overrun the preceding summer, which had in some way imparted this blackness to its bark. Two or three winters afterwards, I noticed the same blackened appearance to a pine tree, which tree | knew had been thronged with Aphides the summer before. I need not specily the several other instances of this phenomena which I have noticed, Seve- ral years since, when I was investigating the Aphis of the apple tree, I discovered that, in addition to the bark of trees, the leaves also acquired this sooty appearance, from these insects; and then, upon giving this sub- ject a particular examination, I became assured that this black substance was merely the honey dew in a decomposed state. Some writers have remarked that dry weather causes the several kinds of plant-lice to increase and become pests to the different species of vege- tation which they respectively inhabit; and my own observations incline me to regard this remark as being correct. During the dry period in June which frequently succeeds the spring rains, I have in particular years noticed these insects as occurring in unusual numbers, whereupon I haye apprehended that, having acquired such a start so early in the season, they would prove to be the most pernicious insects of the year; but rainy weather coming on after this, they have seemed thereupon to decline and have ceased to attract further attention. Hence I think it true as a general rule, that dry weather favors and wet weather retards their increase, And at first thought, this view is further strengthened by the fact that this Aphis upon the hops was so excessively numerous the past summer, when we experi- enced a drouth of such protracted length and severity. But, on the other hand, these insects were similarly numerous the year before, when the summer was unusually wet. We are thus assured there is some influence more potent than the hygrometrie state of the atmosphere, which has brought them forth in such hosts upon the hops. Perhaps in no other group or family of insects are the different species so very closely akin to each other as in this of the Aphides. So nearly identical are most of them, both in their appearance and habits, that we know them to be distinct species only from the fact that they inhabit dif- ferent plants, each one being unable to sustain itself upon any other than the plant to which it belongs. Being thus intimately related, we should confidently expect that the same atmospherical or other influence which causes one species to suddenly multiply and become extremely numerous, would operate upon and similarly affect the other species also. But this is by no means the case. As every one will remember, in the summer of 1861, all our fields of grain suddenly became so thronged with the Grain Aphis as to throw the whole country into alarm, Why did not the same cause which brought that insect upon us in such a remarkable manner, operate also to bring this insect upon the hops at that time, instead of o 50 two years later? Or, if this insect was not then in our country, when it did appear in such vast numbers two years ago, why was not the same influ- ence which occasioned its surprising multiplication then, felt also by the Grain Aphis, causing it to re-appear in our grain fields? The two insects being so intimately related, it is a mystery beyond the reach of human comprehension, how some hidden influence comes to operate upon the one, causing it to multiply and increase so astonishingly, whilst the other remains passive and not in the least affected by it. ‘This insect is not limited to the extensive hop plantations in the central parts of this State, but appears to have everywhere overrun the hop vines, both wild and cultivated, It was abundant the past summer in my own neighborhood, and specimens were also sent me from St. Lawrence county, whereby we know that its range extends to the eastern and northern con- fines of the State, but farther than this we do not possess any definite information. This Aphis appears to be identical with that which has long been known in Europe as the worst enemy of the hop, and which sixty-five years ago received its scientific name, Aphis Humuli or the Hop Aphis, from the Ger- man naturalist Schrank (Fauna Boica, vol. ii, p. 110.) Messrs. Kirby and Spence, in their introduction to Entomology (American edition, p. 139,) speak of the damage inflicted by this insect as follows: ‘‘ Upon the presence or absence of Aphides, the crop of every year depends; so that the hop- grower is wholly at the mercy of these insects. They are the barometer that indicates the vise and fallof his wealth, as of a very important branch of the revenue, the difference in the amount of the duty on hops being often as much as £200,000 per annum, more or less, in proportion as this fly prevails or the contrary.” This statement forcibly shows what a direct interest our own government has in patronizing these investiga- tions in which I am empluyed—this one little insect, in years when it is numerous, taking from the revenue of the British government half a million of dollars! My own researches upon this insect are obviously too limited as yet, to enable me to give such a particular history of its habits and operations, as its importance merits. I therefore present the following account from the London Gardener's Chronicle, for the year 1854, page 429: “Ags soon as the Aphides settle upon the hops, they suck the underside of the leaves, and immediately deposit their young, which are viviparous, and have the singular faculty of propagating their species within a few hours after their birth; and in this manner many generations are produced without the intervention of the fully formed Aphis fly; indeed, upon one hill of hops, millions of lice are born and die, neither parents nor progeny having ever attained the condition of the perfect insect. When the first attack of these flies upon the hops is severe, and early in the season, the growth of the plant is commonly stopped in the course of three or four weeks. If the attack be late, that is about mid-summer or afterwards, the vine has then attained so much strength that it struggles on against the blight, to its disadvantage, and the result is a total failure of the crop at least; for the leaves fall off, and the fruit branches being already formed, 51 there is no chance of recovery. At this time, and in this condition, the stench from the hop plantation is most offensive. * “ * * “The progress and usual termination of the Aphis blight may be thus described ; The flies, as before remarked, on their first arrival, immediately suck the underside of the upper small leaves of the vine, and thus they there deposit their young, upon the most succulent part of the plant. The multiplication of the lice is so rapid, that the leaves become so thickly covered as scarcely to allow a pin to be thrust between them. They quickly abstract the juices of the vine, so that the leaves assume a sickly, brown hue, and curl up, and the vine itself ceases to grow, and falls from the pole, the lice continuing till they perish for want of food ; and thus the crop is destroyed, and the grower may often consider himself fortunate if the plant recovers a due amount of vitality to produce a crop in the follow- ing year, for occasionally the hills are killed by the severity of the attack. This description, of course, applies only to the most severe and unusual blights.” The Aphides are the most evanescent of all insects. They spring up suddenly, in such immense numbers as to threaten the utter destruction of the vegetation on which they subsist, and ere long they vanish with equal suddenness—sometimes continuing but a few weeks, and rarely remaining in force longer than through one year. It thus appears, that, so long as the atmospherical or other influence which favors their increase, continues to operate upon them, they thrive and prosper, and when this influence passes away they rapidly decline. The writer in the Gardener's Chronicle, cited above, remarks of this Aphis on the hops, ‘‘ These insects are remark- ably susceptible of atmospherical and electrical changes, and on a sudden alteration of the weather we have known them perish by myriads in a night. This was specially exemplified in the Farnham district, about the middle of June, 1846, which suddenly recovered from a most severe attack, and afterwards produced the largest crop ever known in that quarter. We know, also, several instances in Hast Kent, which occurred in the same year, when the planters sold their growths on the poles at a few shillings per acre, and these same plantations so far recovered that many of them afterwards produced a crop worth from 30/. to 50. per acre.” The decline and disappearance of these plant lice is greatly expedited by other insects which destroy them ; and in many instances it is to these de- stroyers rather than to any atmospherical change, that the vegetation on which they abound becomes so suddenly released from them. No other tribe of insects has so many enemies of its own class as the plant lice. The different species of Coccinella or lady-bugs which are everywhere so com- mon, live exclusively upon the aphides, as do also the larve of the two- winged Syrphus flies and the four-winged Golden-eyed flies. Superadded to these destroyers the plant lice also have their internal parasites—ex- ceedingly minute worms or maggots residing within their bodies and feeding upon till they kill them. ‘Thus, whenever a tree or shrub becomes thronged with plant lice, these destroyers gather among and around them, in rapidly augmenting numbers, and subsist upon them until they have wholly exterminated them. Kirby and Spence (page 187) state that in the 52 year 1807 the sea shore at Brighton and all the watering places on the south coast of England, was literally covered with lady bugs, to the great surprise, and even alarm, of the inhabitants, who were ignorant that their little visitors were emigrants from the neighboring hop-grounds, where each had slain his thousands and tens of thousands of the aphis. These several kinds of destroyers of the plant lice were everywhere com- mon upon the hop vines the past summer. I believe that in every instance in which leaves with the lice upon them were sent me by correspondents, I found one or more of these destroyers also upon the leaves; and in one box that came to me, not one of the lice was remaining, all haying been devoured by several of these enemies which had happened to be inclosed in the box. These destroyers having been so common, it is quite probable that they have now subdued these lice to such an extent that the coming season the crop will be much less if at all damaged by them, It is of great importance that we should have some remedy, whereby, when these insects do fall upon the hop vines in such myriads as they have done the past two years, we may be able to promptly destroy them. As the lice remain stationary upon the undersides of the leaves and are so very tender and delicate that the slightest pressure suffices to crush and kill them, Mr. Kirby recommends to take the leaf between the thumb and finger, and move the finger so as to gently rub over the under surface of the leaf, whereby every aphis upon it will be destroyed. He thinks women and children can be employed for a small compensation to do this work, taking every leaf in succession between the thumb and finger, and thus wholly ridding the vines from these vermin. But we all know it will be an immense labor to thus take hold of every leaf upon the vines occupying whole acres of ground. Many of the leaves, too, are quite large, being five or six inches broad, and the finger is but three inches long. It will there- fore require one hand to hold the leaf steady, whilst the thumb and finger of the other are drawn several times along it, mowing down the vermin by successive swaths, Moreover, the veins on the underside of these large leaves are studded with prickles, whereby I doubt if a dozen leaves can thus be rubbed over before the skin of the finger will be cut through to the quick, I need not specify other obstacles which oceur to my mind, all con- curring to convince me that this proposed remedy, of the success of which Mr. Kirby is quite sanguine, is wholly impracticable. Washing and syringing the plants with strong soap suds has been often recommended for destroying the aphis upon them. I have recently been experimenting with this remedy, upon the plant lice which so badly infest the beautiful verbenas of our Flower Gardens, and I find it to be of but partial efficacy. It only kills the young, tender lice ; those which are ma- ture are so robust that they are not destroyed, even though the infested stems and leaves are immersed in a strong solution of soap. There is one remedy, and one only, which we know to be efficacious and perfectly sure for destroying the different species of plantlice. This is the smoke of tobacco, It operates like a charm. It never fails, But to apply It, 1f 18 necessary to place a box or barrel over the plant, burning the tobacco in a cup underneath, until its smoke has filled the inclosed space 53 and penetrated all the interstices between the leaves. Hereby the rose bushes and other shrubs and plants in our gardens are with ease wholly cleansed from these vermin. ‘To render it available for destroying these insects upon the hops, probably a piece of canvas or other large cloth can be thrown over them or some other apparatus devised whereby they can be fumigated for a few moments in the same thorough manner, —b+01+3 — Page AGrOWUs NIGTICANS 06+ +eareeerves aco plies) ture sterdra ee Nie sealer Maret R Uncut eee 27 Americana, Arclia...... exelintailerp] aheleici\ piacalale adie tata pele metavectate oie ececaraions . 24 ATTN Utabin NOGA MMOD. ates acs s/c s/s ciwis sila siviecisy yaa shaiay ela tate «» 39 Amputatrix, Hadena ..... Sten cia sh sinter obalratenlchanatorersieis tetenaiey Marevo woot o/c aie 39 Lib epibton tis WU Rte} A inseirce ® AUIEORINO DT MOIIO ID Mi aorte Cie oe eae ee 41 PAULO OTE T LUC) Cmts eines erece vokntsicasie o/s eleisnel plalevers\hercuavoiatetn eaneistaei ear, viele, 24 NCH Diavata aitieiee aicie' she istnigia's oatash ala erarainvatsuercitere shavsieinvan Serer ainsi s ont 24 OS LRTI AT OTe Boer SOS ODIO TOL SETH Oe SOR EER 26 Asilus diadema......+ Blaser ais Rite ois ap ohn Wiech aay cate sre tosd race her Nerare orig Warned 45 GE tomelnO LAN mer alriara tp inidle Novia, dyeaisiardea at yer sists erene einianstaecnviara ele hice e, 19 XL OMC. BLN Itlaitc tet ys ratstoay ste urenalaio sini ayneriansiecsravarehoieicrarvio see o aan coating 39 BNO GAC ORO OU ymANTIN IO Ut OUND Ks cacuieletela:stetstelstelaletstsluye a aisreteiie clea Geta at 39 (Melia, SARE tho & td DH cic GoaCIOOR OAs IA eI ore on ee POLIS RAITT OE CONE 24 OUT CLO SO UG Lietsasteleteleigys els ole) ctsienerai visitas aie akee irene alone = reat eee ee) Calosoma CCL oRainte actin sthicee en Winer smupehutnteysierecohcieres cake wearers gateere 39 (RUMI HOES Retna CA Aero Go tae Borin CL keine ee Eee 2 (SCUS TS HUG BIRE & oGcate SOIC aC, OOO CIEaAE AER GET Tey Ce ee ee Pe 2 Congr egata, MLL GMO GI SCETE cwtaiereteiaval oletets' ony cie viefers siaisse cota aes Se 12 COAG TPM OMI eraolesrat; sates seat vie Ate alain oi'vin Git ponsbaiarseaw serene Bie sitbeha athe a QT lidale RULES “ava tater ececpiniclarsselatsl erste Mmteat moa aeismvelens i urna etre ela eviews Won ol 27 COTW ONMN Esme cniationcinisie estat alahae weer ca PIG CMO CL e ache PAO EOS Te, 27 ce BUTE Ul gavarea atapeninetcs scat ogs ot slice tare st ey stale ataemerae scion Ge aero 35 y CUO Wale he diteraret tater, aiakt elec ays mice tetaperae siete spare a ter a 34 g Wee HED TEE TON ORG Bithe 6 oc C aOR canna G GOCE ee ete 39 BIRO TIME GUC OI DLO NGS laretoimelatere vst etistty Sialetsreleerd a ae cate aaa 19 MERINO MEI Olt Ne GUL OUI ce wialasites 4 sivinsisislein oateaiein hcmeinee Goo uee 39 WD vis vali PRU LS tear rwverevaserc. ct vees el soda avsiaestnievere creisiaeeheoe she Suctomeigar, ARE 29 ID ROE ONES TAA MTON ste CAGE BOT OO OA CSO Ae Re oe ks 29 LOTT Rug, ZASHOSo ei COG OO MEE Paris DEO SOTA ORC AOE ee 45 Dor yphora 10-lineala...... atecntaisanternncs Seleheloraay Af vie patsy iohie egw eainyere sisal 19 s HATS ROS ac ne Oo EERO Oe cen ee eT ie hae 20 [OTAEET OLDS Seiccee iio Rap CCDS Er CORSO Hono TOE Cop oir 44 Five-spotted Sphinx ........... Bidja) Ae aVers avavadiela wisi cas pie rarmenomte enan 2a ANUS DN SM TOO UN. maak atin waeidiuidiete m emcees eres x paleistarstkent ef oneralers, Sake 24 LEDER NOMI LOU Aateorie Hi caucus Hereipie heat e Greer Neiexevobsbanchuter araieweltre 39 Juncta, Doryphord........0.05. Bs(ehstofetiet st i dicey sun) arate ofl Sy Rate rahe ag sierra 20 PECL a ain IMUDe wees het ea ra nee Ciaial OUR dace Roe aA a ee: 17 IUHUEEHES aio) oa acer ye Sn NU ois sae RRR eek eee Rausiencietaiey ¢ 17 Microgaster congregata ........00.c00e. Bl eyshevateisvahed ecetel arunise sala stcrerara/t v 12 Moth, Brocades..cec. ss SOE CHOLLI HOOT NOLT pre ek or eee 39 Uititeyyo nin rraane cen ae eiiakanenta ecutiecneis Semmes ereies chal aiaton alae! oo 36 . AN OE UMRE Diet wettie-ataratavone tater aOR conical Sem veh wink oad 24 Wobacco worm.......... ct ieee voareentee senha ; 5 Ac Here Sistecar 56 INDEX. Page. Musketo Hawk.......+.+- ji SI er NOR or aa ETT Nebraska Bee-killer .....- ME PES Syaeriomrcrcad cena Li ateanege Sonia acs PONE re Breas: cll Nigricans, Agrotis ..+++++++ aes irks Seiegree Pea wien eae Brann litte 27 Northern Tobacco Worm....++++++++++45 dis epeatany oct Selanne scGoacRMArateets 1 Parasite of Tobacco worm...... ST Re TELA NAC ARC are ackua tase ietens eB “ i a aecond talaga BORG Bete erauaretls SOc oie! Parthenos, Arctid .secceer eves eeees . cents Shatele eee eaten rales 220) Phalena, devaslator....0cecreeceeneeees sc ighateatetEa ots ayo a auelaheuree einve an istehe . 29 Polygramma 10- lineata on aleeralecrteraret Wiehe! = Srats schists ints a 20 Potato-beetle, Ten-lined ..... SPIN NO eo Pero LL rater.) EE OM Ia Gee are OOO a weeny wichainaaiorets aera ae ? ey 1 Plteromalus Tabacum......00e+e+seews siniotonets Siastuer stanton Mores Ns Quinquemaculata, Sphins. sisters ta ae 5 pi ERs ross taped pavede eee iorete alee aie ll Rose bugs destroyed. be Bee-Killer. cess cecstee cc eres vialallebares etate rset tee Rufibarbis, Eran. La Bitrooe Ha dts tien Gena: Saal tate aipieteh Tee Sphinn Caroling... +.+++++ S oeartvatie akin Savage Boab taerene ‘ Getta wt 2 6 Kalmie@....s0s% AMS Site ricctot se oe : ite hoe aaa tans 17 & quinquemaculald ss. svreereres see ren aioe acs ier peetetatees 1 Striped cut-worm......+++sereee SS ave.d niet 3k beta ies sami Sarre mee) Surface catterpillars... 6... ee cece este ee eee eee eee ener tees ee 27 a grubs ....... Pr aisha hen daa hana e timeao oe ayaa MEMieRee BEE Dota BEN cree Als Tabacum, Pteromalus....+.+++- Pace oa orotate DOO dis aes ‘ sears, 0115) Ten-lined Potato-beetle... 0.2... 05s scce ener snes a ig aidabheuaeuolehtes sane 19 Tiger MOth ..cc. cece ec ee seen secre eens S beicuaernebarirein : ; a nterelatofera Tobacco Pteromalus.......- suena ants ieee Metin Sasave Sinin nad a csteretaae ote 15 Tobacec-worm, Northern....... bittida Patseret Shynioa ces Seren =p ol ‘ SOUDNONIUNsrsyeistscis eh shave miabexeiays Leste Nile wants Jalarahente 2 vs Panasitiovs nes. sires cineca nana tes Serene mints ; > 12 HM @ SCCOUd PaVaslte,..2 sc. . ces ee ee cs e wens a8 Hac . 18 Momato-wOLlml 2.056. es eles ae cislauhote ici tans oieke SS. Satans Sree eee aoe 1 Trupaned Aptvord v1... crseveceseeeeees Let enone sheets fetes Scatecarelnewan tee Bol. Yellow-headed cut-worm ......+.e++ 00% CCC eR CN, VP vata Setets 34 Hor Apuis : Black Blight.......... seisuoolsia Saiemctan Noicea es etc Aninieieiatereietetats 47, 48 Coccinnella or poe: bug . Macias tarnieteres tate Sone dens cee Heston celina cos Bl Honey Dew.......... Soman at piivarduiag ne: ROMaoo aco A reisteue ol ateliae 47 Hop Aphis ........ Sasritiae stalinigusiaystoete SOMOS Acco girders evgete emia i iberirole so oCClE a kato on soon sane ona aeinaiicackc Daas veo e decline and disappearance...........- Sposmodan hapa 51 ‘ depredations upon hops ............ BOS TED SENN nee Al) a PVETIESCOD bans xtonvsia menierimieter motel aes be iaats Higa qiaiets 51 a identical with Aphis Humuli.......... ice POR a OO one OU a internal parasites. ....5......+05, Hino anc ; aeiapeance 51 ¢ progress and termination.......... Aina hers cd | sages 51 a TOMECY sons csiees » sate svard shes iain buslntnusrs i) Acoielan shen ars Pecetsta at caie nee DES ell “pit Dae aa Sea eye Dart ARE en ove mae i Oe tele taht, >, COMSTC CK Me iCly VAAL [ From Trans. N. Y. State Ag’l Society, 1853, Vol. 13th. ] APPLE TREE PESTS. —e Schonherr’s Weevil and the Orchard Moth.—Asa Fitch, M. D., Salem, N. Y. Salem, NV. Y., June 30, 1853. Hon. B. P. Jounson: My Dear Sir—The Michigan insects reached me in safety. They pertain to the weevil family (Cur- cuLionipm), and are one of the largest of that kind of insects which we have in this country. They are the Pachyrhynchus Schonherri, so named by the late Rev. Mr. Kirby, in honor of the Swedish entomologist Schonherr, who has devoted a great deal of attention to this family of beetles, so noted for the injuries which they inflict, and who has published several volumes upon them. Mr. Kirby’s description of this species may be found in the Zoology of the Northern Parts of British America, vol. iv, page 103. It also appears, from the short description given in Turton’s System of Nature, vol. 2, page 264, to be the species named Curculio Noveboracensis, or the New-York weevil, by Fors- ter; but not having Forster’s work at hand, I am unable to speak decidedly. It is rather a rare insect, I should judge, for I have never seen but three specimens of it heretofore. One of these I captured in this (Washington) county, twenty years ago. The others were sent to me, one from Long Island, and the other from Rhode Island. Mr. Kirby’s specimens were taken in Canada. This weevil, though variable in size, is commonly over half an inch in length, and is about two and a half lines broad. It is of a gray color, produced by short whitish hairs upon a black ground. Upon the thorax are three white stripes, more or less distinct, and upon each wing-cover are four white stripes which are interrupted by small black spots. These marks will suffice to distinguish 2 this from other insects. We have a long-horned beetle, the grub of which lives in pine timber—the Rhagium lineatum—which is much more common, and strikingly resembles this weevil in size, color and form, but is readily distinguished from it, by having a projecting spine, or tooth, on each side of the thorax. Hitherto, so far as I amaware, nothing has been known respect- ing the habits of this weevil; and the facts mentioned by Mr. Wetmore, that it eats the young buds and tender twigs of the apple tree, causing them to wilt and die, passing from one bud to another, and, when satisfied, concealing itself under a leaf, until prompted by hunger, it crawls forth to take another repast, are very interesting, and will not fail to attract the notice of the fruit culturist. When these insects are present in numbers upon a tree, perhaps the best mode to get rid of them will be to spread sheets under the tree, and then shake the tree, or beat upon it with a pole. The insects, thus disturbed, will drop upon the sheets, and may be gathered up and killed by throwing them into a kettle of boiling water. They may then be fed to the hens. Should a favorable season, or any other cause, lead to its be- coming greatly multiplied at any time, it is easy to perceive that this weevil would be a great pest in our orchards. And that it will become thus multiplied, now and then, in particular dis- tricts, I do not doubt, history will show—this being the case with nearly all of our injurious insects. Commonly, their num- bers are so few, that no notice is taken of their depredations. But, at times, they become so excessively numerous, as to commit great havoc and prove themselves a terrible scourge. An instance of this has recently been communicated to me. The common May beetle of our country, Phyllophaga quercina, as it is named in Dr. Harris’s Treatise on Injurious Insects, (a work by the by, which should be in the hands of every farmer, gardener and fruit grower, now that a new edition has rendered it attainable to all,) is seldom noticed as being a depredator at least in this section of the State. Milo Ingalsbe, E-q., President of our coun- ty Agricultural Society, informs me that upon his place at South Hartford, he has about seventy plum trees, which were splendid- 3 ly in bloom on the 15th of May last, together with a number of cherry trees of several of the improved varieties. In the course of two nights afterwards, however, this May beetle suddenly hatched out in such astonishing numbers as to wholly strip these trees of their leaves, buds and blossoms, leaving many of them as naked as in mid-winter, and destroying ali hopes of any fruit the present year. But a still more remarkable instance of the excessive multipli- cation and consequent havoc caused by an insect not previously noticed, has occurred in this vicinity, since I received your letter. Indeed it surpasses every thing of the kind that has been hitherto experienced in this county since the date of its settlement. On the 19th instant, a man from Cambridge inquired of me whether I had observed the worms upon the apple trees, saying that all the orchards in that town were being stripped of their leaves. Next day, on going to my apple trees, I found the worm alluded to, upon all of them, committing great havoc; and a gentleman from Argyle informed me that within two and three days past they had been observed, overrunning all the apple trees there. Upon the 23d instant, the circuit court being in session in the Village of Salem, I saw persons from most towns of the county, and learned that this worm was ravaging every orchard within our borders, without exception. Some idea of the value of our orchards and the amount of damage which this pest threatens to do us, may be formed from the fact, that two years ago, to supply the vacancies produced by trees that had per'shed, and to plant new orchards upon some farms, an agent from one single nursery disposed of young trees in this county, to the amount of $10,000. As it well may, therefore, this worm at present forms the leading topic of conversation in every circle, and our newspapers are giving notices of itin their columns. And the crude and errone- ous notions that are being formed and circulated respecting it, show, in a most humiliating manner, the gross ignorance which pervades our country, upon topics of this kind. One gentleman tells me, that in a conversation with the most noted and experi- enced nurseryman in our county, they had mutually come to the conclusion that this worm had been bred by what in his neigh- borhood is termed “ the little green insect.” On inquiry, I ascer- 4 tained that this little green insect, so called because they know no other name for it, was nothing more nor less than the 2phis mali, or Apple-leaf Louse. And the idea that this louse breeds these worms, is rather more wild than it would be to conjecture that fleas breed bed-bugs. One of our most intelligent and successful farmers, who sometimes wields his pen as well as his scythe and hoe, favored me with the recherche information, that this is the « canker-worm”—at least, said he, it is the very same worm which was called the canker-worm in Connecticut, when I was a boy. Had my good friend asseverated that the moon was made of green cheese, he would scarcely have surprised me more. I over- heard another gentleman, a graduate of one of our best colleges, recommending to another similarly educated citizen, to bore his apple trees, fill the hole with sulphur, and close it by inserting a plug “made from the wood of the same tree.” Methought he ought to have added, that the hole shou'd be made with “a sil- ver bullet,” or at least that this operation should be done “ in the old o’ the moon.” Friend Johnson, posterity will only need what I have above stated, to show them that mauger all our vaunted light and intel- ligence, in this, one of the most important branches of natural science to the farmer, and one of the most interesting departments of nature’s works to every studious and inquiring mind, our country, at the present day, is sunk in Egyptian darkness. In ditfusive information, so far as respects Entomology, we are lag- ging far behind the subjeets of several of the monarchical and despotic governments of the old world. In Germany and Prus- sia, countries which are regarded as much less enlightened than our own, not merely is a professor of this science deemed indis- pensible in every university, and every agricultural seminary, but its rudiments are taught in all their primary schools. In this country, on the other hand, sueh a thing as a course of lectures upon this science, has never yet been delivered, except perhaps in one or two of our universities. Indeed much of the very foundation of this science, upon this sideof the Atlantic, is yet to be laid. Whole groups and families of our insects have never yet beenexamined. We have not even names by which to desig- nate a considerable portion of our species. Take this apple tree 5 worm, for instance. It belongs to a family of insects, of which, in Great Britain, there are upwards of 300 species. Our own country, we may safely assume, contains at least double this num- ber. And of our 600 American insects of this family, how many, think you, have been examined and described? So far as I am able to ascertain, there are three species only !. In no other de- partment of sefence is an exploration so urgently required, so loudly called for, asin this. Scareely a week passes, but that one and another within the circle of my acquaintance, is coming to me with some insect which he has detected, preying upon some article of property ; of which insect he is anxious to know the name, habits and remedies. Within the past forty-eight hours, one has brought mea worm which is infesting the roots of his squashes, melons and cucumbers, and has killed a large part of these plants in his and his neighbors’ gardens ; another has shown me some pea-pods, containing a worm which is devouring the young peas; a third has brought in some tomato plants, wilted and destroyed by a grub that has perforated the stalk; anda young lady has submitted to my notice some caterpillars, which she finds devouring her roses. Such facts forcibly show how much, how very much we need a thorough investigation of the Entomology of our country. It is indeed surprising that this branch of natural science, in an economical aspect second to no other in its importance, should have remained to this day so la- mentably neglected. In that valuable series of volumes, the Natural History of the State of New-York, we are presented with a full description of every object in the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms, that exists within our borders—save only our insects. This most important hiatus remains to be filled, to com- plete that great work, and render it full and entire as it was de- signed to be. Each succeeding year is showing how urgently we need the information which this part of that work would furnish us. Why should its completion be longer delayed? The pecu- niary loss which we shall sustain the present year, from this one inseet which is now devastating our orchards, is probably greater than will be the whole cost of a survey of the insects of the State. I have only space left to give youa short description of this apple tree worm, reserving a more extended account of it for a 6 future occasion, when I shall have had opportunities for studying its entire history. It is a cylindrical caterpillar, somewhat resembling a span worm. It has sixteen feet, and is scarcely half an inch long when full grown. It varies considerably in its colors and marks, but is commonly of a pale yellowish or greenish hue, with a dusky stripe on each side of the back, running the whole length of its body. Above this, a narrower whitish stripe is more or less dis- tinct, and along the middle of the back is a slender dusky stripe, between the whitish ones. With a magnifying glass some black dots, regularly arranged, may be seen along the back and sides, each dot having a short hair growing from it. The head is pol- ished, and of the yellow color of bees-wax. Some wormsare met with, however, having black heads. Whether these are a dif- ferent species or not, can only be determined when the insect has attained its perfect state. They subsist upon the leaves, eating holes in them, and often devouring all except the coarse veins of the leaf. They also gnaw the young apples, causing them to wilt and fall from the tree. Our crop of apples for the present year is totally destroyed, and it is probable that many of the trees will die also, their fuilage being wholly consumed, so that the trees look brown, as though they had been scorched by fire. When the tree is shook or jarred, many of the worms let themselves suddenly down from it, some to the ground, others suspended in the air by a fine thread like gossamer, which they spin. If it is menaced or annoyed when on the ground, with a wriggling mo- tion it runs backwards and forwards with surprising agility. This worm evidently belongs to the family of leaf-rolling moths, (Torrriciom) ; and some of these worms may be seen hid in a slight covert which they form by folding the edge of the leaf, or folding it in a cylinder, or drawing two leaves together with their cobweb-like threads. Most of the worms, however, do not at- tempt to form any such covering for their concealment. When the worm gets its growth, it crawls away from the tree, and under some leaf or other slight shelter on the surface of the ground, spins a little, oval, paper-like cocoon, of a gray color, 7 about 18-100ths of an inch long, and a third as broad, within which it changes to a pupa. Analogy teaches us that from this pupa will come a winged moth or miller, such as often flutters about our candles in the evening. This moth will lay its eggs upon the leaves or in the chinks of the bark of the apple tree; from which eggs another generation of these worms will be hatch- ed. Dry, hot weather, in the month of June, it is certain, favors the multiplication of these worms. Before they were observed, it was currently remarked that such aspell of sultry, dry weather as we then had, was never before known so early in the season. On the night of June 23d we had heavy thunder showers, and the next day few of these worms could be found upon the trees. And though they are still present (June 30th) their numbers are now greatly reduced. Query—will not drenching the trees with wa- ter from a garden or fire engine prove to be the most effectual way of ridding them of these worms. On beating and shaking the apple trees, I have repeatedly seen a moth fly from among the leaves, which I have little doubt is the parent of these worms. It isa delicate, pretty little insect, measuring six-tenths of an inch across its wings when they are spread. Its fore wings are of a shining pale yellow color, coarsely freckled with darker orange-yellow spots. The hind ends of its wings are occupied with a broad band of a purple color, blended with orange, and towards the outer or costal edge with a pale yellow. This band is double the width upon the costal that it is upon the inner side of the wing, and its anterior narginis slightly hollowed or concave; and running parallel with the anterior margin is a enrved stripe, of an orange color, often tinged with purple, extending across the wing, slightly forward of its middle. The hind wings are grayish-brown, and white anteriorly on the outer side. This moth pertains to the genius Argyro-lapia, and the sub-genius Lozopera of the distinguished British Entomologist,, Mr. Stephens; and as this species does not appear to have been: hitherto described, I propose to callit the Argyrolepia pomarianay,. the specific name being derived from the Latin, pomarium, which, translated, will give us for the common name of this insect, the: Orchard Moth, or, if we wish to be more definite, the Orchard Ar-- gyrolepia. Our forests at present are infested to an unusual éxtent with a- worm so exactly like that in the orchards, that every body regards them as being identical; nor have I been able to detect any marks — by which they can be told the one from the other. Still, it is probable that they are distinet species. I have hitherto, in July and August, in different years, captured a moth in our forests, very like the Orchard Moth above described, and which I am in- clined to regard as the parent of these forest worms. It is very slightly larger than the Orchard Moth; its fore wings are bright oehre-yellow, many of the scales sparkling with the lustre of bur- nished gold, and instead of being freckled, they are covered with crinkled, irregular, transverse lines of an orange color; the pur- plish stripe forward of the middle of the wings, is widened as it approaches the costal edge, and is prolonged upon this edge to the base of the wing; and posteriorly, instead of the broad band, there is only a spot of purple blended with orange, situated on the costal edge forward of the apex; the hind wings are white. In my collection, I have named this species Argyrolepia sylvaticana or the Forest Moth. We also have, in this State, two or three other species closely resembling those described, but I know nothing of their habits. Yours truly, ASA FITCH. P. 8. July 23d.—Informed that the number of the Journal of the New-York State Agricultural Society for August, had gone to press when the above communication reached you, and that it could not, therefore, appear until the issue of the succeeding num- ber, as it was a topic in which our community was much inter- ested, and erroneous views were being imbibed, I handed a copy of it to the Salem Press, in which newspaper it was published on the 12th inst., and copies were mailed upon the following day, to my several agricultural and scientific friends throughout the country. ee 226 ‘3 The Entomologist, ° {For the Country Gentieman and Cultivator.) No. 26---THE WHEAT MIDGE. Tn an address which I delivered at the recent Annual Meeting of our State Agricultural Society, I spoke of some of our most important injurious insects as having been re- markably diminished or wholly extinct the past summer, {regard a portion of the information given in this address, particularly that relating to the wheat midge, as of such a character that it merits to be widely disseminated among our farmers before the opening of the coming season, I therefore communicate it, with some alterations and ad- ditions, for insertion in the Counrry GenrLEMan, Tt is now about thirty years since the wheat midge first invaded our State. Duringall that period it has been one of the most formidable enemies with which our agricul- turists have had to contend—greatly injuring, and in some instances totally destroying their fields of wheat, Though its depredations have been much greater some years than others, almost every year it has been so numerous as to materially diminish the productiveness of this crop. The habits and transformations of this insect I will brief- ly state, as some of our readers may not be familiar there- with. ‘The larva, or little yellow worms, which occur in the ears of wheat are so universally known that it is un- necessary to describe them. ‘These worms get their growth about the time the wheat ripens; and when a cloudy, damp day. occurs, and the straw is wet with rain, whereby they they can adhere to it, they come out of the wheat heads and crawl down the straw to the ground. Some make this descent before the grain is cut, others when it is standing in stooks in the field, and others which are belated in their growth are carried with the grain into the barn. On reaching the ground they crawl slightly into it, or under any decaying leaves or straws which they find on its surface, and there remainat rest during the autumn, winter and spring. ‘The warmth of this last named season changes it to a pupa, in which state the worm appears as though it had a kind of vest or hood drawn over the head ae of its body, with some little cords hanging down in ront. From this pupa the perfect insect or midge comes out in June. This resembles a minute fly or musquito, The reader will form a very good idea of its size, color and ap- pearance by imagining one of the little bright yellow worms which he has seen in the wheat heads, with long and very slender legs and a pair of small wings attached to it, There are two species of these flies found together in our wheatfields, One (Cecidomyia Tritici, Kirby) has the wings perfectly clear and glossy. The other (which Thave named Cecidomyia cerealis,) which is more rare, has seven dusky spots on each of its wings. But as we know of no dissimilarity in their habits, this distinction is unnecessary, except where scientific accuracy is required, Most of these flies are hatched, each summer, in fields where wheat was grown the year before. They remain at rest during the daytime, and become active in the even- ing. Immediately after they are hatched they are flying about everywhere in search of the fields in which the new crop of wheat is growing. In these fields they all gather themselves in the course of a few evenings, and there remain. They repose during the daytime, standing upon the wheat stalks down near the ground, After sun- set they take wing and hover in swarms around the heads of the wheat. The females will now be seen dancing up and down these heads, intently occupied in selecting a place thereon which is suited to their wants. Such a spot. being discovered she alights upon it and pierces through the chaff with her sting or ovipositor, This is a hollow tube like a very fine hair, which she protrudes from her body, Through this she passes her e&gs, one after an- other, into the chaff, placing them in contact with the germ or young kernel of grain. When this act is completed the labor of her life is finished, and she soon dies, Some- times she is so exhausted by this worl that she is unable to withdraw her sting from the chaff, and perishes, hang- ing thus chained thereto, : Long ago I found that these flies began to appear in the wheatfields on the 15th‘of June, and that they became ex- cessively numerons there, in the course of a day or two afterwards. Yet I knew not but that they might haye been hatched one or two weeks before that time, occupy- ing the first period of their maturity in selecting and pair- ing with their mates, and only resorting to the wheat when they were ready to deposit their eggs and die. How to ascertain when this insect is first disclosed from its "pupa, and how long it is occupied in migrating from the old to the new wheatfields is a problem which has been often in my thoughts, without being able to devise any convenient mode for its solution. Last season, however, it occurred to me that as these flies are attracted {nto our divellings by the lights therein, it might hereby be found when they first begin to appear abroad and how long they continue, Accordingly, employing my evenings in reading beside an /¢6/ Open window, it was on the 13th of June that one of these flies was first seen to alight on the paper beforeme, Upon the two following evenings quite a number of them were noticed, after which they were seen no more. It hence appears that two or three evenings suffice them for finding their way from the old into the new wheat fields, It may here be remarked that among the hosts of midges, flies, and other small insects, which enter our windows upon warm sultry evenings, and are so great an annoyance around our lamps, the wheat midge is readily recognized by the bright yellow color of its body. None of our other minute flies which occur in the same situation are of a similar color, The wheat midge, it is probable, varies somewhat in the time of its appearance, as the season is more backward or forward in different years, for the same atmospheric in- fluences which hasten or delay the advance of vegeta- tion operate similarly and to an equal degree upon «the insect tribes, causing each species to come forth at the exact period when its food has grown to be in readi- ness for its use.. And to the south of us, in Pennsylvania, the midge no doubt makes its appearance some days earlier than it does in this vicinity. Hence it is desirable that we have some other indication besides the mere date of a par- ticular locality, by which we may be aware of the time when this insect comes abroad to commence its annual career. And it may therefore be observed that when the first solitary fire-flies are seen sparkling in the evening air, and when the white flowers upon our locust trees are be- ginning to fade, so that some of them are dropped to the ground beneath the trees, we may be aware that the wheat midge is then newly hatched and is beginning to gather in the wheat fields. Note.—I perceive that to complete this subject will ex- tend the present article to a lengtli inconvenient for in- sertion, and I therefore defer my observations upon the disappearance of this insect to another number. Salem, N. Y.. March 11, 1861. ASA FITCH, Ghe Drivy Department. Bad Milk and Butter in Winter, It is said that when cows are allowed to eat the litter which is thrown out of horse stables, impregnated as it is with liquid manure, their milk and butter will be tainted with the taste, in the same way that the flavor is injured by eating turnips, but to a more disagreeable degree. If litter is allowed to be eaten, it should be only given to other cattle, and not to milch cows, which should have nothing but the sweetest and purest food, eee (For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.) “CHESTER COUNTY BUTTER.” The best butter in this country is admitted by con- noisseurs to be made in the dairies of Chester and Dela- ware counties in Pennsylvania, from meadows a hundred years in grass, and which the owners never think of plow- ing up. The sod is said to be a foot thick, and conse- quently little affected by drouth, This butter is appro- priated by the markets of Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, and a person once accustomed to its aroma and flavor, becomes fastidious for life in that article, The dairy-people work their butter with a damp cloth, upon a marble or hardwood slab, (instead of a bowl and ladle,)—rinsing and wringing the cloth in cold water as often as it becomes saturated with the milk. The butter will not become waxy or salvy by this process, as it is made perfectly dry, with half the manipulation. A single trial will convince of this. Of course the butter must be salted and cooled, and time allowed for the salt to be en- tirely dissolved, before it is worked for packing, or for the table. The cloth must be close in texture, and not at all linty—a lump of ice will prevent the butter becoming oily in very warm weather. Anounce and a half will be found about the right quantity of salt for a pound of butter by this process, as the cloth extracts more salt than the ladle, Mansfield, Pa, 8. E. M. —_—_—_+ oe —_______ [For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.) INQUIRIES ABOUT CHEESE-MAKING. Hprrors or Co. Gent.—I have read with much interest, the articles on Cheese, by your correspondent D., Oneida Co. As my aim is to make a good cheese, and as my ex- perience is limited, I am dependant on the experience of others. 1st. As to capping—will a rich cheese keep its shape without a band around it? 2d, As to scalding, he says, be sure and have the curd thorouglily cooked, How can I tell when it is so? 8d. Cook or scald to 100° to 110°, according to the weather. Does it mean that the curd should be scalded the highest in very hot weather? 4th. As to pressing—I have been taught that to press too hard at first would injure the cheese. THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. April 4, 5th. How long ought cheese to be in the press? And now let me say one word in favor of the Country GENTLEMAN, JI see four other Agricultural papers, and I prefer the Co, Grr. to the allm. Your paperseems to be full of practical every-day matter—not a child’s paper, full - of puzzles or stories; and as I know that farmers asa class, do want a paper that calls itself Agvicultural, to come to them with practical information in regard to busi- ness, I take the pains to say a good word for my favorite, Lyme, Ct. M.T. ©. NN Huw Pnprovement, [For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.) LANDSCAPE ENGINEERING---17th Article. Repairing Highways. Tt must be apparent to any intelligent mind, that the whole system of management connected with the con- struction and repairs of the common roads of this country is very defective, and that it would be an easy matter to devise a plan that should be free from some or eyen all of its many objections. In the first settlement of a new country, we may be compelled to recognize the principle of a labor tax to develop those public improvements which are positively necessary, but as in the progress of civiliza- tion, each one assuines his separate calling, and capital is easily controlled, it would seem necessary by every course of reasoning, that road-making and repairing should be- come an independent pursuit, requiring thorough qualifi- cations, and paid for by a money tax. It seems quite absurd that so difficult a branch of civil engineering should be controlled and directed by those who know nothing, either theorectically or practically, of the principles. Road- making, and whose forces consist of representatives of nearly all the trades and professions, the farmer, the cooper, blacksmith, physician, tavern keeper, bar-room loafer, &c., &c., meet alike on a common Jevel on the common, road, and however excellent or inefficient each may be in his own pursuit, the law presumes that nature has stepped aside from her customary plans, and generously bestowed upon each a full knowledge of road-making, and regard- less of capacity or intellect, repeated herself in a manner no where else to be met with. It cannot be supposed that a road-master is appointed from any superior attainments in that science, as all know that merit is not a condition of success. ‘To know how to read and write, is by no means essential, his duties being not so much in. planning and directing work, as in keeping account of the tax worked out. Probably there cannot be found elsewhere so much concentrated ignorance, on the subject of road- making, as is represented by the pathmaster and his gang of hands, If any proof of this assertion is required, look at the practical examples everywhere about us. ‘ By their works ye shall know them;” wherever a good piece of road can be found, it is impossible to trace its excellencies to any skill on the part of these road-makers. By acci- dent, or perhaps by the annual tax not holding out, some natural drained portions of a road have been spared the annual coat of manure, (road-waste from the ditches, ) this mending process proving a yery material injury. We sincerely believe in some cases that have come under our investigation, that the road would, by its natural wear and tear, actually remain in a better condition than it is by being annually repaired by the unskillful representatives of a system that dates back to a barbarous age. If one single argument can be advanced in support of this system, let him who uninks he can sustain it, step out and undertake it. If it is not false in every principle that applies to successful and strictly economical road-making, we ave ready to acknowledge it. Proper enough in the feudal ages, when one of the conditions of the tenures was the making and repairing roads for the use of the Lord of the Manor, it seems out of place and inconsistent with the requiremeuts of this enlightened age, and more like the last resort of a country or state on a war footing, than the operation of a system of internal improvements in a peaceful community; by this plan we never have had, nor ever will have good roads, and yet the value of the time and money expended on them would if judiciously and skillfully applied, be more than sufficient to put them in and keep them in first-rate order. The right time to do the right thing in the right place, is the essence of the principle—that brain to control which has studied the sub- ject thoroughly, and mastered every principle of construc- tion relating to it, that does understandingly and in the most proper manner all that is necessary, and whose quali- fications should be those of a high order of merit, It may be argued that the payment of a road tax will. come more easy to pay in labor than money; but if it is easier to earn a dollar on the road than to furnish the dol- lar from the purse, why is it not full as easy to spend the same time in earning the money from another source and paying the road tax? The tax must be paid in money, or its equivalent in labor, and if it is honestly paid, the same , labor elsewhere will earn the required amount. If an ac- complished superintendent of roads should be furnished ws ss . English breeders. nd now tha bn B hh, | his confidence in the honor of Brother Jonathan,” by pur- 1861. Lee these official returns for thirty years, from 1826 to 1855 inclusive, showing the money value of our exports of breadstuffs and provisions for each year by itself; and we have taken pains to ascertain the average for each of the three decades, as follows :— VALUE OF EXPORTS OF DREADSTUFFS AND PROVISIONS FROM THE UNITED STATES TO OTHER COUNTRIES, Average for each from 1826 to 1835, ........... 12,736,296 Gn do, 18BB Lo EAR 14 807,111 compared with the previous decade,—when it will be no- ticed that the value of our exports of breadstuffs sudden- ly arose to be almost t/ree times its previous average, As to the future, our contemporary need have no appre- hensions whatever; the capacity of the country for pro- duction, and the inerease of its production under a fayora- ble demand abroad, are almost inconceivably great, and we haye no fear at present of any privateering force that ; shall prevent our sending our Breadstuffs in our own ships } to any foreign port where we can get a fair price for them. (37 As frequently as we hear of American travellers crowding foreign rontes—jostling one another on the Pyramids, thronging the Museums of Paris and Berlin, at- tending High Masses at Rome, and Queen’s Receptions at London—it is comparatively seldom we believe that the Show-Yards of the Great Societies have been made aware of the presence of question-asking Yankees, or the show- farms of the United Kingdom been trodden over by boots fresh from the fields and cities of the United States. And yet there has been scarcely a season perhaps, for many years back, that has not seen here and there a quiet ob- server from the dominions of Uncle Sam, passing from stall to stall at Royal Exhibitions, or bidding modestly at ram-letting and cattle-sale, or scrutinizing with some hos- pitable acquaintance the practical details of English Farm- ing. We do not care to ask the consequences of such journeys; for while the evidence of their results is plainly enough seen in our own improved live-stock, and increased interest in those improvements of which Agriculture can apable in other directions,—it might apparently } an undue | ance puree chasing, unseen, a round half-dozen at once of the Thorn- dale bulls, it is only polite of us to express the hope that some of our agricultural visits may likewise be returned, and that we may, hereafter, have the pleasure of recipro- city in extending mutual courtesies to the Agricultural tourists of one land or the other. Among the visits made in this country last year, by his Royal Highness the eldest son of the present Presiding Officer of the Royal Ag. Society, was one at the farms of his Honor Mayor Wentworrn near the city of Chicago— in commemoration of which visit it will be remembered that Mayor W. subsequently received from the Duke of Neweastle the very appropriate and weleome gift of a brace of South-Downs. We understand that Mr. Wxnr- WORTH now proposes to embark before many months for a tour abroad; after the responsibilities of conducting an influential political newspaper for a quarter of a century, and serving his district for ten years as member of the United States Congress and the city of Chicago for two years as its Mayor—he lias not only well earned this respite for leisurely enjoyment, but is well qualified to represent, either at home or abroad, the people of the Great West where he has so long,resided, And this, particularly, in an Agricultural capacity, since within 12 miles of Chicago he has a farm of no less than twenty-five hundred acres of land, where he has of late years been breeding probably some of the best stock the State of Illinois has yet seen, —It affords us pleasure to mention Mr, Wrntworrtn’s proposed tour in Great Britain, because we know that our friends in that country are always happy to furnish every facility to the observant and discriminating inquirer; and because, moreover, one who is just retiring from twenty- five years’ occupaney of the cliuir-editorial, appears to possess a peculiar claim upon his brethren of the quill in any latitude or clime—a claim which we can but think will be duly honored there as well as here. (a We learn that Rev. J. Knox of ‘* Coal Hill,” near Pittsburgh, has done a large business the present season in marketing strawberries in the city of New York—after an eighteen hour railway journey. It is stated that he has now 40 acres under this one fruit; his ‘ two princi- pal varieties are Wilson's Albany Seedling, and Triomphe ‘de Gand, both of which are of such firm texture that they bear transportation, and are so productive that 400 bushels an acre is not a large estimate of their yield.” (a8 We are indebted to Wa. Txorpurn of this city, for fine samples of the Wilson’s Albany Strawberry grown by Mr. Oakley Osborne of Watervliet, and of the Austin Seedling from the Shaker gardens—both good specimens as respects size and quality of fruit. Also for a basket of Austin Seedling, selected for extraordinary size, to friend Cuauncy Minrer—four of which weighed two ounces, and many others were but little short of the same standard. We were pleased to learn that this variety has done much better this year than last, and now apparently promises to equal the anticipations of its friends. Mr. Toorurn, we may add, is agent here for anew kind of basket for mar- keting small fruits, which is very light, handy and neat, and must be quite durable and cheap. (a Col. Lewis G. Morris, after several years’ retire- ment from the prominent position he so long and ably oc- cupied as an importer and breeder of Improved Stock, is once more able to spare a limited number from his private herd of Short-Horns. An Advertisement of this fact in’ another part of this paper, will at once attract the atten- tion of Col. M.'s old customers in every part of the coun- try—all of whom may not heretofore have been aware that the Colonel has never wholly given up his favorite pursuit, but, during the period since his final sale, has been devoting no little attention to the management of a “select few,”—the results of which care, we need scarce- ly say, would not be offered to public notice if they were not such as to do credit to the long and large experience of their owner and breeder. ee Mr. Gam Borven, Jr., has an establishment at Wussaie, Duchess county, for manufacturing ‘‘ condensed milk” delivered daily to about 3,000 customers in the city of New-York. Mr. B, also puts up a condensed prepara- tion of coffee, containing both the milk and sugar, a tea- spoonful of which on being simply dissolved in a cup of hot water, produces as excellent a cup of coffee as the most fastidious would desire. We have received samples through Col. Jounson of this city. Bricut on GRapk Curtore.—We noticed a year ago at some length, this useful little treatise on what the author terms the “dwarf and renewal system” of culture; on the culture of grapes in pots; and on the man- agement of grape manures. ‘The second edition which s, contains many additional pages on manuring ment, 1 rape raiser should ’ his ‘x “in vy Ui is original enough to be occasionally e i to a dull compilation. This edition contains 150 18 mo. pages, is published by the author, and is sent by mail for fifty cents a copy. [See advertisement. ] put we P that Dr. Faruey’s Vineyarp.—We have spoken on former occasions of this fine vineyard, situated on a peninsula two miles from the village of Union Springs, N. Y. Some of our readers will be glad to learn that it escaped the injury so general throughout the country to the grape, from the severe and unfavorable winter, and that the vines are now making a fine growth and setting fruit. This success is no doubt to be attributed largely to the influence of the water of the lake which surrounds it, in softening the keenness of the winter air. ' eee (a3 It will be seen that Messrs, INcrrsoun & Doucn- erty of Green Point, offer to the public through our Ad- vertising columns, their indispensable machines for pack- ing Hay, Straw, &c., to which we call attention of inter- ested parties as the season of baling draws near.’ —_—_ +o o—___—_—_—_—_ bd (For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.) Free Strawberry and Floral Exhibition at Chicago. The Chicago Gardener's Society held a free exhibition to-day, June 26, mainly to draw out the strawberry grow- ers of this vicinity. In this they succeeded partially, some very prominent growers being absent, Of kinds of strawberries sent, Wilson’s Albany, for quantity and gene- ral effect, carried the day. -It is the berry in this market, Whole samples would measure 34 and four inches round. Triomphe de Gand claimed precedence as to size-however, as well as flavor. Victoria was very showy, large and of high flavor. The grower of these has had them 54 inches round—4 and 5 inches, numbers of them. Bicton Pine (white) was shown in splendid shape., Cremont’s Perpetual, (who ‘knows this?) was a splendid berry as to size, flavor and appearance, and the exhibitor says equal to Albany in productiveness. Dr. Blaney and others had very promising seedlings, especially as to flavor, Downer's Prolific, shown for the first time here, does not seem to have anything to recommend it. Other kinds, but all in- ferior looking samples, were MeAvoy’s Superior, Long- worth’s Prolific, Barly Scarlet, Hooker, (good flavor but | Oats are also injured by the wire-worms, and are rather THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. | 17 undoubtedly shy bearer,) Prolifie Hautboy, splendid flavor, small, but said to be a great yielder, Three fine bunches of as many kinds of grapes, were exhibited by a citizen of Chicago, cut from pot plants, well ripened, and quite fine for this city and early season, The tables around the fruit were well decked with pot plants from the different green-houses, and an appreciative crowd gazed on the skill of the gardener and cultivator. Chicago, Ill, June 26, EDGAR SANDERS. [For the Country Gentleman and Oultivator.} Crops, &c., in Cattaraugus County. * Great VALLEY Nursery, Junn 22, 1861, Epitors Uo, Gent.—Having a few spare minutes, I thought to let your readers know something about how we are prospering here in Cattaraugus; though I haye been too busy with nursery and farm work to make ob- servations except’ in our immediate locality. Last winter was one of the hardest on fruit trees that we have had for several years. Many small trees were actually killed, and the buds much injured on the large ones; then the spring was wet and cold and frosty, till the 25th of May. Since then, the weather has been fa- yorable for the growth of fruits and farm crops. The fruit crop will be light—not over one-fourth of an average crop. Currants and gooseberiies are almost a total failure. They did not bloom at all—buds seemed to be killed by the cold in winter or spring. Strawberries are doing splendidly—I never saw them better. If Wilson’s Albany is as good elsewhere as here, I hardly think it deserves the condemnation it gets from some of our astern friends. Though not quite equal to the Hooker in flavor, it is decidedly a good berry. The Hooker is’a splendid berry, but nota great bearer, Voor’s Queen, received of S. P. Carpenter, New Rochelle, N. Y., is with us a very fine thing. It is a great bearer, nearly or quite equal to Wilson’s Albany, being large, of uniform size, firm fleshed and good flavored. Grass, the leading crop of Cattaraugus, is quite late, but doing well, and will doubtless yield an average crop. On new meadows, that were put down in good condition, the yield will be heavy. 1 ty Wheat is, in many places, considerably injured by the wire-worms; otherways it looks tolerably well. These wire-worms are getting to be a terrible pest, and we would like to learn of some feasible mode of exterminating them, vy. | the frost next fall. Fa 1 . . that good feed and good care, a corn crop pays well, bul a half-starved crop will be nocropatall, 8.-T. Kesey. Volume Eighteenth of The Country Gentleman, In accordance with our usual custom, the present Semi- Annual Volume of the Country GrnriEMan closes with the month of June. To induce our readers to extend its circulation for the Highteenth Volume, from July Ist to Jan, 1, 1862, we make the following propositions :— 1. To any one sending us One new Subscriber for the Six Months, and One Dollar, we will send a copy of the Annvat Recisrer for 1861, (or for any previous year.) 2. For Two new Subscribers and Two Dollars, the AN- nuaL Reaisrer for any three years, or either of the fol- lowing hooks :— Cole's Am, Fruit Book. | Our Farm of Four Acres, Cole's Am, Veterinarian, Yale Lectures, cloth, Fastwood on the Cranberry. | Week's Bee Manual. 8, For Three new Subscribers and Three Dollars, four copies (of any years desired) of the ANNUAL ReaisTEr, or either of the following books :— Allen's Diseases of Domestic Ani- wae and Martin on the Hog, mals, ouatt on Sheep. Buist’s Kitchen Gardener, Guenon’s Milch Cows. 4, For Four new Subscribers and Four Dollars, six copies (of any years desired) of the AnNuaL Register, or either of the following books :— : Allen's Am, Farm Book. Thomas’ Am. Fruit Culturist. Breck’s Book of Flowers, Thomas’ Farm Implements, Dadd’s Horse Doctor. quinoa Bee-Keeping. Dadd's Diseases of Cattle, rench’s Farm Drainage. 5. For Five new Subscribers and Five Dollars, a com- plete set (seven numbers) of the ANNUAL Reoisrer, or either of the following books :— Flint on Grasses. Bement on Poultry. Flint’s Milch Cows. Todd's Young Farmer's Manual, Langstroth on the Honey Bee. Jenning’s New Horse Doctor. Anp Lastty, 6. For Ten new Subscribers and Ten Dollars, we will, if desired, credit the sender one year on his own subserip- tion to the Country GrntLEMAN, and send him a complete set of the Annuat Reaisrer; or, if preferred, he may select either of the following valuable works:— Mayuew's New Illustrated Horse Doctor—540 pages—illustrated with more than engravings; or : Onan Comprehensive Farm Record—Arranged for Twenty-five ears’ Use; or Roran AFFAins—2 Vols,, Cloth, nearly Nine Hundred Engravings together with TuoMAS' AMERICAN Fruit CULTURIST. , ; e 18 Hints on Lerlth and Disense. {For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.) More about Gormandizing and Dyspepsia. In the issue of the Co, Gent, of May 2, and in reply to a “Suggestion to Medicus,” by J. L. R., we submitted a few observations upon the evils and sufferings caused by gormandizing, under which title we included the two com- mon, and, for reasonable beings, the two shameful, dis- graceful practices, viz., firstly, that of eating too much, or stuffing down more than the system needs or can digest in a proper or healthy manner; and, secondly, that of swallowing the food too hurriedly, or without sufficient chewing or mastication. To-these remarks upon the evil consequences of these two common and worse than beast- ly practices, we added some observations upon the origin or cause of these lamentable and disgraceful practices or vices, ascribing them, in a great measure, to an over-esti- mate of the gratifications of the palate or the pleasures of the table, and the consequent inclination to carry indul- gence in these lower gratifications to an extreme, and to a too great disregard of what is taught by physicians, hygienists, and common experience, as to what is good and bad, wise and unwise, healthful and injurious in this every-day business of eating. Our practical conclusion from these seemingly well established truths as to the cause or causes of the vices and their proyidentially-in- flicted penalties which we had then under our considera- tion was, that the most effectual ewre or prevention of these vices, and of the miseries attached to them as cor- rective punishments, is to be found in estimating much less, or as a much lower good, the mere pleasures of the palate, or the gratification thereof, and in being guided much more by the dictates of Reason, and by the lessons which Providence is daily teaching upon this subject in the sufferings which are inflicted by that Supreme Authori- ty, and often stern Teacher, upon the transgressors of the laws of health. As the vice of gormandizing is a very common and a yery serious one, as well as one that is very severely pun- ished by Providence—self-condemnation, loss of self-re- spect, discomforts of various kinds, dyspepsia, disease, and not unfrequently even death itself, being among the number of these punishments—and as in the hurrying times of haying, harvesting, and other kinds of work in- --Gident, ta summer, farmers and farmers’ help are more than usually tempted both to eat too often, too much, and too hurriedly, it has occurred to us that we might resume the subject with some likelihood of contributing to the ‘abatement of the evil and its manifold punishments or penalties. Certainly the desive and hope of contributing to such an abatement, were our main inducements to pen our-previous article, as they are also now to resume the pen. On the present occasion, we shall confine ourselves to the consideration of such of the penalities or punishments of gormandizing as usually pass under the title of dyspep- sia, And that we may escape such misunderstandings, as seem likely to spring from the very vague and erroneous Meanings quite commonly attached to this foreign (Greek) word and technical term, we premise that dyspepsia is, when appropriately employed, a general designation for almost all the derangements incident to the process of digesting our food and converting it into nutriment for the sustenance of the body. In this, its proper and pro- fessional meaning, dyspepsia is not ‘ the dyspepsia,” or a name for any one particular form of disease, but ageneral title for a great many forms of stomach derangement and disordered digestion. Tn nine cases out of ten, or thereabouts, dyspepsia is the penalty of gormandizing in one or other of the two forms in which this vicious indulgence is practiced. In other words, dyspepsia, inclusive of a large variety of stomacl: ailments and derangements of digestion, is pro- duced, in the majority of cases, either by eating too much or over-loading the stomach, or by bolting tlie food with- out grinding it sufficiently in the mill which Nature has provided, ‘This latter faulty practice has much to do in causing the former or overloading the stomach, for when the food is bolted the feeling of satisfaction or having eaten enough does not occur as ‘early as when the same amount of food is masticated more thoroughly and trans- ferred to the stomach more slowly. Bolting the food, then, is a cause of dyspeptic complaints in two different ways; and for this fact it is easy to see the magnitude of this single mistake in eating, and how easily and obyious- ly it may be prevented. Let dyspeptics, instead of be- coming no wiser or not better by the corrective discipline of suffering which Providence is inflicting upon them for the very purpose of convincing them of their error and of making them wiser and better, or instead of resorting to drugs and doctors for the purpose of evading these Provi- dential penalties of that kind of wrong-doing which they practice three times-every day, or oftener; instead of do- ing, we repeat, either of these foolish things, let them sim- ply eat more slowly and chew more thoroughly, ‘and Provi- /06 | THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. of the corn. It is now growing well, but looks a little dence may hold its hand and spare the rod, and drugs and doctors be found to be easily dispensed with, and hardly a less evil, however skilful or well-intentioned the doctors may be, than those dyspeptic sufferings which the Wise Creator and Preserver of our bodies has ordained as the corrective discipline of gormandizing folly, and of undue indulgence in the pleasures of the palate, We pause for the present, but sliall return to this highly important subject in a week or two. Mepicus. Tie Gutomologist. THE ARMY WORM AND CUT WORM. We copy the following létter from our State Entomolo- gist, from the last no. of the Journal of the State Ag. Society: Sarem, N, Y., June 6th, 1861. Mr. B. P. Jonnson—We are all familiar with the Out Worm, that severs the young cabbage, beans, &e., in our gardens, and the corn in our fields. All tender succulent vegetation, including trees that are just started to grow from their seeds, is liable to be cut asunder at or slightly above the surface of the ground by these worms. They are the progeny of those dark colored ‘ millers” that come into our houses on summer evenings and fly about the ceiling overhead. Though the worms are much alike they in reality are of many different species, the most of them belonging to the genus Agrostis, in the family “ Noctuida.” ‘ The Army worm I suppose to be some one or more of our common cut worms, multiplied to excess, and when so multiplied, become gregarious and migratory just like the locust. This name, Army worm, is given to a worm which appears at irregular intervals, now in one: place, then in another, immense numbers suddenly coming abroad and advancing over the country in a particular direction, like an invading army. Three years azo, Robt. Kennicott sent me specimens of these worms from Illinois, in a vial of spirits. They resembled the cut worm in every respect, except that their colors were more bright, which might arise from their greater exposure to the light of day than was their ordinary habit. ‘They were greyish brown with stripes of darker brown and white. I wrote to have the moth bred from these worms, if possible, sent me, but have received nothing, Last October, Dr, ld- ward Jenkins of Talbot Co,, Md., sent me three of the moths, but they were so broken, and their marks so total- ly effaced that I could learn nothing from them, except udat théy appearéd more like ‘an Agrostis than any thing else. I, therefore, do not know with certainty, what par- ticular species the Army worm is. . In this section of the Eastern States, we at long inter- vals have had a worm with the same habits, and which has been here called the Black worm. In 1748, there ap- peared in Massachusetts “millions of devouring worms, in_ armies, threatening to cut off every green thing.” (Hlint's 2d Rep., p. 36.) In 1770, a black worm about an inch and a half long, almost covered 2 or 300:miles of territory, devouring the grass and corn, moving mostly in one direction. (Webster on Pestilence, vol. 1, p. 259.) Tn 1790, the same worm reappeared in Connecticut, and was very destructive to the grass and corn, (ibid., page 292.) In 1817, an account from Worcester, Mass., May 22d; says, “the Black worm is making great ravages in this town and many other places in this part of the coun- try. Their march isin a ‘displayed column’ and their progress is as distinctly mavked’ as the course of a fire. Not a blade of grass is left standing ip the rear, From the appearance of the worm and its manner of destroying vegetables, it is supposed to be the same which usually infests gardens, and is commonly called the cut worm,” (Albany Argus.) The same newspaper adds, that this worm is also destroying the vegetation in the northern towns of Rensselaer and the adjoining parts of Saratoga county, Thus all the evidence we have, indicates that these tra- yelling swarms of worms are nothing else than our own common cut worm. A. Fircn, PSE ae ee eee [For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.) Injury from the Cut-Worm. A near neighbor of mine has a field of some eighteen acres, planted to corn about the 20th April. Two-thirds of this field was in clover in 1860, and in wheat in 1859— the other third in potatoes in 1859, and suffered to grow up in weeds in 1860. The corn all looked well till about middle of May, when it commenced dying, or rather the clover part did; the weed part looks well; the clover part had been replanted; till last week nota stalk was to be seen; it was then furrowed out and planted with early corn, and how it will do, can’t say. On examination I found from four to twenty common grub-worms in each hill, (the common white grub.) In had a field of clover and timotliy sod, planted 8rd and 4th May; many hills in this field were killed by grub- worms, and a good part injured by worms eating the roots ‘water conducted into it from the well. July 4, yellow. Fhave another field of over twenty acres corn adjoining, (planted to potatoes in 1860 ;) this looks fine, hardly a hill missing—planted 24th and 25th April Milton, Ky, WM. HALL, Ghe Dairy Department. BUTTER. No one of the dairy products, aside from Milk, comes so near being a prime necessary of life as Butter, We can very well dispense with cheese, at onr daily meals; its absence from the table would scarcely be noticed; but if an American family could not have butter at all their meals and lunches, there would be trouble in the house- hold at once, The dairyman, of course, should not find fault with this universal and excessive use of butter. Abroad, in almost every family, butter is not used at meals where meats are served, and the practice is worthy of imitation, There the use of cheese is much more universal than butter, growing in part from the fact that it is the cheaper of the two. By the United States Census of 1850, it appears that the proportion of butter to cheese over the whole Union was as three to one—for there was made in 1849, of 319,345,306 Ibs, 105,535,898 Ibs, While in this State, for the same year, there was made, of Butter,. «++ 79,766,094 Ibs, Cheese, «+ 49.741 418 Ibs, But the State Census of shows a large change, for in the year 1854 there was made, of WUtterpatuscck ttuevwcnctices (aw siverhaxsscres seudtes 91,293,078 Ibs. 38,944,249 Ibs, The census figures do not show nearly all the butter produced—for there are hundreds of families with one or two cows who make for their own use, and are not count- ed with the aggregate, Of all the butter which goes to market from this State, not one-fifth is strictly a prime article, and of that fifth probably a haif may be deducted fora not perfectly pure article. _ Indeed, so limited is the section where the very best butter can be produced, that I doubt whether the es- timate is not even now too high, : Over alarge portion of the State good butter, for im- mediate consumption may be and is made, but it will hot bear transportation. The best butter is made in Dela- ware, Sullivan and Greene, upon the brown shales of the Cattskills. The next best is made in Lewis, Broome, Ti- oga, Chemung, Cortland, Cattaraugus, Steuben, Chautau- qua, Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Alleghany, Chenango, Her- kimer and Oneida; and in these counties the best comes only from the hilly and mountainous regions which have been longest in pasture. Upon the old and rocky pas- tures of Putnam, Duchess, Columbia, Rensselaer and Washington, good butter is produced, but as a general thing it will not compare favorably with that from the west side of the Hudson river. Short, sweet herbage, which only grows in perfection upon old pastures in hilly or mountainous regions, pure air, and soft pure water, are the indispensable requisites for pure butter, All these, however, without the skillful manipulations of the dairy woman, will avail nothing, The dairy woman cannot do her part well if she donot have the advantage of proper fixtures and implements. A good, cool place for setting the milk in summer is abso- lutely indispensable, and there is no farm where cows can be kept profitably, that such a place cannot be provided at small expense. The use of spring houses is one of the causes for the good butter of the hilly regions. But a good spring house can be made near a well, and oftener much more convenient, as being nearer the house than the spring. I saw a very nice one, which answered an ad- mirable pourpose, and is a model of its kind. The ground was excavated about four feet by some twelve feet square, and a solid stone wall two feet thick, laid in cement, four feet high. The floor inside was also laid in cement, slight- ly inclining to one corner. The wall was carried up full width four feet, and then an offset of 18 inches was made to the rear, carried up two feet higher, and connecting with the wall to form the foundation. Upon this founda- tion was erected a balloon frame with eight feet posts, boarded outside and in, and the wall made as tight as pos- sible. Upon the ledge created by the offset a wall about four inches high and wide is made on the front, by which, being well plastered with the cement, a gutter or vat is made some three inches deep, with a slight descent to the corner opposite to that where the water is introduced. Tnto this vat the fresh milk is set while warm, and cold The milk cools rapidly, and a low temperature is maintained through the day or night. At each milling the pans are removed to the shelves to make room for the fresh milk. Some very nice dairy houses are rigged up entirely above ground, and one I saw last summer in the town of Solon, Cortland county, was so arranged that it seemed almost as good as a spring-house, In that and many others, I noticed the pans were set upon shelves made by turning two narrow boards edgewise, so that the least possible surface was om 1861. monstrated that the temperature at which we can get the most butter, and that in the least time, in churning the cream alone, is from 14 to 16 deg, centigrade,” (from 57 to 61 deg. Fah.) We have devoted this extended space to the foregoing experiments not only on account of the light they throw upon the proper temperature at which churning should be done, but because they demonstrate how much of the butter which analysis finds in the milk, we fail to extract from it by the ordinary process of churning. This loss is very greatly reduced when the cream alone is churned, if the above experiments are to be taken as conclusive ; but as no analysis is added of the milk after the cream was skimmed, we cannot tell whether all the butter it contain- ed was taken off with the cream, or whether there is some loss here which is not shown in the above figures. “ Another phase of the Agricultural operations of that branch of the Patent Office,” writes a correspondent of the Country GENTLEMAN, dating from Philadelphia, the 13th inst., ‘‘is now being acted out. A notice was recently published that the distribution of Cereals was going to commence Ist of July. The Philadelphia Agri- cultural Society have just received their portion, in the shape of a few muslin bags of wheat imported last year by the Patent Office, This wheat is not only badly clean- ed, containing quantities of weeds, or something not wheat, which no farmer here would be willing to trust on his land without knowing what it is, —but the wheat itself is musty, and most likely will never germinate, A friend of mine who recently visited the Patent Office, says he saw there probably twenty hogsheads of it, which they were very busy putting up in bags for distribution through the United States’ mails. The cost of transportation to the government must be enormous, and as it is worthless the loss is total. “My friend took one of the quart bags back to Wash- ington to show them, when they denied at first that they had ever sent such, and that it did not come from there. The clerk who put it up was then called, and had to ac- knowledge it. How much they have already sent out I do not know, but from what my friend represented to them, it is probable no more will be sent out. It was purchased by Mr. Cremson, the late Chief of the Agri- ltuval_B a son in Europe.” d distribution thorought : task, who will not convert the post into an agency for the dissemination of noxious weeds and new insects, among the farmers of the country. We have enough of both, already, as we have proved to our cost; there is no doubt that many of them have been introduced through the carelessness and ignorance of seed importers—an error which we certainly ought not to employ a public agent to commit. (@s" The London Agricultural Gazette copies from the Country GENTLEMAN our account of the Thorndale shipment of Short-horns, and adds a list of the several animals, their purchasers and prices :— “The 2d Duke of Thorndale has been sold to Messrs, Howard & Robinson for 400 guineas; the 8d Duke of Thorndale has been sold to Mr. MacIntosh for 800 guineas ; the 4th Duke of Thorndale has been sold to Mr, Hales for 400 guineas; the Thane of Oxford has been sold to Colonel Pennant for 250 guineas; Imperial Oxford has been sold to Mr. Lawford for 200 guineas; 4th Lady of Oxford has been sold to Mr. McIntosh for 250 guineas, These have thus averaged 800 guineas. Besides these a young bull, Hero of Thorndale, has been sold to Mr, Welch for 200 guineas, These seven animals have thus fetched 2000 guineas, and Mr. Thorne has received the sum he gave to English breeders some years ago for their sires, the two Grand Dukes.” We notice in the report of the Essex Agricultural So- ciety’s Meeting at Romford, June 25, that Mr. MacInrosn there exhibited, but not in competition for prizes, the 8d Duke of Thorndale and 4th Lady of Oxford. The report speaks of them as constituting a feature of no little at- traction, and adds that this “‘ American bull is a superb animal, thick, deep, fleshy and symmetrical, and of first rate quality.” pe nd ke, (@™ During the night of the 22d June, there wasa tremendous storm in France, extending through six de- partments, including hail which cut the crops to pieces, lightning killing men and many domestic animals, and blowing a hurricane which overturned barns and houses, and tore up the trees, This storm is not mentioned in the Mark Lane Express review of the progress of crops, July 1, and the extent of damage done had not been estimated in the Paris Journal of Practical Agriculture of July 5. But the latter paper represents it as so great that sub- scriptions had already been started for the benefit of the sufferers, headed by governmental appropriations from the Emperor of over eight thousand dollars, divided be- THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. 65 tween the six departments. In England, during the week ending July 1, heavy thunder showers had considerably hindered the making of hay, but on the whole, the week had been regarded favorable :—“ Many early-sown pieces of wheat on good soil are likely to be yery productive; but the bulk remaining thin, and the breadth this season being diminished, a general abundance is next to impossi- ble, however fine the quality may turn out. All spring corn, with the exception of heans, continue highly prom- ising, and even these are much improved, though the black fly is very prevalent, The root crops haye equally advanced, ‘The usual effects of fine weather have appear- ed in the state of the markets, notwithstanding small sup- plies of home-growth. New wheat has, generally given way from 1s, to 2s. per qr., though farmers in some places with small stocks have resisted the decline; and but for foreign imports, which continue free, there would in all probability have been arise instead of a fall for the last month, As it is, the week closed with more firmness, and a slight reaction may follow.” We have received samples of the Srone Piper ad- yertised in another column by D. EB. Hin1, Middlebury, 0. Without having had an opportunity to test them in prac- tice, we can only say that they seem to bear out fully the recommendation of the manufacturer, so far a3 workman- like make and substantial appearance go. ‘The prices, it will be seen, are yery moderate in view of the quality of the pipe. Krom the same maker we have specimens of Mirk Pans, also made of stoneware, and as the process is conducted by machinery, we presume the prices must be compara- tively low, although we do not know what they are, The advantages afforded by well made stoneware pans, over those of any other material, are generally acknowledged. The samples referred to may be seen at this office. Sie ee Be (@” Mr. Suron Beartiz of Woburn, Scarboro, C. W., informs us that he is to sell by Auction on Thursday, Aug. 1, at Mr, Scott’s, 10 miles from Toronto and 3 miles from the Scarboro railroad station, the following stock imported by him the past’ spring directly from England and Scot- land:—One Short-Horn bull and one heifer, one Galloway heifer, one Ayrshire cow, several Leicester und Lincoln- one or two swolds, We recently LETTER FROM JOHN JOHNSTON. — Near Gengya, N. Y., July 16, 1861. Messrs. Tuckers—Wheat is not yet ripe with us, Some will be ready to cut next week, possibly some this, and some won't be ready under nearly two weeks. The crop as a whole will be a failing one, although some fields are very good. ‘Those sheltered from the west-north-west, are generally good. Our friend J. 0, Saxnpon, Esq., has 7 or 8 acres of Soule’s wheat equal to any I ever saw, On some farms you may see one field sheltered from west- north-west, a good crop, and another field on same farm, exposed to west-north-west, that won’t yield 8 bushels per acre; but I am happy to say we have no midge, or at least almost none. I expected that, owing to the wheat being so late, it would be entirely ruined by that insect; but it is not here, and I hope it may never return, Spring crops in general, are very backward; the weath- er generally too cold for corn, , We have only had some 8 or 4 hot days this season, Although grass was very promising the 1st June, the hay crop will generally be light, perhaps not over half of last year. The corn crop in this neighborhood is less promising than last year, Winter barley has been nearly a total failure in this part of the country. Very little spring barley sown now; I haye 18 acres, promising better than any Lever had, I never had much /uek with barley, but I think I must have this year. Every kind of trade is at a standstill; wool won’t sell at paying prices, and grain of all kinds is low. I don’t think corn and oats have been so low in 80 years. There isa good chance for speculators, as after every great fall there has been a corresponding rise until now, and I have no doubt whatever but the rise will come by and by. Some 18 or 19 years ago, everything but grain was very low. Cattle, sheep and wool went for nothing, After that, or in 1844, they commenced advancing and got very high. Now, I doubt not, they will for a time remain very low, and then a rise will come. This has been the way occasionally, every since I knew anything of the world, and in all probability it will continne so till the end. I think the wheat will be of very fine quality, It is mostly out of danger of rust, which is often ruinous when the crops are so late. I notice rnst in some fields, but I don’t think enough to do much damage—and on the whole the winter wheat looks much better as it gets towards har- vest; at least many fields that appeared ruined in May, Gentle | Oulti will yet yield enough with fair prices, to pay the expense of raising. I have got my haying done, and my neighbor, Mr. Swan, has 95 acres finished. Joun JOHNSTON. P. S.—I had almost forgotten to say that a black bug has killed all the gray grubs or cut worms that formerly were so destructive to the corn. What does Dr. Firon think about this? They have been seen to have a regular battle in this neighborhood, the black bugs proving the General McClellans, that is the conquerors; but they were not so humane as Gen, Mc@.; they granted no quarter. But al- though we haye got quit of the midge, gray grub, (cut worm,) I hear of a new pest to the farmer. A friend of mine, ten miles from here, writes me that.the chintz bug has taken his 25 acres of corn. He thinks they were brought from the west in the stomachs of cattle. I can- not think so, THTes —_—_——e4o———_ [For the Obuntry Gentleman and Cultivator.] CROPS IN CENTRAL OHIO. Messrs, L. Tucker & Son—Our “‘ harvest season” is just closing, so far as small grains are concerned, and prospective yields, results, &c., can be approximatively offered, Wheat, being the larger cultivated cereal, demands first notice. The early sowed fields, and those that promised best in early spring, are invariably poorest—lightest, This I attribute almost entirely to the action of the frosts of the 28th, 80th and 81st of May. Occasional fields not cut, partly from frost’s effects, and partly from effects of ‘joint fly,” which followed. Now, at harvest time, straw is generally short, standing erect from lightness of heads —much wheat being affected with midge, and nearly all full of cheat, (chess of “‘ Yankee Land,”) and much rye intermixed. To sum up, the yield in the counties of Clark, Madison and Fayette, through which I have made pretty general and close observations, will not be above an average of from eight to ten bushels per acre, Last year in same belt many fields gave a yield of plump heavy wheat, (often weighing 64 to 66 lbs. per bushel,) of 25, 28 and 30 bushels, with chance fields making 85 to 40 bush- els per acre. The grain this year is generally plump and good, Considerable ‘straw rust.” Nearly all wheats n broadca om m nT opy as follows :— Selected 10 grains. of each kind of 18 bags (quarts)—(these wheats were so much mixed and eaten up with weevil when received, that I considered it injudicious to plant more)—marked from “Holy Land,” no names, 5 sorts white—b5 red, very dark, with same number of grains of each of the following kinds : ‘Maltese,’ ‘Genesee white,’ ‘white Turkey,’ ani *Tap- pabannock,’ and planted same on about 2 feet square of a black, loamy, burr oak soil, underlaid with gravelly lime- stone, near large open drain, on evening of September 26. Came up generally weil, but were all ‘winter killed,” except four last named. Have just harvested same, July 18th— not yet cleaned—Ist kind rather green, late, straw strong, about 24 feet long, no rust, heads long, fairly filled—2d kind, do,, straw quite badly rusted, heads long, not so well filled as 1st—3d sort fully ripe, early, straw weaker, fallen some, 3 to 4 feet long, no rust, heads long, heayy—4th sort do., except straw not so long, and: stronger—all bald white wheats. Intend planting same in September, se- lecting the largest ears, in rows both ways, about 2 feet apart, two kernels to the hill. Oats late, just heading, promise well. Rye generally good, and standing up well. Barley, but little sown, fair. Corn promises generally an unusually good crop; some sections suffering from drouth of last month ; stands even- ly, and not much affected with our usual pest on sod land, cut worm, Grass harvest but just commenced; generally heavy. Pastures good and abundant, : Large quantities of old grains are in hands of farmers, causing prices to rule low. Money market unusually tight, which also affects marketsrates of all produce. Old wheat, red, 60 to 75e.; corn, 15 to 20c.; oats, 1be.; hay, $3 to $6 per ton in meadow and delivered. Wools selling but slowly and very low—good grades that last year command- ed readily 40 to 50c. are now selling to some extent at 20 to 2ba26c., and a few choice fine lots at 80c., an ex- treme figure, all to speculators. Hogs for fall feeding held at 2$ to 8c, gross. Some demand for horses for cavalry and baggage at from $60 to $90 each—the latter the extreme figure. Cattle very low, good lots of grades sold at our “month- ly sale,” July, at, for 1 year olds, $14 to $15 per head, and 2 year olds but a trifle higher, say $15 to $16—same ages, and poorer quality, have often commanded $28 to $35 per head, Ue Our people are imbued with a “ war spirit,” fully de- termined to make any sacrifices to sustain our government yolunteers, and willingly submit to these unusual low rates for the public good. w. Madison Co., O., July 16, J66( 66 THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. Thave scarcely sufficient space remaining to give in a his article such a full and particular description of ne moth as ought to accompany this announcement of its Pron he Soper erry men ang Dune ee) name, and will enable ovary one to distinguish it with No, 29---THE ARMY WORM MOTH, certainty from other moths which resemble it. ; F a It is very plain and unadorned in its appearance. The Messrs. Tucker—I have an illustration of “the pur- eye, on first glancing at it, only recognizes it as an ordi- suit of knowledge under difficulties” to present. Dr.| nary looking moth of a tarnished yellowish drab color, John Bartlett of Pesotum, Champaign Co., Ill., sends us| inclining to'russet, with a small white dot near the centre in spirits, in a tin tube, a specimen of the renowned Army | °F its fore Lipa a a dusiey Ge Nd at ae tips. worm, and of the moth which is bred from it. Now spirits On‘ coming to: look ‘at it more particularly, we find it to : spas ? .,| be rather less than an inch long to the end of its closed is the very best vehicle in which to preserve and transmit} wings, or if these are extended itis about an inch and all kinds of worms, spiders and beetles; but insects with three quarters in width, different specimens varying some- delicate wings, such as butterflies, moths and flies are what in their size, Its fore wings are sprinkled with usually ruined by being wet, their wings becoming mat- blackish atoms, and a short distance forward of their hind ted together in a wad, like a wet dish-cloth, and if pretti- edge they are crossed by a row of black dots, one on each ly colored, their colors are liable to be altered or destroyed of the veins. Outside of the middle of the wing this row of dots suddenly curves forward, and from this curve by spirits. An inexperienced collector, therefore, will do best to place such insects between layers of cotton in a a dusky streak runs to the tip of the wing, the ground color being more pale and clearer yellow along the outer small box, to transmit them without injury by mail or| Side of this streak. Though the moths of some other express, On emptying the tube from Dr. Bartlett it was with genera usually have a similar streak, this is the only deep regret that T saw this moth of the Army worm lying species of this genus in which this mark occurs, and hence M. Guenée names this species extranea, i. e. extraneous, before me, soaked to a soft, shapeless, black mass, which might on drying wholly fail of showing me the same foreign, different, as though it did not belong here, And Mr. Stephens doubts whether it correctly pertains to this genus. But a character that will appear to common per- colors and spots which naturally belong to it. On care- fully disentangling and spreading its wings, and drying it, my first step was to compare it with the broken and sons as more conspicuous and important, is that from effaced specimens received lust year from Dr. Jenkins of which Mr, Haworth names this species, Nearly in the centre of the wing is a milk-white dot, placed upon the Maryland, mentioned in my letter to Hon. B. P. Johnson, lately published in the Co. Gent, I hereupon saw that mid-vein, This dot issurrounded more or less by a dusky cloud, and this duskiness is frequently extended forward the Army worm in Maryland last year, and that now in Il- linois were undoubtedly one and the same insect, And upon the mid-yein to its base, forming a faint darker streak along the middle of the wing. Contiguous to this dot u J on its outer side may be discerned a roundish spot of a now, by a searching look from one to the other of these slightly paler yellow color than the ground, and a very soiled and imperfect specimens, I was able to gather from | short distance forward of this isa similar spot, but smaller, them certain marks by which I thought I could recognize | hoth these spots often showing a more tarnished centre. this insect if I chanced to have any other specimens of it] Qn the hind part of the wing the veins are marked by in my collection. Upon looking over the moths of the} slender whitish lines, and between their tips on the hind cut worms I find nothing like this among them. Turning | edge of the wing is a row of minute black dots. then to another group, lo, here I have it!—two perfect! The hind wings are smoky brown, with a purplish gloss, specimens, received a few years since ina fine collection | and are nearly transparent, with the veins blackish. The from Prof, D. S. Sheldon of Iowa College. Laus Dei! The riddle is now read! What for nearly a score of years I have been so anxious to obtain I now have! I know what the fringe of both pairs of wings is pale yellowish, with a moth of this Army worm now is! And in the fulness of dusky band on the middle, On the under side the wings are much more glossy and my joy hereupon, I thank you, Prof, Sheldon, and you Dr, Bartlett, and Dr. Jenkins, each and all, that you have col- The Entomologist. paler, opalescent whitish inwardly, and smoky gray to- wards their outer and hind sides, where they are also freckled with blackish.etoms. -The smoky color on the peer ivetively furnished me with such clues as have enabled me | hind wings has, on its anterior edge, a row of short, black- to make this discovery, i ; : ish lines, one placed on each of the veins, and in line A short sketch of the history of this species, as it ap-] with them on the fore wings is a faint dusky band, be- ee in our works of science, will interest the reader, coming more distinct towards its outer end, or sometimes ong ago, a preserved specimen of this moth found its] only represented by a dusky dot on the outer margin for- way into the then celebrated collection of Mr. Francillon | ward of the tip. The veins are whitish, and also the hind in London. Upon the breaking up and sale of that col- edge, on which is a row of black dots placed between the lection, this specimen passed into the possession of Mr. tips of the veins. The hind wings have also a blackish Haworth, who, not doubting but that it had been captured crescent-shaped spot a little forward of their centre. in England, described it very briefly, in the year 1810, in] The abdomen or hind body is smoky gray above, and his Lepidoptera Brittanica, page 1’74, naming it Voctua| on its under side ash grey, freckled with black scales, and unipuncta or the White Speck, by which names it has usually showing a row of black dots along each side. ever since been referred to by English authors and collee- Though these moths are subject to some variety, who- tors, save that a new generic name, Leucania, replaces ever has one of them in his hands will find it to coincide that of Woctua. It appears to have been through inad-| so exactly with most of the particulars stated in the above vertency that Mr. Stephens changed this name to im- description, that he will be fully assured it is this insect, eae when he came to describe the species in 1829, in Salem, N. Y., July, 1861, ASA PITCH, is British Entomology, Haustellata, vol. iii, p. 80. Later, in 1850, he refers to it under its original name, in the List of Lepidoptera in the British Museum, p. 289, it hay- ing now been ascertained that it was a North American and not a British insect. Guenée appears to have overlooked this species of the English authors, In his valuable work on the Lepidop- tera (vol. v., p. 77—Paris, 1852,) he regards it as a new species, naming it Leucania extranea. From him we learn that there are specimens of it in several of the Paris collections, whereby they know it to be a common insect in North America, Columbia and Brazil. He also states | 45 geographical location of “ Dixie's Land,” and to show that a variety of it which is destitute of the white dot on that: the song now eo popular at the South originated at the the fore-wings, occurs in the East Indies, Java and Aus-| North. ‘The writer says :— tralia, I cannot but think, however, that this Bast India| « Whon Slavery existed in New York, one ‘ Dixy’ owned insect should be ranked as a distinct species from ours, as| a large tract of land on the Manhattan Island and a large it differs in such a prominent character, and is so widely | number of slaves. The increase of the slaves, and the in- separated from it geographically. crease of the abolition sentiment, caused an emigration of From what has now been stated, it will be seen thatthe | the slaves to more thorough and secure slave sections, and original and therefore legitimate scientific name of this | the negroes who were thus sent off (many being born there,) insect is Leucania wnipuncta. And the ‘ Army-worm Tenge, Ree Ps haar va Hommes, me pe a moth” will undoubtedly be the common name by which ite ‘a mane ie lik Die i Herd é tb a A hae Rate it will be currently designated in thi try, instead of fiwitiracbtleal"itaatitvt conibliiite eecee eed i y desig ; In this country, inste; mous with an ideal locality, combining ease and comfort, and the White Speck, the name Siven it in England, material happiness of every description. In those days negro About a dozen New-York species of this genus, Leu-| singing and minstrelsy were in their infanoy, and any subject cania, are known to me. ‘They are those white and pale | that could be Wrought into a ballad was eagerly picked up. yellow moths or millers which are so common in our| This was the caso with ‘Dixie’ It originated in New York, meadows and other grass lands, and which flit aside in it Be BOACAatee et bee eee ee ) th hen wee anu numbers when the scythe ob the mower eeere their up a ‘note’ here and there. A ‘chorus’ has been added to coverts from them, And the “black worm,” which in| i” snd from the indistinct ‘chant’ of two or three notes, it this section of our Union sometimes shows the same grega- | pas"hecotie‘an elbborate melody. But the fact that it is rious and migratory habits as the Army worm of the} Northern song ‘cannot be rubbed out.’ The fallacy is so Western and Southern States, I now infer to be the larva popular to the contrary, that I have thus been at pains to of some one of these moths. stute the origin of it.’ P.§., July 17th.—A fine specimen of this moth reaches me to-day from Mr. Emery, editor of the Prairie Farmer. It is a male, and indicates this sex to be smaller, measur- ing but little over an inch and a half. across its spread wings. It is also of a darker or more smoky gray color, but does not appear to differ otherwise from the descrip- tion above given. ALF. “I WISH I WAS IN DIXIE.” A writer in the New Orleans Delta has undertaken to give July 25, Letters to w oung Farmer. [For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.) No. I*---Choicelof Farming as a Profession. Hu Tor, Jan, 6, 18—, My Drax Nep—You ask my advice about an employ- ment for which you seem to think you have a peculiar aptitude. In the first place, I must tell you that you over- estimate my ability to advise; but as deference to the judgment of elders is not a common fault with young America, and as it is one which we, who are approaching the superannuated list, can most easily forgive, I freely pronounce absolution, and will advise you as best I can. But, Ned, you are the greenest boy I have seen. Let me tell you that you may be still more in error in suppos- ing that you were born for the farm, or that you could by any possibility become a successful and happy farmer, You have not yet one particle of proof that you would be satisfied with farm-life if fairly installed into it. ‘ Dis- tance lends enchantment.” Your views of farm-life are yet distant. The charm might fade as you approach, and die out when you come into actual contact with the stern realities. ‘Not all is gold that sbines,” and not all soils yield golden crops for the bidding. Farmers have their troubles. Mr. Sparrowgrass found a peck of them. Frosts would sometimes kill the growing crops; at other times the cattle would sicken and die; the neighbors even, were not as simply and as honestly rustic, as his imagination had conceived, but would now and then get a heaye-y horse upon him at a larger price than they would have been wil- ling to pay for the same animal, or gain some other ad- vantage about as slyly as he had been accustomed to see in city life. Set it down, then, that you do not yet know yourself in this matter, whether the farm is a fit place for you, or you a fit man for it. Uncle Zeb’s coat being two or three times too large for you, would certainly fit badly if you should putit on; but any farm your father might purchase for you might prove a worse fit, so far as you have yet the means of knowing. Another consideration—the good Watts says, ‘* Heaven one mold for every two designed ;” and rumor says that you have found the other being cast in the same mold with yourse!f, I rather like the idea, that while you will to be a farmer, you are looking for a farmer’s wife. But if your intended has no more decidedly marked tastes and quali- fications for rural life than fall to a majority of city Misses, the doubt about the advisableness of your. becoming a farmer, is doubled—for there will be two to be pleased in- stead of one, Not one in ten of all the city-bred girls, can be contented, happy and useful on a farm; to take a bright and beautiful being, witty and intelligent, (I speak of her as I am sure she appears to you,) from the circle of city friendships to the farmstead, unless you see in her that substratum of sober, deep, all-pervading good sense, which alone can congenialize itself to the change, would be absolutely cruel. So, Ned, look out what you do! Possibly you and yours are dreaming about gentleman farming. Gentleman farming! Why, every upright, in- dustrious, intelligent farmer is a gentleman in the best possible sense of the term, In the sense of wearing sill stockings and kid gloves, on small, delicate feet and hands, seven days in a week; in the sense of being a man, who commands every thing and does nothing; in any mere technical sense, no farmer can be a gentleman, Gentle- man farming, any farther than as you consider that useful- ness, integrity, inward worth, not the mere exterior, make the gentleman, is a humbug, alike useless to the man who attempts it and to the world. If one wished to live by sharp wit, he might better look for other fields than those of the farm. If he would be a fop he might better look elsewhere, If he would be a gentleman, as the term is too often flippantly used—exteriorly so—the farm is no place for him; and if his wife is more appreciative of the showy and ornamental, than of the plainly good and com- fortable, there is an extra objection to his being a farmer. Do not deceive yourself with the belief that you can be a farmer, and yet retain all the primness and lightness of step, with which your friends in the city have been accus- tomed to meet you; and do not deceive the girl that is to share life with you, into the fancy that all the elegancies of city life will be transferred and become perennial on the farm. The matter of fact is, that farming is a plain, homely business; and it is wonderfully apt to make plain, unostentatious people of those who pursue it. The farm- house may be very comfortable; it may be in elegant taste, and ought to be so; trees, shrubs and flowers may adorn every approach to it; the farmer may live in a con- dition of rural elegance, and he ought to be contented with nothing short of this; but after all, farming is a plain business, and makes plain people; and I would not advise persons to enter it with the expectation of being gentle- men or ladies, otherwise than as usefulness, integrity, in- * These letters will sufficiently explain themselves, as haying been written by a kind hearted old uncle, at home in rural affairs, to a young nephew in town—a would-be farmer for years, but since @ far- mer in yery deed, with sleeves rolled up and hard at work, 1861. Society, D if the receipts there exceeded $25,000, The St, Louis Agricultural Association has taken in very large amounts on some occasions, but we have never seen the official returns; moreover, the element of Trotting Horses enters so largely into the character of these shows, that we hardly consider it fair to compare them with those in which there is no such attraction to create popular excitement, The Provincial Exhibition of Canada West at Hamilton in 1860, is also entitled to mention among the most success- ful shows on this side of the water; the receipts we do not know, but the Prince of Wales proved even a greater card in the hands of its managers, pecuniarily, than the intrinsic merits of the affair, as great as these undoubtedly were. We fear we shall be obliged to confess, therefore, that the Leeds Royal must ‘go to the fore,” as the English say, for attendance as well as receipts, of all similar ex- hibitions outside of as well as in Great Britain. — We are indebted to Mr, J. M. Wane, of Rhode Island, for copies of the Leeds Mercury, with very full reports of each day’s proceedings. It may be noted that at the Dinner, Lord Powis the Chairman, in one of his leading speeches, remarked that “the Royal Agricultural Society were most anxious on such occasions to receive the representatives of those nations, both on the continent of Burope, and, he might add, on the continent of Ameri- ca, which were interested in Agriculture.” In illustration of the enterprise and prosperity of English agriculture he alluded to the fact that that country ‘at the present moment was importing at considerable expense from - America some of its best Short-horn blood, which in pre- vious years had gone over to the United States,’—an announcement which is reported to have been greeted with much applause. ee Tur AvusuRN Reapers.—The city of Auburn, N, Y., stands in the midst of a very fertile farming region, and for a town of 10,000 inhabitants is largely engaged in the manufacture of agricultural implements. There are four mower and reaper manufactories, viz., one for the Kirby machine, manufactured by D, M. Osborne & Co.; another for the Hussey; a third for the ‘‘ Cayuga Chief,” made by Sheldon & Co., and the fourth for Balls, made by Ross, Dodge & Oy everal trials of these ma parts OF UI coun A ein diffe ob inded-> | n favor of ¢ ‘or ano the L not widel ing, cutting about 5 feet, 800 Ibs. has been about required, some below, and others above. On our own grounds we have had an opportunity of trying the Cayuga Chief of Sheldon and Co., and found it to work to much satisfaction, It could be made to cut within less than an inch of the earth, if desired, and its height of cutting might be increased to any degree. A piece of rough and sidling ground being selected, it proved itself equal to sustaining the rough usage required. It would cut per- fectly wlien the lorses were moving at the rate of only one mile an hour, or less, and did its work well in turning a circle of less than 6 feet radius, The horses ap- peared to draw it very easily, nearly as much so as they would draw an empty wagon. This remark applies es- pecially to the small sized mower, the draught of which is exceedingly light. It has a peculiar and useful arrange- ment for elevating the points of the fingers at a raised angle to pass over stones. It is made of iron, and is strong and durable. Doubtless the other machines men- tioned, or a part of them, are its equals in most particu- lars, but we had not the opportunity of testing them so well. THIET. time: ne, age Dbeln: Tue Harvest in France.—At our last advices con- cerning the French crops, July 20, Harvest had already was that held at Chicago in 1859, but we doubt | THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. below an average one. Forage crops and the after-math, re says, will be ‘decidedly less bad” than had been eared, Apams Co., Pa., AGricuttcraL Socrery.—We are preparing for our annual agricultural exhibition, which takes place Sept. 23—26. Our list of premiums will be respectable. Our officers are Joun Burknoper, Presi- dent; Jacob Ditzer and Wm. Walhay, Vice Presidents ; George Wilson, Recording Secretary; Wm. B. Wilson, Corresponding Secretary. Competition open to the world. We have about five acres of ground beautifully situated, with good spring water on the ground, and all necessary sary buildings for the comfort of man and beast. w. B. W. -- -—_¢ @e —— -— ~~ Agricultural Items from the European Continent. PREPARED BY THE, EDITORS OF THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, There are 600 Agricultural Associations in the French Empire, distributing about $240,000 in the aggregate in premiums of various kinds, — —— — Complaint hay- ing been made that the French Ag. Exhibitions were only “got up,” as we should say, for the benefit of land-hold- ers and other wealthy men, Mons. Barrat relates that he was present at the distribution of about 70 prizes at the late Show at Metz; ‘there were not ten persons who came for them who wore coats—more than 60 being peasants, vine-tenders, herdsmen, laborers, &c., in blouses and thick shoes, with their iron-shod sticks, and very proud of their suecess.” — — — That America, which has heretofore only sold salt meat to Europe, should have sent ‘real Durhams” to England, is spoken of in the Paris Journal @ Agriculture Pratique as proving combien Pagriculture yankee marche vite dans le progres—which may be freely translated to signify that the forward march of Yankee agriculture is a regular quickstep. — — — The Prussian Bureau of Statistics has just published some interesting documents with regard to the progress of breeding do- mestic animals in that kingdom, from which we learn that there were in Prussia Horses........s0+++ 1,240,000 in 1816,. ar Horned Cattle, 5,018,000 do, Sheep, 8,260,000 do, 1,617,000 in 1858, ++ 5,487, on 76,383,000 3. Prussii of her domest imal: per ci ipon the liv 1 ment of that period. We are promised farther facts in connection with these figures, and at present will only call attention to the rapidity with which Sheep have increased in numbers with the improvement of agriculture, while Cattle have been almost at a stand-still—the increase in goats probably assisting to some extent in supplying what- ever increased demand there may have been for milk. Prussian agriculture shows a decided tendency to sub- stitute bone dust for pureliases of guano, and to mistrust the mixtures sold by manure makers, — — — — A trial has been made to introduce Ericson’s engines in Prussia— as yet without success. — — — — Portable engines for farm purposes are still very rare there, the duty keeping out engines of English manufacture, and those of domes- tic construction failing to do their work well. — — — — Experiments made in Bavaria, in the preparation of peat, have excited a good deal of attention among agriculturists. There and in some other parts of Germany, peat is a very important article of fuel; we remember to have seen it in large open sheds to admit of ventilation, along the lines been completed in the South, was fairly under way in the | of some of the railways for engine use, just as in this Central departments, and would be soon undertaken in | country, the roads are bordered with wood sheds,— — — — the North. Thus the character of the crop could not be completely estimated. But the Paris Journal of Prac- tical Agriculture remarks that “if bad weather continued, if persistent rains came to compromise the housing of | Poses, Liebig and others have done much to call attention to the importance of utilizing the sewage of cities for manurial pur- without any experiment haying thus far been made to grain, the estimate would certainly have to be a very in- | answer their efforts and expectations. ————The report different one. last of July and during August. In any event,” advice is given for the construction of the moyettes, described in the Counrry GENTLEMAN last year, for the protection of the grain from bad weather—‘ permitting cutting it a lit- But we must hope for brighter days in the | of the Prussian Bureau of Rural Economy, from which these lastitems are taken,says that Short-Horns are there constant- ly coming into higher appreciation, although the results of purchases of them in England have not always proved tle before its maturity, sheltering it from unfavorable | satisfactory. — — — — The utility of great market fairs skies, and affording the means of bringing in the sheaves | for the sale of animals of 4 particular kind is now fully perfectly matured and preserved, at whatever time may best suit the state of the weather and the farm work.” Previous storms—especially the tempest of the 22d of June, referred to in this paper a fortnight ago—prove to recognized among Prussian agriculturists, A horse mar- ket established at Konigsberg was sustained successfully in 1860; asheep fair was instituted in Pomerania, and have done even more damage than had been anticipated. | a horse fair at Bromberg. Rust had begun to show itself in some localities, although not as yet to the very great injury of the grain. Mons. Barral, in reviewing the returns from about forty corres- pondents in different parts of the country, inclines to the opinion that the product will be on the whole somewhat |it appears that they are now establishing Agricultural education appears to be advancing more rapidly in Germany than in any other country, if one may judge by the number of schools and pupils. In Bavaria “schools of 118 meadow culture;” one district alone (Upper Franconia) has three, and in Lower Franconia one has just been open- ed which already numbers 45 pupils and 12 professors. Efforts are also making for the estatilishment of ‘‘ Schools of Sylviculture.’” ——— — In the central administra- tion of Wurtemberg, it was lately proposed to appoint for each “circle” or district, a nomadic professor who should spend all his time in travelling, in giving agricultural ad- vice and instruction, in preparing reports, and acting as an arbitrator or referee. This plan having failed to meet the approval of the ministry, several of the ‘circles’? have chosen men of reliability to serve as “‘agricultural technologists,” and charged them with what we take to be asort of agricultural survey, together with such other duties as the interests of agriculture may demand. — — — It is stated that Professor Rau has collected at Hohen- heim twenty or more school teachers, to give them agri- cultural lessons, which they may in turn impart to their pupils during the, coming winter sessions. ——— In France, Agricultural education is not advancing as its friends could wish; nevertheless the means of extending agricultural instruction among all classes of society, are now studied and discussed, and improvements are hoped for “in the lot of the professors, and in the education of the pupils.” ————_+ 6 o —____—_- COST OF CUTTING HAY. We recently published an estimate of the comparative cost of making hay as formerly practiced by the use of the scythe, hand-rake, &c., and as now performed by the assistance of the mowing machine, horse-rake, horse-fork, &c. The writer of these remarks and estimate, had prac- ticed hay-making forty years, and had used the different kinds of implements and machines alluded to, and he in- tended to make a fair calculation, subject, however, to any corrections that might appear to be obviously required. We have just received a communication from a corres- pondent at Amsterdam, N. Y., which he will perhaps ex- cuse us for not publishing in full, but which states that e article above mentioned contains “false and erroneous ind mis) } jtations,” \dding ” if oncludes, i . not idle in the Country GENTLEMAN so devoid of fairness and truth, I now advise you that you will get no more sub- stantial support from me, and I don’t care how soon the paper is stopped.” We regret that the estimate published strikes our cor- respondent so unfavorably, and at first we were at a loss to know why it should do so; but find on turning to page 178, vol. 11, of the Country GentLEMan, that he there made an estimate to show that scythes were more economi- cal than machines. He is not alone in that opinion; al- though the number holding it is becoming rapidly less every year, as mowing machines are known, improved and cheapened, The estimate of the cost at that time is too great for the present; and taken altogether, he places the cost of cutting per acre at over one dollar a ton. This may be the case where a costly machine is used for a moderate or small farm. The estimate we published was founded on the usual charge of 50 cents per acre.* We are aware that on some large farms, it falls within this sum, and those who have good machines, and cut for the season, make money atit. Our correspondent admits a machine will cut over 8 acres a day; this would be over four dollavs a day with one. If he will carefully read over his own article which we published in 1858, and the recent one to which he objects, he will find the most of the positions of the latter are in substance fully sustained by the former. We do not understand that he regards the horse-rake and horse-fork, as ‘‘insults,” but as admit- ted improvements, Further examination and experiments will place the mower and hay sweep in their proper posi- tion. In the mean time, he must allow a free discussion of their merits, founded on carefully conducted experi- ments. Improvement will surely go on, even if “his paper is stopped.” ie Leth ee Se * We have just seen a neighboring farmer, who cuts this year 180 acres of meadow, and in other years nearly as large an amount, used a Ketchum mower four years, and then sold it, in good condition, for half price, He thinks a good well-made mower will cut 1,000 acres; and that the expense per acre, including repairs, will not be over 12 cents, for its use. A team cuts 10 acres a day, which at #2 a day, is 20 cents an acre—total 82cents. But as horses are usually idle while men are using scythes, he thinks the real cost peracre, should not be placed at over 25 cents. On smaller farms, the actual cost would of course be more. He thinks mowing machines good sayers of labor—reapers, far less so. S. - JF6/ 114 THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. Aug. 15, The Gutomologist. - [For the Oultivator and Country Gentleman.) No. 80.---THE GRAIN APHIS, I have occasionally, in former years, noticed in fields of wheat a species of plant louse, of a bright grass-green color, But as only a very few of them appeared to be scattered about upon the grain, and I found no winged individuals accompanying it whereby I could determine its name and preserve it in my cabinet, I regarded it as a thing of no importance, and thus gave no attention to it. About a year ago there was sent to the Counrry GEN- TLEMAN, I think from Columbia county, what was said to be a red insect that was thronging some of the fields of oats there. The specimens were evidently a plant louse, but were so dried up when they reached me I could make nothing satisfactory out of them; nor could I find any such insect then in the oat fields in my own neighborhood, W. Freeman, Jr., of South Adams, Mass., visiting me about the same time, informed me he had noticed a plant louse of a pale brick-red color, extremely numerous in a field of oats at East Hampden in that State. We thus know the insect we are to speak of was overrunning the fields in some places, last summer. Early in May last, when rye and winter wheat were but a few inohes out of the ground, I met with this insect, more numerous than any other, in every part of every grain field in my neighborhood. that month, specimens having wings began to occur. By inclosing them singly in vials, I found that the winged fe- males usually gave birth to four young lice in twenty-four hours, whilst those without wings produced eight within the same time, And as the young grow to maturity and commence bearing in a few days, it will be perceived with what rapidity these insects multiply. As yet they weré scattered, one in a place, upon the leaves and stalks of the grain, puncturing them and suck- ing their juices. But as soon as the heads of the grain put forth, I observed they immediately began to cluster upon them, fixing themselves at the base of the kernels, on the outside of the chaff, with their heads downward, _ thus sucking out the juices which should go to swell and wandering away, as fast as they ve got pdoveneatronarU belie arent as close they could crowd themselves together. Thus, in a short time, nearly every kernel of the grain in almost every head over whole fields, came to have a cluster of these lice at its base. One of the most remarkable circumstances relating to these insects is the change in their color, which now began to take place. Whilst they were scattered about upon the leaves and stalks of the grain, they were all of a bright grass-green color. Now orange yellow or deep flesh red individuals began to appear among them. This color is so wholly different from green, that these orange ones might be suspected to be a different species. But green females placed in vials were found next day to have young with them of both colors—some being green, others orange. And a few days later, other green females were found to haye orange young only, no green ones being born any longer. It is probably the change in the quality of its food which causes the insect to change thus in its color, the juices which the plant elaborates for the growth of its flowers and seeds being much more highly refined, nutri- tious and dainty, than those which circulate in the stalks and leaves where the insect at first feeds. And it is truly curious and wonderful that this green colored insect on coming to feed on the juices which grow the flowers» be- gins thereupon to give birth to young haying a gay orange color similar to that of the flowers. Before the close of June, I foresaw that these lice, multiplying so rapidly, would soon throng the heads of the grain in such excessive numbers as to attract public notice and excite alarm. It was about the middle of July, three weeks ago, that my neighbors began to bring heads of wheat in from their fields to me, to know what this in- sect was, and what they could do to remedy it. And for the past fortnight, scarcely has there been a day but that specimens have been brought or sent to me, from distances frequently of five and ten miles around; whilst every mail is bringing me letters and boxes containing it—six such having come to hand together, a few days since, From these correspondents, I infer that this insect is now swarming. in all the grain fields that ave drained by the scattering themselves ~were both, wctled _ Hudson river and its tributaries, and also those of the Connecticut. And it may very likely be similarly com- mon over districts more remote, from which no informa- tion has yet reached us, As the rye, wheat and barley become juiceless, this in- sect gradually disappears from them, and becomes gather- ed upon the oats, these being still green and succulent. Hence the oats, before they ripen, are liable to be more thronged and overrun by it than any other kind of grain. Rye, on the other hand, grows so rapidly, and ripens so Towards the close of mature the kernels. And now the young lice, instead of d early, that it escapes any perceptible injury from these in- sects. One of our correspondents, W. G. Coox of Cats- kill, states, ‘itis found on oats and peas as well as wheat.”’ It is only where peas are sown among oats that this insect will be found on them, I am confident, nor will it feed on the pea, I have never seen any plant lice living on the peas in this country, nor is any species mentioned by au- thors as belonging to it in Europe. This is the more remarkable since the bean, and every other species of vege- tation appears to have one or more kinds of these lice in- festing it. This insect is unquestionably identical with one that has long been known in Europe as being common at times in the grain fields there, It is scientifically named Aphis Avene, by Fabricius, and entomologists generally, a name literally meaning the aphis or plant louse of oats. Butas the description given by Fabricius certainly differs in several particulars from this insect, Kirby and Curtis des- cribe it under the name of Aphis granaria, and some of the German naturalists name it Aphis cerealis, whilst one of the latter, probably supposing the insect on barley dif- ferent from that on oats, has entered it under the name Aphis Horde, As it infests all other kinds of grain as well as oats, the “grain aphis,” rather than ‘oat aphis,” will be the most correct and definite name by which to designate it in English. Atter what has been said above, every reader will know the insect I am alluding to, A detailed description of it is therefore unnecessary. Suffice it to say it isa plant louse similar to those we so frequently see on cabbage and other vegetation in our gardens and yards. The full grown female is shaped like an egg, and is scarcely larger than the head of a pin, beiug the tenth of an inch long, or a little less, soft or of a flesh-like consistency, slow and slug- gish in her motions, of a grass green color, changing in hot weather to orange red or yellow, and having the honey tubes black, and also the antenne, except at their bases, the feet and the ends of the shanks and of the thighs. The winged flies are colored in the same manner, as is also the young, except in them the black parts are only smoky or dusky, As to its habits I may briefly observe that all the insects we see on the grain during the spring and summer are females, some having wings, but most of them never ac- quiring wings. They do not bring forth eggs, but living young, which mature in a few days, and then commence bearing, without any intercourse of the sexes, It is only when cold weather is coming on, at the end of the season, that males are produced. All the males have he disti from. the winged femaies by being estitute of the little tail-like process at the end of the body. The sexes now pair, and the females thereupon lay eggs, placing them no doubt upon the fall sowed wheat and rye that is then up in our fields. These eggs remain through the winter to be hatched by the warmth of the following spring. The young from them grow up and com- mence giving birth to living young, no males and no eggs being produced, except as the closing act of its operations in autumn, Such at least is the case in other species of aphis, from whence I infer it will be the same here. When this insect is numerous, as it is at present, it will undoubtedly be a serious injury to the grain crops. By sucking out the juice as it does, the juice which should go to fill and mature the kernels, it will evidently cause the grain when ripe to be dwarfish, shrunken and light of weight. Our farmers are often disappointed in finding their oats, when they suppose they have grown a fine erop, turn out much lighter by weight than they antici- pated. I now suspect this deficiency is frequently occa- sioned by these insects preying, unobserved upon this rain, is As the career of this insect for this present year will be drawing towards its close before this communication can meet the public eye, I do not deem it worth while to make any suggestions as to remedies. The reader will be more interested in knowing what our prospects in reference to it are in the future. It having been so numerous last year as to attract notice in some places, and having multiplied this season to such an excessive extent, will it remain with us, infesting our grain fields thus in coming years? Shall we see it again next year as we see itnow? No! The Philistines be upon thee, Sampson ! On many of the wheat heads may at present be noticed from one to a half dozen or more of these lice which are very large, plump and swollen, of the color of brown paper, standing in a posture so perfectly natural you sup- pose they are alive. Touch them with the point of a pin, you find they are dead, Pick off a part of their brittle skin; you see there is inside a white maggot doubled together like a ball, Put one or two of these wheat heads in a vial, closing its mouth with a wad of cotton, In a week’s time or less you find running actively about in the vial some little black flies like small ants. These you see have come out from the dead lice through a circular open- ing which has been eut in theirbacks. Drive one or two of these flies into another vial, and introduce to them a wheat head having some fresh lice. See how the fly runs about among them, examining them with its antenne. Having found one adapted to its wants, watch how dexterously it curves its body forward under its breast, bringing the tip be- fore its face, as ifto take accurate aim with its sting. There, wings. They | the aphis gives a shrug, the fly has pricked it with its sting, an egg has been lodged under its skin, from which will grow a maggot like that first seen inside of the dead, swollen aphis. And thus the little fly runs busily around among the lice on the wheat heads, stinging one after another, till it exhausts its stock of eggs, a hundred proba- bly or more, thus insuring fhe death of that number of these lice. And of its progeny, fifty we may Suppose will be females, by which five thousand more will be destroyed. We thus see what efficient agents these para- sites are in subduing the insects on which they prey. I find three different species of them now at work in our fields destroying this grain aphis. Ihave not space here to describe them. A particular account of them will be given in my Report in the forthcoming volume of Tran- sactions of our State Agricultural Society, And aiding these parasites in the work which they have been created to perform, are several other insects, to which I can only briefly allude. A Lady bug or Coccinella, (0. 9-notata, Herbst) a pretty little beetle, nearly the size and shape of a half pea, of a bright yellow or red color, with nine small black spots, has all the season been quite com- mon in our grain fields, it and its larvae feeding on this aphis. Another insect of the same kind, but much small- er, and black, with ten yellow dots onits wing covers, (Brachyacantha 10-pustulata, Melsheimer,) is little less common. The Chrysopa or Golden-eye flies are also there, placing their white eggs at the summit of slender threads, that their young may feed on these lice, The larve of different Syrphus flies, small worms shaped lile Jeeches, may also be seen on the grain heads, reaching about as an elephant does with his trunk, till an apbis is found, which is thereupon immediately grasped and pulled from its foot- hold and devoured. Attacked by so many enemies, this grain aphis, numerous asit is, will be so subdued, that next year I doubt whether it will be noticed, Mr. J. 5. Grennevi writes from Greenfield, Mass., that the wheat there is seriously injured by the maggot of the midge, but he cannot trace any connection between that and this insect. There is no connection between them, although they both operate alike in dwarfing the kernels of the wheat. In my own vicinity, also, the midge is nu- merous this year, though not one of its larvae was to be found in the wheat ears last year. Certain I therefore am, it/has other places in which it breeds, when an extremely dry June drives it partially or totally from our wheatfields, Some of our fields here will be more injured by it than by this aphis, notwithstanding the latter is sonumerous, And T am now better assured than I have befo 5 varsites, nothing whatever, that molests the midge, save. only the yellow birds, and how inadequate they are to quell it, thirty years’ experience shows. Seeing the natural parasites and other destroyers of this aphis in our wheat fields, so busily at work to conquer it, has brought to my view more foreibly than ever before, what a god- send it would be to have the natural parasites of the midge here, subduing it for us as this aphis is being subdued, These parasites would be millions of dollars annually in the pockets of the farmers of our State. They alone would enable us to sustain, yes, without feeling it, the heavy taxation which our present national disturbance Toust entail upon us. Asa Firen. Salem, N. Y., Aug. 6, 1861. : The Hee-Reeper’s Deyrrtment, (For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.) A Novel Bee Freak---Inyvading Swarms, On the 15th of July I had been out on the prairies n few miles, returning home about 3 o'clock Pp. w. The first thing T heard was that ‘‘/wo strange swarms of bees had come in a southerly direction and invaded a stock in one of our old hives. This seemed strange, but upon inquiry it appeared that the hives had been closely watched, being all in sight of the summer cooking apartment, and no swarm had left either of the only ‘wo old hives I have, and none was oxpected, be- cause both had thrown off Jarge swarms before. I had no al- ternative therefore but to acquiesce in the conclusion that one or two swarms of strange bees had actually come from some other placo and “invaded” the old hive, which was pretty full before, and which, of course, must result in great com- motion, and probably a battle of the queens during the even- ing and night succeeding. On tho morning of tho 16th I had just returned from post- office, and sending o small boy home with the horse, com- menced mowing, when in about ten minutes our oldest girl returned on the horse—I was half a mile from the house—to say that one swarm of the “inyading’’ bees had just como out and were alighting in o tree near by. It was about half past eight, a.m. I rode home and hived the early moving swarm, about half a peck, quickly. About 4 p.m. another cluster came through the air, when I again left mowing and added these, about a quart, to the morning swarm. As [ could not seo a queen on the cloth used for the latter to move upon into the hive, I think the second cluster may haye been made up of ‘ stragglers”’ from the 8 o’clock swarm. Whey stay in the hive, and appear to be going to work. As I never heard of bees swarming at 8 a. m. in a natural way, and as the morning was no more than comfortably warm, 1861. THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. 129 ee SSS SEE DELAWARE AND HER CROPS. We are indebted to a friend in Delaware—in whose ac- quaintance with the Agriculture of that State, and judg- ment in estimating its present production, the fullest con- fidence may be reposed—for a letter in correction of the opinions expressed by our correspondent Mr, Kenpaut in the last number of the Cquxtry Gentieman. Railroad travelling, as we have learned in our own experience, is seldom if ever likely to display either “ the people, soil or crops” of a country fairly—much less to really good ad- vantage. The letter referred to is dated New Caste County, Dev., August 15, 1961, Eps. Co. Grent.—As a resident and farmer of Delaware, I desive to present a few facts, relying upon your know- ledge of me to justify their publication, and asserting as I do that the whole communication in your lust is such as to convey a very erroneous impression both as to the people, soil and crops of the State. The wheat crop in the upper portion of the State this year is a remarkably fine one, and will average 20 bushels per acre over the whole section, many farms in New Cas- tle county averaging 25 to 30 bushels to the acre. Qats fine throughout the middle and upper portions of the State. Corn in the lower counties damaged by the spring weather, yet in Kent county there are heavy crops in some sections. In New Castle county the corn erop is a remarkably heavy and fine one, and will average on many farms of 300 or 400 acres in size 60 bushels to the acre. I venture to affirm that the county of New Castle, State of Delaware, will not be proportionably excelled this year in her crops of wheat and corn by any other in the United States, These assertions, you will observe, are in direct contradic- tion to those of this writer, who says, in his communica- tion, that the State can neither produce corn, wheat, or anything else this year, ewcept pears, peaches and apples; and directly the reverse of the latter is true, our crops of these fruits being very indifferent ! As to the raising and grazing of stock in our State, which this writer, as with its grain growing capacity, asserts it is not adapted to, we must, to believe him, forget our herds of cattle and sheep so well known in the middle an 1° ern. Sta to ellig ne —We. ¥ “ os seats sell n 1 C and u r throveh th t until he lands himself at a little town in the lower portion of the lower county, ventures thus to write upon the charac- ter of the people, soil, aud crops of the State. DELAWARE. —_——_—-+- 9 o—————_———"__ (For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.) The Durability of Mulberry for Fence Posts, Nine years ago I spent a few weeks in Connecticut, and Capt. J. Peck, Greenwich, showed me a mulberry post which had been standing on one side of his barn-yard for more than forty years. As I was visiting him in the month of June, in 1861, I inquired more particularly about that post, which is now standing in the same place, It was a green post, about eight inches square, when it was first set; and although it stood in a very unfavorable place to put its durability to a fair test,—where manure was piled around it during more than half the year—still, it stood more than fifty years, before it rotted off near the surface of the ground. It has been re-set, as it was a tall one, and as it is now well seasoned, it will without doubt last sixty or seventy years longer. Were mulberry posts thoroughly seasoned before they are set, and smeured with a good coat of coal tar near the surface of the ground, they would doubtless last one hun- dred years, or even more. 8. BE. 7. a — 6-9-9 KEEP OUT THE CHESS. In sowing winter wheat and rye great care should be taken that no chess is allowed in the seed. Four years since we sowed some thirty acres of white wheat, which contained a small per centage of chess, The land on which this grew has been in hoed crops since, and well cultivated, and chess continues to come up year after year as though the supply was exhaustless. Some persons con- tend that chess will not grow, but to all such we would say, don’t allow yourselves to believe any such nonsense. The envelop on the chess is hard, and requires moisture and warmth to induce it to germinate. If sown in a dry soil or moderately moist one where the wheat will come up, the chess will often remain dormant; but the late fall rains generally give it a start, however small, so that if the wheat is winter killed, it will fill up the vacant spaces ; but if the wheat is not injured the chess is so shaded that it amounts to nothing more than a sickly growth, yet it will matre enough seed to keep up the supply. If you have no mill, winnow it out in the wind, or wash it out in brine, List, of State, Provincial, County and Local Agricultural Exhibitions for 1861. _ We present below a list of Exhibitions the present Autumn, so far as we have been furnished with the necessary data, up to this time. Many Premium Lists, &c., received during the past two or three weeks, we have only space to acknowledge in this Way, the senders of which will please accept our thanks for their attention. Those who find er- rors or omissions in the following, will much oblige us by supplying corrections and additions, in order that we may give the corrected list an insertion hereafter. It may be remarked that the confusion of the “ times ” has apparently had less influence upon the Agricultural Shows of the season, than many had anticipated. We are aware that the fol- lowing enumeration of them must be quite incomplete, and we hope to make it fuller—still it presents a pretty fair appearance under the circumstances. Our friends in Pennsylvania and New-Jersey, Indiana, Michigan and Kentucky, STATE, PROVINOIAL, &c. A i natitute....New York, American Ina yacraiienta, Sept. 36, 21. LOWEY, » +» Fant ioner.. London, O. Wiy Sep. 24 21. Connecticut exhibition, Illinois. zo, Sept. 9, 14. Indiana Indianapol is, Towa....lowa City, Sept. 24, 27, Kentucky. ..-Louisyille, Sept. 17, 21, Kentucky Central....Danville, Kentucky, N. Eastern,.... Ashland, Mane < sPorents, Sept: 24 27 ci etro: y OTs Mioneaok St. Anthony, Sept. 24, 27. Nebraska maha, New-Brunsiwick....Sussex, Oct. 1, 4. New-Hampshire....Manchester, New-Jersey.... New-York.... Watertown, Sept. 17, 20. Ohio,,.... Dayton, Sept. 10, 18. Oregon....Oregon City, Oct. 1, 5, Pennsylvania.... St. Louis Ag, ani St. Louis, Tennessee....Nashville, Tennessee, Mid. Div.... Franklin, Vermont....Rutland, Sept. 10, 18. . Lockport, Otsego. Ontario....Cananduigua, Orleans....Sept. 27, 2s, Oxford Union.,..Oxford, Sept. 28, 25. ? Ridgeway and Shelb: Rushyille Union.... Schuyler.... Watkins, Skaneateles Saratoga... ‘Tompkins Ithaca, Mechanical Association, Wayne Clyd Wilson i e, Addison,...Middlebury, Sept. 4, 5. Rutland,...Rutland, Oct. 2, 8. Windham,...Newfane, Oct. 2, 3. MASSACHUSETTS, Barnstable.... Barnstable, Oct. 8, Bristol... Taunton, Oct, 1. Bristol Central,...Myricks, | Hor Valle) D; “e Middlesex | Defiance.. Delaware. Franklin. . 2 V0 ly WEPE. dd! ‘South. ... Framingham, Sept, 17. Middlesex North...Lowell, Sept. 12 Martha's Vineyard.... West Tisbury, Oct. 15. Nantucket....Nantucket, Oct, 10, .... Dedham, Sept, 26. Bridgewater, Oct. 3. Worcester, Oct. 1, Worcester West Worcester Nort! Worcester South Worcester South: ; RHODE ISLAND. ty for Encouragement of Domestic In- Roclety stnyics BOW of Flax Cotton, Provi- dence, Sept. 11. CONNECTICUT. Falls Village Union, Sept. 11, 13. Fairfield Co.... Bridgeport, Sept. 17, 20. NEW-YORK. Albany....Albany, Oct. 1, 4. ome../. Binghamton, Sept, 10, 12, Greene.... Geauga (free).....Clar Greenfield, . Guernsey. Harrison..,.Cadiz, 0: Knox Lake. Logan. Lawrence. Painesville, Ironton Broome.. Lucas ‘oledo, Brookfield....Madison Co., , Cattaraugus,....Liitle Valley, Sept. 11, 13, Cayuga rn, Sept, Troy, Sept. 24, orwich, Sept, 10, 12, Clinton.... Plattsburgh, Sept, Cortland,... Virgil, Sept. Columbia....Chatham 4 Corners, Sept, Columbia Ag, and Hort,...Hudson. + +».Rome, Sept. 9, 12. +», Mexico, Sept, 10, 12. ...Cooperstown, Putnam,,..Carmel, Sept, 24, 26, Queens.... Flushing, Oct. 3. Rensselaer, . ERC ORUR TEED Sept. 2, 6. Ttushiyille, Sangerfield, and Marshall... Waterville. St, Lawrence....Canton, Bente 25, 27. Steuben....Bath, Sept. 18, 20. . Unadilla, Sep. 26, 27. Skaneateles, Oct. 8 9. ratoga Springs, Sept. 3, 6, Stisquehanna Valley... Tonawanda Valley....Attica, Ulster.... Kingston, Sept. 25, a Union, Delaware Co.... Deposit Union, Orleans Co ...Medina, 8 Union, Tomp. Co..... Trumansburgh, Westchester....Mt, Vernon, Sept, 24, 26, Niugara Co., Oct. 9. 10, Allen....Lima, Sept. 26, 28, Ashtabula....Jefferson, Sept. 4, 6. Georgetown, Sept, 3. 6, Hamilton, Oct. 1. 4. .St. Olairsyille, Belmont Co., Sept. 17, 19. Ashtabula Co,, Sept. 11, 13. Carrollton, Oct. 1, 3. la 5 . Columbus, Sept. 3, 6. Farmers’ and Mechanics’ tabula Sept, 24, 25, Xenia, Oct. 8. 10. t. 17, 19, don, aye . Highland Co,, Oct, 16, 18. .Cambridge, Sept. 18, 20, ob. 2, 4, Geauga.... Burton, Se’ enton, Oct, 2, 4, Union....Garrettsville, Oct. 1, 2, Steubenville, Sept. 25, 27. Sept, 25, 27. ept, 19, 21, Bellefontaine, «Mt, Vernon, 5 Loraine, , .. Elyria, Sept. 25, 27. .Canfield, Oct. 1, 8. icConnellsville, Sept, 24, 26. Blgua, Sept. 24, 27. .Mt, Gilead, Oct, 2, 4. and in some parts of New-England, will notice that our information from these States is as yet very imperfect. Rochester, Sept. 26, 27. Union, Greene Co.,.,..Jamestown, Au, 28, 80° Warren..,..Lebanon, , waynes ... Wooster, Oct. 1, 8. Wellington,..,Loraine Co,, Oct, 2, 4. INDIANA, Posey....New-Harmony, Oct. 1, 5, ILLINOIS. Bureau,...Princeton, Sept. 24, 27. Carroll, ...Mt, Carroll, Champaign..,.Urbana, Clinton. .. Carlyle, Oct. 1, 8. Gnsa. .