UC-NRLF 113 PESTS OF THE FAKM BEIN3 AN ACCOUNT OF THE VARIOUS DEPREDATING ANIMALS, BIKDS, AND INSECTS ANNOY THE AMERICAN FARMER. DIRECTIONS FOR THEIR DESTRUCTION. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS ON WOOD. NEW YORK : A . O . MOORE, (I,ATE C. M. 6AXTON is apt to produce the rot. If, however, a proportionate quantity of oats or other hard food be given, you need have no fear on this head. Keep them clean. Let the breeding-boxes have two apartments one for day, and the other, furnished with a bed, for night. Do not give more food than will be consumed 2-i THE PESTS OF THE FARM. at one time, and keep the buc.ks apart. The doe will breed at five or six months old, and she carries her young thirty days. But the buck should not be again admitted to her until about four days after kindling, and he should be kept from her during her preg- nancy, or he will cause her to cast her young. The young may be weaned at the age of from four to five weeks. The number 01 young produced at each Utter is from ten to thirteen. If the do* be weak after parturition, she may be given beer caudle, which she will drink greedily, or warm grains, or tepid milk and water Oats may be given daily. THE RABBIT. Now as to the Rabbit in the character of a nuisance : you can never be fully on your guard against his visits, and one is destroyed only to make room for another. Nooses placed in the paths he is known to frequent are recommended by some. The Rabbit commits but little mischief amongst the green crops il comparison with its ravages amongst young trees, and growing piants ; and they may be prevented from injuring these by a very simple process. Mix common coal tar \^ith equal portions of cow- dung and lime, and with a brush smear the stems to the height oi QUADRUPEDS. 25 about thirty inches from the ground. The lepetition of this treat- ment annually will effectually preserve the trees from their attacks, while the numbers of the rabbits must, of course, be kept within proper bounds by shooting or ferreting. There are also different descriptions of net used for taking rabbits, som account of which may prove useful. The fold-nets are so laid as to form an enclo- sure between the burrows and the usual place of feeding ; into these the rabbits are driven by dogs at night. The entrance is then closed, and in the morning the rabbits are secured. The spring-net is so constructed, as to close on pressure ; it is laid round a grain or hay-stack, and numbers will be thus taken. The best mode of taking rabbits is by means of the trap. For this purpose dig a pit in the run most commonly frequented, and have it considerably wider at the bottom than at the top ; across this lay a board, so nicely balanced upon a central pin, that the weight of the rabbit is sufficient to weigh it down at the extremity, while, at the same time, that weight removed, the board will resume its former position. Numbers will be taken by this method. It may be useful to remark that a rabbit is very tenacious of life, and that it will frequently, if shot in the rear, succeed in making its escape ; in shooting them, aim, therefore, always for the head ; if there be an earth near, and it be only struck behind, it will be sure to escape into it, and perish and rot uselessly in its burrow. THE HARE. This is the true name, but the animal is frequently in America called the rabbit. In various parts of the Union the American hare is exceed- ingly common, and large numbers are annually destroyed for the sake of their flesh and fur. The timidity and defencelessness characteristic of the genus, are well illustrated in this species, which has no protection against its numerous enemies, and can escape by flight alone. Its peculiar color must, however, minister to its safety, as it is so similar to the general color of the soil as to require a close attention to distinguish the animal, which is usually passed without being observed by such as are not especially in search of it. Yet the swiftness and other natural advantages of the hare, insufficient to secure it from the artifices of man, or from being preyed upon by various beasts and birds, would not prevent the species from soon being extin- guished, were it not for its remarkable fecundity. During the day-time the hare remains crouched within its form, which is a mere space of the size of the animal, upon the surface 2 26 THE PESTS OF THE FARM. of the ground, cleared of grass, and sheltered by some over-arching plant ; or else its habitation is in the hollowed trunk of a tree, or under a collection of stones, &c. It is commonly at the earLest dawn, while the dew-drops still glit- ter on the herbage, or when the fresh verdure is concealed beneath a mantle of glistening frost, that the timorous hare ventures forth in quest of food, or courses undisturbed over the plains. Occasion- ally during the day, in retired and little frequented parts of the THE HARE. country, an individual is seen to scud from the path, where it has been basking in the sun ; but the best time for studying the habits of the animal is during moon-light nights, when the hare is to be seen sporting with its companions in unrestrained gambols, frisking with delighted eagerness around its mate, or busily engag- ed in cropping its food. On such occasions the turnip and cab- bage fields suffer severely, where these animals are numerous, though in general they are not productive of serious injury. However, when food is scarce, they do much mischief to the far- mers, by destroying the bark on the young trees in the nurseries, and by cutting valuable plants. The hare is not hunted in this country as in Europe, but is gen- erally roused by a dog, and shot, or is caught in various snares and traj s. In its movements our hare closely resembles the com- mon hare of Europe, bounding along with great celerity, and would no doubt, when pursued, resort to the artifices of doubling, f the above liquid, and mixing all together. When you build your stacks, every second course, take a handful or two of the mash, and throw upon them till they come to the easing. I have never seen this tried, but an agricultural friend states he has tried it, and found it so successful that he never has a stack put up in any other manner. Rats may be destroyed in great numbers in a barn, in the fol- lowing manner : Before all the grain is removed, get some com- mon iron chafing-dishes, which fill with lighted charcoal, upon this strew a quantity of broken stick brimstone, quit the barn as rapidly as possible, holding your breath the while, close fast the door, and leave the building shut for the next two days. On re-entering the barn, you will then find quantities of rats lying dead round the chafing-dishes. Some may have been stifled in their holes, and their bodies might, if no precautions were taken to prevent it, create for some time an unpleasant smell ; to prevent this, you have only to stop up all the holes with mortar. Perform this operation again the following harvest, just previous to storing, and you will no longer have any reason to complain of annoyance from the rats. As to the grain in stacks, it will be impossible for rats to injure them, if they be built upon proper staddles or platforms of stone or iron the former should be built with an overhanging ledge, which will prevent vermin from ascending this is unneces- sary in the case of the latter, the iron legs presenting a sufficient obstacle to their ascent. The water-rat, or more properly, water-wZe, is somewhat larger than the common rat, has a short tail, and small round ears. Tnis animal rarely exists in numbers sufficient to do any very great amount of mischief; a ferret and a brace of terriers will, at all QUADRUPEDS. 55 events, effectually clear a stream of them in a very short time, and the chase will afford exciting amusement of a summer evening I shall conclude the subject of the destruction of rats with an amusing account of a novel, but apparently, under the circum- stances, a most effective mode of accomplishing this object. BARRACK FOR RATS. An extensive bacon-merchant in Limerick, who kills between forty and fifty thousand pigs in a season, has adopted the following successful method to destroy the rats which abound on his pre- mises, where the abundance of food will always occasion a vast col- lection of these troublesome and destructive animals. He has erected a quadrangular stone building, eleven feet long, and seven feet wide, with a wall three feet high, having flags laid flat upon the top, but projecting a little over the inside of the wall. All round the wall inside, at the base, are numerous holes, like pigeon holes, which do not go quite through, except a few to allow a free passage to the little animals. Outside of the barrack is a plentiful supply of water and food, such as bones and useless offal. The interior of the walls is occupied by boards, lumber, and straw just such concealment as these animals are known to prefer, and the whole is covered by a moveable wooden roof. When it is judged proper to destroy them, the passages are stopped at the outside, the roof is lifted off, and the boards are taken out. The frightened animals run up the wall, but their escape is impossible, for they strike against tl>e projecting flags and fall back again. They then run into the small holes below, but these are only just large enough to admit their bodies, whilst the tails remain sticking out, a secure prize to the men who go in over the wall ; and by this unlucky appendage they suddei ly drag them out, and fling them to a posse of anxious dogs outside of the fortress, or into a barrel of water, where they are soon destroyed. As there are not holes enough in the wall inside, the noise and uproar soon frighten another division of rats into the vacated openings, and these being treated in the same unceremonious manner, the whole garrison is thus speedily destroyed. As many as seven or eight hundred have been killed in one clearing. Rats being fond of straw, they also become very numerous on the lofts where this article is kept, to be used for singing bacon, and they cut it into short pieces with their teeth, which renders it useless for this purpose. The pro* 56 THE PESTS OF THE FAKM. prietor tried the effect of putting a pet fox to mount guard ;n the lofts, and it was found that he killed such quantities of the rats, that three or four were procured to garrison the place instead of one. MICK. Of this tribe there are several varieties, which some re- THE JUMPING FIELD MOUSE. gard as distinct species, while others assert the contrary. I have neither space nor inclination to enter into controversy, and shall confine myself to facts. The common house-mouse, with which all are familiar, is the enemy most to be dreaded in-doors, in the barn, and in the corn-stack. Wherever there are rats, mice will be few in number, the former preying upon the latter. In the field the farmer has both the house-mouse, and two descriptions of field- mice, or voles (arvicola) to contend with, a long and a short-tailed. These are the principal, and include several sub-varieties. All holes in a dwelling-house should be stopped with lime and pounded glass. The fumigating system will exterminate them from the barn, and if the stacks be built as I have directed, the corn there is safe from their attacks. It is in the field that the battle has to be fought it is there that mice are really formidable, and require ingenuity to baffle and destroy them. Prison sown in the drills will, of course, destroy mice, but poultry and birds will possibly suffer with them. Our great object, therefore, must be to discover some substance fatal to them, and innoxious to larger animal* QUADRUPEDS. 67 The small size, and delicate constitution of the mouse, renders this no very difficult matter ; and if every former will follow my .id- vice, his fields will be soon free. In the first instance, lest farmers should suppose that I exaggerate the havoc which these animals perpetrate, much of it possibly without the knowledge of the pro- prietor of the soil, who vainly speculates mentally in conjectures as to the cause of his grain-crop having proved so light, I shall pre- sent them with the following statement, on the authority of Mr. Maxwell, author of " Wild Sports of the West," who, if I mistake not, quotes from Mr. Jesse. " An extraordinary instance of the rapid increase of mice, and of the injury they sometimes do, oc- curred a few years ago in the new plantations made, by order of the crown, in Dean Forest, Gloucestershire, and in the New Forest, Hampshire. Soon after the formation of these plantations, a sud- den and rapid increase of mice took place in them, which threat- ened destruction to the whole of the young plants. Vast numbers of these were killed the mice having eaten through the roots of five-year old oaks and chesnuts, generally just below the surface of the ground. Hollies, also, which were five and six feet high, were barked round the bottom ; and in some instances the mice had crawled up the tree, and were seen feeding on the bark of the up- per branches. " The following account will show the numbers of mice caught in the different enclosures in Dean Forest, in three months, from September to January, with the number of acres, and the propor- tion between the long and the short-tailed mice : Short-tailed Long-tailed. Acres. Mice. Mice. Total. Haywood enclosure, 418 12,850 8 12,858 Oily Hill do. 41 1,161 11 1,172 Crabtree Hill do. 372 7,851 7,851 Park Hill do. 113 2,665 Shut Castle do. 163 484 33 517 Sallow Valley do. 386 1,361 Barnhill do. 50 70 2,665 1,361 70 3 Birchwood do. 50 3 Whitemeadparkdo. 100 1,559 15 1,574 Total Acres, 1,693 Total Mice, 28,071" Having now satisfied you of the reality of this nuisance, let us consider some of the modes in which it may be removed. In " British Husbandry," vol. ii., p. 552, it is stated that the tops of last year's shoots of furze, chopped small, and sown with the 58 THE PESTS OF THE FARM. corn, will prevent their depredations ; and it is added, in a note, that their ravages had run to such a height, in some parts of France, as to have ruined the farmers ! The mode adopted in that country for their destruction is also given : " At Angerville, whole farms have been given up to the proprietors, in consequence of their continued devastation ; and the only method known of checking them is to defer the sowing any grain until spring, which precaution occasions them to forsake the fields, as it deprives them of the means of winter subsistence." The method adopted in the Forest of Dean, the ravages committed in which we have described above, and which proved efficacious to the fullest extent, after all others had failed, consisted in boring holes in the ground, to the depth of twenty inches, wider at the bottom than at top, in which was dropped some favorite food. The mice willingly entered, and from the form of the hole, being prevented from getting out again, were taken in such numbers as speedily rid the ground of them. One of the best pieces of advice on this subject is the following : " Let the farmer first consider the nature and quality of his ground, and which fields are, from the nature of their soil, most likely to harbor the intruders, also in what places they are most mischievous. Let him never sow these under furrow, i. e., until the intruders have been expelled ; for that method of cropping deprives him of the power of combating his enemies. They work under ground, as it were, and will never come in the way of his poison. When these fields have been sown otherwise, and harrowed over, the mice must come upon the surface, and dig down for the corn, and they will then certainly meet with anything he lays on the ground for . them." So far, so good. The author proceeds to point out the description of poison to be employed. This is, " a peck of barley meal, a pound of powder of white hellebore root, and four ounces of powder of staves-acre, and when these are all mixed together by sifting through a coarse hair-sieve, add half a pound of honey, and as much milk as will work the whole into a paste. Let this be broken in pieces, and scattered over the field at the time when the mice are known to be coming. They will eat it greedily, and it is certain death to them. There is nothing in any of the ingre- dients disagreeable to the taste when thus mixed ; and every mor- sel of it will be devoured. The mice will be kept from digging after the corn, and, at the same time, will be killed by the ingre- dients." I have heard farmers who had tried the above, speak favorably of it. But the most successful remedy of ^ lich I have QUADRUPEDS. 59 yet heard is dropping into the holes, and on different portions of the field, pellets of the phosphoric compound described when treating of the rat. A little trouble of this kind, taken in the heat of sum- mer, when the holes can most easily be seen, will soon greatly diminish the number of the mice, if not wholly extirpate them. Before leaving this section, I conceive it advisable to say a few words of two valuable aids 11- the destruction of many of the pests which I have enumerated. 1 think that a few words of advice as to dogs and ferrets may not be amiss ; for, after all, the worst ot these four-footed plagues is undeniably the rat. There are three distinct sorts of terrier the common Scotch, the Skye, and the English. The Scotch is a strong, wire-haired dog, standing mode- rately high on his legs, with a thick head and a broad muzzle ; the Skye is very short on the legs, long in the back, small head, and narrow-muzzled ; his hair is also stiff and coarse ; the English ter- rier is short, close-haired, stands high on his legs, has a thickish head, with a long and fine muzzle, and is usually of a black-and- tan color. It is not, perhaps, very material as to which of these breeds you have, provided you train them properly to their game. The proper time for breaking your whelps is at the age of six to eight months ; if you do it earlier you may blink or cow them, and if you neglect it to a later period, you may find them unfit, too old for tuition. One great point is to teach your dogs never to mouth this would prevent them from being rapid killers, and would cause the escape of many a rat : teach them to kill a rat in a single chop, and then to drop the carcase. You will readily effect this by putting him into a corn bin with a dozen or two rats ; he will then be in a hurry to get at all, and will not waste his time with any individual. FERRETS are originally natives of Africa ; it will, therefore, be obvious that they require warmth and a perfectly dry hutch. These animals are by no means to be trifled with, as they are only half reclaimed. Goldsmith says they have been known to attack and kill children in the cradle. Mr. Jesse relates an incident that occurred a few years since at Kingston in Surrey, of a ferret attack- ing a child, and having it nearly killed before it could be removed, and even then persevered in its attacks until its back was broken by repeated kicks, and it perished. I myself was one evening looking for a bitch ferret which I missed from her hutch ; it was dark, and I had only a candle to aid me in my search, when she 60 THE PESTS OF THE FARM. suddenly sprang at my face, MS I was stooping over her place of concealment the gloom had prevented my seeing her and seized me by the cartilage of the nose, to which she hung with all the obstinacy of a bull-dog. I succeeded in getting her oft' by plung- ing my face into a tub of water. When ratting, some ferrets require muzzling, as otherwise they will, if they capture a rat, lie upon the carcase, and, after satiating themselves witli the blood, fall asleep there ; if they do so, you may get them out by means of smoke, but the use of the muzzle is better. This consists of a little round bit of leather, having a hole in the centre, through which the ferret's nose is passed, and attached with side straps to a collar which encircles the neck. Be careful that there be no loose straps or strings about it, as these might become entangled with roots, &c., in the hole, and thus keep the ferret prisoner till starved to death. SECTION II. PREDACIOUS BIRDS. EAGLES KITES AND HAWKS CROWS, RAVENS, ETC. OF all birds, it may be said with truth, that they do more good than harm. Did farmers observe their habits closely, they would know this. Even the crow, detested and destructive as he is, is destructive only for a very few days in each year, and his depreda- tions, in a perceptible manner, are ordinarily confined to the corn- field, just at the season of the sprouting of the seed, and the ap- pearance of the blade above the ground. He somewhat infests newly-sown wheat, oats, and barley. And here ends his de- predations. The benefit that his race confers is the destruction of myriads of destroying worms. Did the crow not eat these, they would do far more injury than lie does. They cannot be deterred from destroying he may. The robin and the woodpecker are pests among the cherries, when ripe, and yet they consume insects, worms, caterpillars, in vast numbers, that living, would destroy far more fruit than the birds. Indeed, it may be said that without birds, we should never grow any fruit. The owl and the hawk, that destroy occasionally a chicken, are mousers, and in the-destruo- lion of mice and moles, repay amply the evil they do. BIRDS. 61 It may reasonably be doubted if any birds, even the eagle, does as much harm as good. Wo always observe the evil done, rarely the benefit rendered. Among the birds, the only pests worthy of being noticed aro the eagle, the crow and raven, the hawk (or kite, as he is frequently called), and the owl. j THE EAGLE. The eagle is a formidable " pest of the farm," pouncing from time to time upon the various inmates of the poul- try-yard, and carrying away the young in its talons, and even oc- casionally extending its depredations to a young pig or lamb ; besides, being, in some instances, known to attack a sickly or dying beast, and to anticipate death by (vulture fashion) pecking out its eyes. Still it must be admitted that the eagle usually behaves in a nobler manner, arid, unless when very hard pinched by appetite, contents himself with such prey as he can convey away to his nest, or, as it is called, his eyrie, on the distant cliff. There are three sorts of eagle whose depredations are most to be feared by farmers. These are, the Bald Eagle or White-Headed Eagle, the Ring-Tailed Eagle, and the Sea Eagle. A few words relative to the destruction of these birds will suffice, and the one set of directions will equally apply to all. The best mode of pro- tection against the ravages of the eagles is to shoot them where seen, and to have their nests annually robbed. This is best ma- naged by offering a bounty for the capture of young ones, or, as they are called, the eaglets. BALD EAGLE OR WHITE-HEADED EAGLE. This distinguished bird is entitled to particular notice. He has been long known to naturalists, being common to both continents, and occasionally met with from a very high northern latitude, to the borders of the tor- rid zone, but chiefly in the vicinity of the sea, and along the shores and cliffs of our lakes and large rivers. Formed by nature for braving the severest cold ; feeding equally on the produce of the sea and of the land ; possessing powers of flight capable of out- stripping even the tempests themselves ; unawed by anything but man ; and, from the ethereal heights to which he soars, looking abroad, at one glance, on an immeasurable expanse of forests, fields, lakes, and ocean, deep below him, he appears indifferent to the little localities of change of seasons ; as, in a few minutes, he can pass from summer to winter, from the lower to the higher re- gions of the atmosphere, the abode of eternal cold, and thence de- 62 THE PESTS OF THE FAKM. ^ scend, at will, to the torrid, or the arctic regions of the earth. He is, therefore, found, at all seasons, in the countries he inhabits ; but prefers such places as have been mentioned above, from the great partiality he has for fish. In procuring these, he displays, in a very singular manner, the fenius and energy of his character, which is fierce, contemplative, aring, and tyrannical, attributes not exerted but on particular occasions, but, when put forth, overpowering all opposition. When driven, as he sometimes is, by the combined courage and perseverance of the fish hawks, from their neighborhood, and forced to hunt for himself, he retires more inland, in search of young pigs, of which he destroys great numbers. In the lower parts of Vir- ginia and North Carolina, where the inhabitants raise vast herds of those animals, complaints of this kind are very general against him. He also destroys young lambs in the early part of spring ; and will sometimes attack old sickly sheep, aiming foriously at their eyes. His intrepidity of character may be illustrated by the following fact, which occurred a few years ago, near Great Egg Harbor, New Jersey : A woman, who happened to be weeding in the garden, had set her child down near, to amuse itself while she was at work ; when a sudden and extraordinary rushing sound, and a scream from her child, alarmed her, and, starting up, she beheld the infant thrown down, and dragged some few feet, and a large bald eaglo bearing off a fragment of its frock, which being the only part seized, and giving way, providentially saved the life of the infant. The appetite of the bald eagle, though habituated to long fast- ing, is of the most voracious, and often the most indelicate kind. Fish, when he can obtain them, are preferred to all other fare. Young lambs and pigs ai-e dainty morsels, and made free with on all favorable occasions. Ducks, geese, gulls, and other sea fowl, are also seized with avidity. The white-headed eagle is three feet long, and seven feet in ex- tent ; the bill is of a rich yellow ; cere, the same, slightly tinged with green ; mouth, flesh-colored ; tip of the tongue, bluish black ; the head, chief part of the neck, vent, tail-coverts, and tail, are white in the perfect, or old birds of both sexes, in those under three years of age these parts are of a gray brown ; the rest of the plumage is dark brown, each feather tipped with pale brown, lightest on the shoulder of the wing, and darkest towards its extremities. The conformation of the wing is admirably adapted BIRDS. 63 for the support of so large a bird ; it m jasures two feet in breadth on the greater quills, and sixteen inches on the lesser ; the longest primaries are twenty inches in length, and upwards of one inch in circumference where they enter the skin ; the broadest secondaries are three inches in breadth across the vane ; the scapulars are very large and broad, spreading from the back to the wing, to prevent the air from passing through ; another range of broad flat feathers, from three to ten inches in length, also extends from the lower part of the breast to the wing below, for the same purpose ; between these lies a deep triangular cavity; the thighs are remarkably thick, strong, and muscular, covered with long feathers pointing backwards, usually called the femoral feathers ; the legs, which are covered half way below the knee, before, with dark, brown downy feathers, are of a rich yellow, the color of ripe Indian corn ; feet, the same ; claws, blue-black, very large and strong, particularly the inner one, which is considerably the largest ; soles, very rough and warty ; the eye is sunk under a bony, or cartilaginous projection, of a pale yellow color, and is turned considerably forwards, not standing parallel with the cheeks ; the his is of a bright straw color, pupil black. The male is generally two or three inches shorter than the fe- male ; the white on the head, neck, and tail being more tinged with yellowish, and its whole appearance less formidable ; the brown plumage is also lighter, and the bird itself less daring than the female, a circumstance common to almost all birds of prey. The eagle is said to live to a great age, sixty, eighty, and, as some assert, one hundred years. This circumstance is remarkable, when we consider the seeming intemperate habits of the bird, sometimes fasting, through necessity, for several days, and at other times gorging itself with animal food till its craw swells out the plumage of that part, forming a large protuberance on the breast. This, however, is its natural food, and for these habits its whole or- ganization is particularly adapted. Its food is simple, it indulges freely, uses great exercise, breathes the purest air, is healthy, vigorous, and long lived. THE RING-TAILED EAGLE. This noble bird, in strength, spirit, and activity, ranks among the first of its tribe. It is found, though sparingly dispersed, over the whole temperate and arctic regions, particularly the latter ; breeding on high, precipitous rocks, always ^referring a mountainous country. The ring-tailed eagle measures nearly three feet in length ; the 64 THE PESTS OF THE FARM. bill is of a brownish horn color ; the cere, sides of the mouth, and feet, j-ellow ; iris of the eye, reddish hazel, the eye turned consider- ably forwards ; eyebrow, remarkably prominent, projecting over the eye, and giving a peculiar sternness to the aspect of the bird ; the crown is flat ; the plumage of the head, throat, and neck, long and pointed ; that on the upper part of the head and neck, very pale ferruginous ; fore part of the crown, black ; all the pointed feathers are shafted with black ; whole upper parts, dark blackish brown ; wings, black ; tail, rounded, long, of a white, or pale cream color, minutely sprinkled with specks of ash, and dusky, and ending in a broad band of deep dark brown, of nearly one-third its length; chin, cheeks, and throat, black; whole lower parts, a deep dark brown, except the vent and inside of the thighs, which are white, stained with brown ; legs, thickly covered to the feet, with brownish white down, or feathers ; claws, black, very large, sharp, and formidable, the hind one full two inches long. The ring-tailed eagle is found in the northern parts of America. SEA EAGLE OR GRAY EAGLE. This eagle inhabits the same countries, frequent the same situations, and lives on the same kind of food, as the bald eagle, with whom it is often seen in company. It resembles this last much in figure, size, form of the bill, legs, and claws, and is often seen associating with it both along the At- lantic coast and in the vicinity of our takes and large rivers. The sea eagle is said, by Salerne, to build on the loftiest oaks a very broad nest, into which it drops two large eggs, that are quite round, exceedingly heavy, and of a dirty white color. Of the pro cise time of building, we have no account. The bird measures three feet in length, and upwards of seven feet in extent. The bill formed exactly like that of the bald eagle, but of a dusky brown color ; cere and legs, bright yellow ; the lat- ter, as in the bald eagle, feathered a little below the kneo ; irides, a bright straw color ; head above, neck, and back, streaked with light brown, deep brown, and white, the plumage being white, tipped and centred with brown ; scapulars, brown ; lesser wing- coverts, very pale, intermixed with white ; primaries, black, their shafts brownish white ; rump, pale brownish white ; tail, rounded, somewhat longer than the wings, when shut, brown on the exterior vanes, the inner ones white, sprinkled with dirty brown ; throat, breast, and belly, white, dashed and streaked with different tints of brown and pale yellow ; vent, brown, tipped with white ; femorals, dark bu iwn, tipped with lighter ; auritfulars, brown, forming a bar BIRDS. 66 from below the eye backwards ; plumagi of the neck, long, narrow, and pointed, as is usual with eagles, anc of a Irownish color tip- ped with white. The sea eagle is said to hunt at night, as well as during the day, and that, besides fish, it feeds on chickens, birds, hares, and other animals. It is also said to catch fish during the night ; and that tftofi THE SEA EAGLE. the noise of its plunging into the water is heard at a great distance. But, in the descriptions of writers, this bird has been so fre- quently confounded with the osprey, as to leave little doubt that the habits and manners of the one have been often attributed to both, and others added that are common to neither. The gun, poisoned meats, or traps baited with meat or fish, are the only means of destroying eagles. THE CROW. This is perhaps the most generally known, and least beloved, of all our land birds ; having neither melody of song 66 THE PESTS OF THE FAEM. por beauty of plumage, .LOP excellence of flesh, no? civility of man- ners to recommend him ; on the contrary, he is br tnded as a thief and a plunderer a kind of black-coated vagabond, who hovers over the fields of the industrious, fattening on their labors, and, by his voracity, often blasting their expectations. Hated as he is by the farmer, watched and persecuted by almost every bearer of a gun, who all triumph in his destruction, had not Heaven bestowed on him intelligence and sagacity far beyond common, there is reason to believe that the whole tribe (in these parts at least) would long ago have ceased to exist. The crow is a constant attendant on agriculture, and a general inhabitant of the cultivated parts of North America. In the inte- rior of the forest he is more rare, unless during the season of breed- ing. He is particularly attached to low flat corn countries, lying in the neighborhood of the sea, or of large rivers ; and more nu- merous in the northern than southern states. A strong antipathy, it is said, prevails between the crow and the raven, insomuch, that where the latter is numerous, the former rarely resides. The usual breeding time of the crow, is in March, April, and May, during which season they are dispersed over the woods in pairs, and roost in the neighborhood of the tree they have selected for their nest. About the middle of March they begin to build, generally choosing a high tree. It is in the month of May, and until the middle of June, that the crow is most destructive to the corn-fields, digging up the newly planted grains of maize, pulling up by the roots those that have begun to vegetate, and thus frequently obliging the farmer to replant, or lose the benefit of the soil ; and this sometimes twice, and even three times, occasioning a considerable additional expense, and inequality of harvest. No mercy is now shown him. The myriads of worms, moles, mice, caterpillars, grubs, and beetles, which he has destroyed, are altogether overlooked on these occa- sions. Detected in robbing the hens' nests, pulling up the corn, and killing the young chickens, he is considered as an outlaw, and sentenced to destruction. But the great difficulty is, how to put this sentence in execution. In vain the gunner skulks along the hedges and fences ; his faithful sentinels, planted on some com- manding point, raise the alarm, and disappoint vengeance of its object. The coast again clear, he returns once more in silence, to finish the repast he had begun. Sometimes he approaches the farm-house by stealth, in search of young chickens, which he is in BIRDS. 67 the habit of snatching off, when he can elude the vigilance of the mother hen, who often proves too formidable for him. The crow himself sometimes falls a prey to the superior strength and rapacity of the great owl, whose weapons of offence are bv far the more formidable of the two. Towards the close of summer, the parent crows, with their new families, forsaking their solitary lodgings, collect together, as if by previous agreement, when evening approaches. About an hour before sunset, they are first observed, flying, somewhat in Indian file, in one direction, at a short height above the tops of the trees, silent and steady, keeping the general curvature of the ground, continuing to pass sometimes till after sunset, so that the whole line of march would extend for many miles. This circumstance, so familiar and picturesque, has not been overlooked by the poets, in their descriptions of a rural evening. Crows form large roosts and dwell in them in immense numbers. A large one appears to be the grand rendezvous, or head-quarters, of the greater part of the crows within forty or fifty miles of the spot. The noise created by these multitudes, both in their evening assembly and reascension in the morning, and the depredations they commit in the immediate neighborhood of a great resort, are almost incredible. Whole fields of corn are sometimes laid waste by thousands alighting on it at once, with appetites whetted by the fast of the preceding night ; and the utmost vigilance is unavailing to prevent, at le"ast, a partial destruction of this their favorite grain. Like the stragglers of an immense, undisciplined, and rapacious army, they spread themselves over the fields, to plunder and des- troy wherever they alight. It is here that the character of the crow is universally execrated ; and to say to the man who has lost his crop of corn by these birds, that crows are exceedingly useful for destroying vermin, would be as consolatory as to tell him who had just lost his house and furniture by the flames, that fires are excellent for destroying bugs. So universal is the hatred to crows, that few states have neg- lected to offer rewards for their destruction. In the United States, they have been repeatedly ranked in our laws with the wolves, the panthers, foxes, and squirrels, and a proportionable premium offered for their heads, to be paid by any justice of the peace to whom they are delivered. On all these accounts, various modes have been invented for capturing them. They have been taken in clap- nets, commonly used for taking pigeons ; two or three live crows 68 THE PESTS OF THE FARM. being previously procured as decoys, or, as they are called, stool- crows. Corn lias been steeped in a strong decoction of hellebore, which, when eaten by them, produces giddiness, and finally, it is said, death. Pieces of paper formed into the shape of a hollow cone, besmeared within with birdlime, and a grain or two of corn dropped on the bottom, have also been adopted. Numbers of these being placed on the ground, where corn has been planted, the crows attempting to reach the grains, are instantly hoodwinked, fly directly upwards to a great height ; but generally descend near the spot whence they rose, and are easily taken. The reeds of their roosting places are sometimes set on fire during a dark night, and the gunners having previously posted themselves around, the crows rise in great uproar, and, amidst the general consternation, by the light of the burnings, hundreds of them are shot down. Crows have been employed to catch crows, by the following stratagem : A live crow is pinned by the wings down to the ground on his back, by means of two sharp, forked sticks. Thus situated, his cries are loud and incessant, particularly if any other crows are within view. These, sweeping down about him, are in- stantly grappled by the prostrate prisoner, by the same instinctive impulse that urges a drowning person to grasp at everything within his reach. Having disengaged the game from his clutches, the trap is again ready for another experiment ; and by pinning down each captive, successively, as soon as taken, in a short time you will probably have a large flock screaming above you, in concert with the outrageous prisoners below. Many farmers, however, are con- tent with hanging up the skins, or dead carcasses, of crows in their corn-fields, in terrorem ; others depend altogether on the gun, keep- ing one of their people supplied with ammunition, and constantly on the look out. The habits of the crow in his native state are so generally known as to require little further illustration. His watchfulness, and jeal- ous sagacity in distinguishing a person with a gun, are notorious to every one. In spring, when he makes his appearance among the groves and low thickets, the whole ^ feathered songsters are in- stantly alarmed, well knowing the depredations and murders he commits on their nests, eggs, and young. Few of them, however, have the courage to attack fiim, except the king bird, who, on these occasions, teases and pursues him from place to place, diving on his back while high in the air, and harassing him for a great distance. A single pah* of these noble-spirited birds, whose nest was buili BIKDS. 69 near, have been known to protect a whole field of corn from the depredations of the crows, not permitting one to approach it. The crow is eighteen inches and a naff long, and three feet two inches in extent ; the general color is a shining glossy blue black, with purplish reflections ; the throat and lower parts are less glossy ; the bill and legs, a shining black, the former two inches and a quarter long, very strong, and covered at the base with thick tufts of recumbent feathers ; the wings, when shut, reach within an inch and a quarter of the tip of the tail, which is rounded ; fourth primary, the longest ; secondaries scolloped at the ends, and minutely pointed, by the prolongation of the shaft; iris, dark hazel. The female differs from the male in being more dull colored, and rather deficient in the glossy and purplish tints and reflections. The difference, however, is not great. Besides grain, insects, and carrion, they feed on frogs, tadpoles, small fish, lizards, and shell fish ; with the latter they frequently mount to a great height, dropping them on the rocks below, and descending after them to pick up the contents. Many other aquatic insects, as well as marine plants, furnish them with food ; which accounts for their being so generally found, and so numerous, on the sea shore, and along the banks of our large rivers. THE RAVEN. The raven is a general inhabitant of the United States, but is more common in the interior. It is a remarkable fact, that where they so abound, the common crow seldom makes its appearance ; being intimidated, it is conjectured, by the superior size and strength of the former, or by an antipathy which the two species manifest towards each other. The food of this species is dead animal matter of all kinds, not excepting the most putrid carrion, which it devours in common with the vultures ; worms, grubs, reptiles, and shell fish, the last ot which, in the mariner of the crow, it drops from a considerable height in the air, on the rocks, in order to break the shells ; it is fond of bird's eggs, and is often observed sneaking around the farm-house in search of the eggs of the domestic poultry, which it sucks with eagerness ; it is likewise charged with destroying young ducks and chickens, and lambs which have been yeaned in a sickly state. The raven measures, from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail, twenty-six inches, and is four feet in extent ; the bill is large and strong, of a shining black, notched r.ear the tip, and three in- 70 THE PESTS OF THE FARM. ches long ; the setaceous feathers which cover the nostrils extend half its length ; the eyes are black ; the general color is a deep glossy black, with steel-blue reflections ; the lower parts are less glossy ; the tail is rounded, and extends about two inches beyond the wings ; the legs are two inches and a half in length, and, with the feet, are strong and black ; the claws are long. This bird is said to attain to a great age ; and its plumage to be subject to change from the influence of years and of climate. It is found in Iceland and Greenland entirely white. The raven may be destroyed in several of the many ways adopted to kill the crow. He is more easily shot than the crow. OF HAWKS there is a great variety in America. Those only are described that are common and diffused enough to be generally troublesome. AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK. This bird is a constant resident in almost every part of the United States, particularly in the states north of Maryland. In the Southern States there is a smaller species found, which is destitute of the black spots on the head ; the legs are long and very slender, and the wings light blue. The nest of this species is usually built in a hollow tree ; gene- rally pretty high up, where the top, or a large limb, has been broken off. The female generally lays four or five eggs, which are of a light brownish yellow color, spotted with a darker tint ; the young are fed on grasshoppers, mice, and small birds, the usual food of the parents. The habits and manners of this bird are well known. It flies rather irregularly, occasionally suspending itself in the air, hover- ing over a particular spot for a minute or two, and then shooting off in another direction. It perches on the top of a dead tree or pole, in the middle of a field or meadow, and, as it alights, shuts its long wings so suddenly, that they seem instantly to disappear ; it sits here in an almost perpendicular position, sometimes for an hour at a time, frequently jerking its tail, and reconnoitring the ground below, in every direction, for mice, lizards, . fore-legs are also ochre-yellow. It expands from one inch and a;-:alfto two inches. Pick off the caterpillars from day to day and crush them, and do not spare "the pretty white millers," frequently found on the fences, or on the plants, laying their golden yellow eggs. INSECTS. 99 THE SALT-MARSH CATERPILLAR, an insect by far too well kncwn on our sea-board, and now getting to be common in the interior, closely resembles the yellow bear in some of its varieties. These appear toward the end of June, and grow rapidly from that time till the first of August. During this month they come to their full size, and begin to run, as the phrase is, or retreat from the marshes, and disperse through the adjacent uplands, often committing very extensive ravages in their progress. Corn-fields, gardens, and even the rank weeds by the way-side afford them temporary nourish- ment while wandering in search of a place of security from the tide and weather. They conceal themselves in walls, under stones, in hay-stacks anc 1 mows, in wood-piles, and in any other places in their way, which will afford them the proper degree of shelter during the winter. Here they make their coarse hairy cocoons, and change to chrysalids, in whHi form they remain till the folio wing summer, and are transformed to moths in the month of June. In those cases where, from any cause, the caterpillars, when arrived at ma- turity, have been unable to leave the marshes, they conceal them- selves beneath the stubble, and there make their cocoons. Such, for the most part, is the course and duration of the lives of these insects in the Northern States ; but in the Middle and Southern States two broods are brought to perfection annually ; and even here some of them run through their course sooner, and produce a second brood of caterpillars in the same season. The full-grown caterpillar measures one inch and three quarters or more in length. It is clothed with long hairs, which are sometimes black and some- times brown on the back and forepart of the body, and of a lighter brown color on the sides. The hairs grow in spreading clusters from warts, which are of a yellowish color in this species. The body, when stripped of the hairs, is yellow, shaded at the sides with black, and there is a blackish line extending along the top of the back. The breathing-holes are white, and very distinct even through the hairs. These caterpillars, when feeding on the marshes, are sometimes overtaken by the tide, and when escape becomes im possible, they roll themselves up in a circular form, and abandon themselves to their fate. The hairs on their bodies seem to have a repelling power, and prevent the water from wetting their skins, so that they float on the surface, and are often carried by the waves to distant places, where they are thrown on shore, and left in win- rows with the wash of the sea. After a little time most of them tecover from their half-drowned condition, and begin their depre- 100 THE PESTS OF THE FARM. dations anew. In this way these insects seem to have spread from the places where they first appeared to others at a considerable distance. In order to lessen the ravages of the salt-marsh caterpillars, and to secure a fair crop of hay when these insects abound, the marshes should be mowed early in July, at which time the caterpillars are small and feeble, and being unable to wander far, will die before the crop is gathered in. In defence of early mowing, it may be said that it is the only way by which the grass may be saved in those meadows where the caterpillars have multiplied to any ex- tent ; and, if the practice is followed generally, and continued du- ring several years in succession, 'it will do much towards extermi- nating these destructive insects. By the practice of late mowing, where the caterpillars abound, a great loss in the crop will be sus- tained, immense numbers of caterpillars and grasshoppers will be left to grow to maturity and disperse upon the uplands, by which means the evil will go on increasing from year to year ; or they will be brought in with the hay to perish in our barns and stacks, where their dead bodies will prove offensive to the cattle, and occa- sion a waste of fodder. To get rid of " the old fog " or stubble, which becomes much thicker and longer in consequence of early mowing, the marshes should be burnt over in March. The roots of the grass will not be injured by burning the stubble, on the con- trary they will be fertilized by the ashes ; while great numbers of young grasshoppers, cocoons of caterpillars, and various kinds of destructive insects, with their eggs, concealed in the stubble, will be destroyed by the fire. In the Province of New Brunswick, the benefit arising from burning the stubble has long been proved. Of the caterpillars which devour the leaves of trees, the most common and destructive are the little caterpillars known by the name of fall web-worms, whose large webs, sometimes extending over entire branches with their leaves, may be seen on our native elms, and also on apple and other fruit trees, in the latter part of summer. The eggs, from which these caterpillars proceed, are laid by the parent moth in a cluster upon a leaf near the extremity of a branch ; they are hatched from the last of June till the middle of August, some broods being early and others "ate, and the young caterpillars immediately begin to provide a slelter for themselves, by covering the upper side of the leaf with a web, which is the result of the united labors of the whole brood. They feed in com- pany beneath this web, devouring only the upper skin and pulpy INSECTS. 101 portion of the leaf, leaving the veins and lower skin of the leaf un- touched. As they increase in size, they enlarge their web, carry- ing it over the next lower leaves, all the upper and pulpy parts of which are eaten in the same way, and thus they continue to work downwards, till finally the web covers a large portion of the branch, with its dry, brown, and filmy foliage, reduced to this unseemly condition by these little spoilers. These catei pillars when fully grown, measure rather more than one inch in length ; their bodies are slender and are very thinly clothed with hairs of a grayish color, intermingled with a few which are black. The general color of the body is greenish yellow dotted with black ; there is a broad black- ish stripe along the top of the back, and a bright yellow stripe on each side. The warts, from which the thin bundles of spreading, silky hairs proceed, are black on the back, and rust-yellow or orange on the sides. The head and feet are black. Towards the end of August and during the month of September they leave the trees, disperse, and wander about, eating such plants as happen to lie in. their course, till they have found suitable places for shelter and con- cealment where they make their thin and almost transparent co- coons, composed of a slight web of silk intermingled with a few hairs. They remain in the cocoons in the chrysalis state through the winter, and are transformed to moths in the months of June and July. These moths are white, and without spots ; the fore- thighs are tawny-yellow, and the feet blackish. Their wings ex- pand from one inch and a quarter to one inch and three eighths. Their antennae and feelers do not differ essentially from those of tha majority of the Arctians, the former in the males being doubly feathered beneath, and those of the females having two rows of mi- nute teeth on the under-side. The only time in which we can at- tempt to exterminate these destructive insects with any prospect of success, is when they are young and just beginning to make their webs on the trees. . So soon, then, as the webs begin to appear on the extremities of the branches, they should be stripped off, with the few leaves which they cover, and the caterpillars contained therein, at one grasp, and should be crashed under foot. APPLE-TREE CATERPILLARS. During the months of July and August, there may be found on apple-trees and rose-bushes little slender caterpillars of a bright yellow color, sparingly clothed with long and fine yellow hairs on the sides of the body, and having four short and thick brush-like yellowish tufts on the back, that is on the fourth and three following rings, two long black plumes or 102 THE PESTS OF THE FARM. pencils extending forwards from the first ring, and a single plL s on the top of the eleventh ring. The head, and the two little re- tractile warts on the ninth and tenth rings are coral red ; there is a narrow black or brownish stripe along the top of the back, ;ind a wider dusky stripe on each side of the body. These pretty cat- erpillars do not ordinarily herd together, but sometimes our apple- trees are much infested by them. When they have done eating, they spin their cocoons on the leaves, or on the branches or trunks of the trees, or on fences in the vicinity. The chrysalis is not only beset with little hairs or down, but has three oval clusters of branny scales on the back. In about eleven days after the change to the chrysalis is effected, the last transformation follows, and the insects come forth in the adult state, the females wingless, and the males with large ashen-gray wings, crossed by wavy darker bands on the upper pair, on which, moreover, is a small black spot near the tip, and a minute white crescent near the outer hind angle. The body of the male is small and slender, with a row of little tufts along the back, and the wings expand one inch and three eighths. The females are of a lighter gray color than the males, their bodies are very thick, and of an oblong oval shape, and, though seemingly wingless, upon close examination two little scales, or stinted wing- lets, can be discovered on each shoulder. These females lay their eggs upon the top of their cocoons, and cover them with a large quantity of frothy matter, which on drying becomes white and brittle. Different broods of these insects appear at various times in the course of the summer, but the greater number come to matu- rity and lay their eggs in the latter part of August, and the begin- ning of September ; and these eggs are not hatched till the follow- ing summer. The name of this moth is Orgyia leucostigma, the white-marked Orgyia or tussock-moth. In Hovey's Gardener's Magazine Mr. Ives states, that on passing through an apple orchard in February, he " perceived nearly all the trees speckled with occa- sional dead leaves, adhering so firmly to the brarches as to require considerable force to dislodge them. Each le**f covered a small patch of from one to two hundred eggs, united together, as well as to the leaf, by a gummy and silken fibre, peculiar to the moth." In March he "visited the same orchard, and, as an experiment, cleared three trees, from which he took twenty-one bunches of eggs. The remainder of the trees he left untouched until the tenth of May, when he found the caterpillars were hatred from the eggs, and had commenced their slow but sure ravages. He watched them from INSECTS. 103 time to time, until many branches had been spoiled of their j eaves, and in the autumn were entirely destitute of fruit ; while the three trees, which had been stripped of the eggs, were flush with foliage, each limb, without exception, ripening its fruit." These pertinent remarks point out the nature and extent of the evil, and suggest the proper remedy to be used against the ravages of these insects. LACKEY CATERPILLAR. There is a kind of caterpillars that swarm in the unpruned nurseries and neglected orchards of the slovenly husbandman, and hang their many-coated webs upon the wild cherry trees that are suffered to spring up unchecked by the way-side and encroach upon the borders of our pastures and fields. The eggs from which they are hatched, are placed around the ends of the branches, forming a wide kind of ring or bracelet, consisting of three or four hundred eggs, in the form of short cylinders standing on their ends close together, and covered with a thick coat of brownish water-proof varnish. The caterpillars come forth, with the unfold- ing of the leaves of the apple and cherry tree, during the latter part of April or the beginning of May. The first signs of their activity appear in the formation of a little angular web or tent, somewhat resembling a spider's web, stretched between the forks of the branches a little below the cluster of eggs. Under the shel- ter of these tents, in making which they all work together, the caterpillars remain concealed at all times when not engaged in eat- ing. In crawling from twig to twig and from leaf to leaf, they spin from their mouths a slender silken thread, which is a clue to conduct them back to their tents ; and as they go forth and return in files, one after another, their pathways in time become well car- peted with silk, which serves to render their footing secure during their frequent and periodical journeys in various directions, to and from their common habitation. As they increase in age and size, they enlarge their tent, surrounding it, from time to time, with new layers or webs, till, at length, it acquires a diameter of eight or ten inches. They come out together at certain stated hours to eat, and all retire at once when their regular meals are finished ; during bad weather, however, they fast, and do not venture from their shelter. These caterpillars are of a kind called lackeys. When fully grown they measure about two inches in length. Their heads are black ; extending along the top of the back, from one end to the other, is a whitish line, on each side of which, on a yellow ground, are numerous short and fine crinkled black lines, that krer down, become mingled together, and form a broad longitu 104 THE PESTS OF THE FARM. dinal black stripe, or rather a row of long black spots, one on each ring, in the middle of each of which is a small blue spot ; below this is a narrow wavy yellow line, and lower still the sides are va- riegated with fine intermingled black and yellow lines, which are lost at last in the general dusky color of the under-side of the body ; on the top of the eleventh ring is a small blackish and hairy wart, and the whole body is very sparingly clothed with short and soft hairs, rather thicker and longer upon the sides than elsewhere. From the first to the middle of June they begin to leave the trees upon which they have hitherto lived in company, separate from each other, wander about awhile, and finally get into some crevice or other place of shelter, and make their cocoons. These are of a regular long oval form, composed of a thin and veiy loosely woven web of silk, the meshes of which are filled with a thin paste, that on drying is changed to a yellow powder, like flour of sulphur in appearance. Some of the caterpillars, either from weakness or some other cause, do not leave their nests with the rest of the swarm, but make their cocoons there, and when the webs are opened these cocoons may be seen intermixed with a -mass of blackish grains, like gunpowder, excreted by the caterpillars during their stay. From fourteen to seventeen days after the insect has made its cocoon and changed to a chrysalis, it bursts its chrysalis skin, forces its way through the wet and softened end of its cocoon, and appears in the winged or miller form. The moth of the lackey-caterpillar is of a rusty or reddish brown color, more or less mingled with gray on the middle and base of the fore-wings, which, besides, are crossed by two oblique, straight, dirty white lines. It expands from one inch and a quarter, to one inch and a half, or a little more. The moths appear in great num- bers in July, flying about and often entering houses by night. At this time they lay their eggs, selecting the wild cherry, in prefer- ence to all other trees, for this purpose, and, next to these, apple- trees. These insects, because they are the most common and most abundant in all parts of our country, and have obtained such noto- riety that in common language they are almost exclusively known among us by the name of the caterpillars, are the worst enemies Oi the orchard. Whore proper attention has not been paid to the destruction of them, they prevail to such an extent as almost en- tirely to strip the apple and cherry trees of their foliage, by their attacks continued during the seven weeks of their life in the cater- pillar form. The trees, in those orchards and gardens where they INSECTS. 105 have been suffered to breed for a succession of years, become pre- maturely old, in consequence of the efforts they are obliged to make to repair, at an unseasonable time, the loss of their foliage, and are rendered unfruitful, and consequently unprofitable. But this is not all ; these pernicious insects spread in every direction, from the trees of the careless and indolent, to those of their more careful and industrious neighbors, whose labors are thereby greatly increased, and have to be followed up year after year, without any prospect of permanent relief. Many methods and receipts for the destruction of these insects have been published and recommended, but have failed to exter- minate them, and indeed have done but little to lessen their num- bers. The great difficulty is the neglect to do any thing, till after the caterpillars have covered the trees with their nests. Then the labors of the sluggard commence, and one tree, let his receipt be ever so perfect and powerful, will cost him as much time and labor as ten trees would have required three weeks sooner. The means to be employed may be stated under three heads. The first is, the collection and destruction of the eggs. These should be sought for in the winter and the early part of spring, when there are no leave? on the trees. They are easily discovered at this time, and may be removed with the thumb-nail and fore-finger. Nurseries and the lower limbs of large trees may thus be entirely cleared of the clus- ters of eggs during a few visits made at the proper season. If a - liberal bounty for the collection of the eggs were to be offered, and continued for the space of ten years, these destructive caterpillars would be nearly exterminated at the end of that time. Under the second head are to be mentioned the most approved- plans for de- ^troying the caterpillars after they are hatched, and have begun to make their nests or tents. It is well known that the caterpillars come out to feed twice during the day-time, namely, in the fore- noon and afternoon, and that they rarely leave their nests before nine in the morning, and return to them again at noon. During the early part of the season, while the nests are small, and the cat- erpillars young and tender, and at those hours when the insects are gathered together within their common habitation, they may be effectually destroyed by crushing thorn by hand in the nests. A brush, somewhat like a bottle-brush, fixed to a long handle, a dried mullein head and its stalk fastens 1 to a pole, will be useful to remove the nests, with the caterpillars contained therein, from those branches which are too high to be reached by hand. In- 5* 106 THE PESTS OF THE FARM. stead o/ the brush, we may use, with nearly equal success, a small mop or sponge, dipped as often as necessary into a pailful of refuse soap-suds, strong white- wash, or cheap oil. The mop should be thrust into the nest and turned round a little, so as to wet the cat- erpillars with the liquid, which will kill every one that it touches. These means, fo be effectual, ,*iould be employed during the proper hours, that is, early in the morning, at mid-day, or at night, and as soon in the spring as the caterpillars begin to make their nests ; and they should be repeated as often at least, as once a week, till the insects leave the trees. Early attention and perseverance in the use of these remedies will, in time, save the farmer hundreds of dollars, and abundance of mortification and disappointment, be- sides rewarding him with the grateful sight of the verdant foliage, snowy blossoms, and rich fruits of his orchard in their proper sea- sons. Under the third head, declare war against these caterpillars, a war of extermination, to be waged annually during the month of May and the beginning of June. Let every able-bodied citizen, who is the owner of an apple or cherry tree, cultivated or wild, within our borders, open the campaign in May, and give battle to the common enemy. If every man is prompt to do his duty, the enemy will be completely conquered. LOCUST-TREE BORERS. The locust-tree, Robinia pseudacacia, is preyed upon by three different kinds of wood-eaters or borers, whose unchecked ravages seem to threaten the entire destruction and ex- termination of this valuable tree within this part of the United States. One of these borers is a little reddish caterpillar, whose operations are confined to the small branches and to very young trees, in the pith of which it lives ; and by its irritation it causes the twig to swell around the part attacked. These swellings, being spongy and also perforated by the caterpillar, are weaker than the rest of the stem, which therefore easily breaks off at these places. The second kind of borer of the locust-tree is larger than tho foregoing, is a grub, and not a caterpillar, which finally turns to the beetle named Clytus pictus, the painted Clytus. In the month of September these beetles gather on the locust-trees. Having paired, the female creeps over the bark, searching the crevices with her antennae, and dropping therein her snow-white eggs, in clusters of seven or eight together, and at intervals of five or six minutes, till her whole stock is safely stored. The eggs are soon hatched, and the grubs immediately burrow into the bark, devouring the soft inner substance that suffices for their nourishment tiH the approach INSECTS. 107 of winter, during which *they remain at rest in a torpid state. In the spring they bore through the sap-wood, more or less deeply into the trunk, the general course of their winding and irregular pas- sages being in an upward direction from the place of their entrance. For a time they cast their chips out of their holes as fast as they are made, but after a while the passage becomes clogged and the burrow more or less filled with the coarse and fibrous fragments ol wood, to get rid of which the grubs are often obliged to open new holes through the bark. The seat of their operations is known by the oozing of the sap and the dropping of the saw-dust from the holes. The bark around the part attacked begins to swell, and in a few years the trunks and limbs will become disfigured and weak- ened by large porous tumors, caused by the efforts of -the trees to repair the injuries they have suffered. The grubs attain their full size by the twentieth of July, soon become pupae, and are changed to beetles and leave the trees early in September. Thus the exist- ence of this species is limited to one year. White-washing, and covering the trunks of the trees with graft- ing composition, may prevent the female from depositing her eggs upon them ; but this practice cannot be carried to any great extent in plantations or large nurseries of the trees. Perhaps it will be useful to head or cut down young trees to the ground, with the view of destroying the grubs contained in them, as well as to pro- mote a more vigorous growth. Much evil might be prevented by employing children to collect the beetles while in the act of provi- ding for the continuation of their kind. A common black bottle, containing a little water, would be a suitable vessel to receive the beetles as fast as they were gathered, and should be emptied into the fire in order to destroy the insects. The gathering should be begun as soon as the beetles first appear, and should be continued as long as any are found on the trees, and furthermore should be made a general business for several years in succession. I have no doubt, should this be done, that, by devoting one hour every day to this object, we may, in the course of a few years, rid ourselves of this destructive insect. The third of the wood-eaters, to which the locust-tree is exposed, though less common than the others, and not so universally de- structive to the tree as the painted Clytus, is a very much larger borer, and is occasionally productive of great injury, especially to full-grown and old trees, for which it appears to have a preferontfe. It is a true caterpillar, belonging to the tribe of moths under con- 108 THE PESTS OF THE FARM. aideration, is reddish, above, and white beneath, with the head and top of the first ring brown and shelly, and there are a few short hairs arising from minute warts thinly scattered over the surface of the body. When fully grown, it measures two inches and a half, or more, in length, and is nearly as thick as the end of the little finger. These caterpillars bore the tree in various directions, but for the most part obliquely upwards and downwards through the solid wood, enlarging the holes as they increase in size, and con- tinuing them through the bark to the outside of the trunk. Before transforming, they line these passages with a web of silk, and, re- tiring to some distance from the orifice, they spin around their bodies a closer web, or cocoon, within which they assume the chry- salis form. The chrysalis measures one inch and a half or two inches in length, is of an amber color, changing to brown on the forepart of the body ; and, on the upper side of each abdominal ring, are two transverse rows of tooth-like projections. By the help of these, the insect, when ready for its last transformation, works its way to the mouth of its burrow, where it remains while the chrysalis skin is rent, upon which it comes forth on the trunk of the tree a winged moth. In this its perfected state, it is of a grav color ; the fore-wings are thickly covered with dusky netted lines and irregular spots, the hind-wings are more uniformly dusky, and the shoulder-covers are edged with black on the inside. It expands about three inches. The male, which is much smaller, and has been mistaken for another species, is much darker than the female, from which it differs also in having a large ochre-yellow spot on the hind-wings, contiguous to their posterior margin. Professor Peck, who first made public the history of this insect, named it Cossus Hcbinice, the Cossus of the locust-tree. It is supposed by Professor Peck ip remain three years in the caterpillar state. The moth comes forth about the middle of July. Our fruit-trees seem to be peculiarly subject to the ravages of in- sects, probably because the native trees of the forest, which origi- nally yielded the insects an abundance of food, have been destroyed to a great extent, and their places supplied only partially by orch- ards, gardens, and nurseries. Numerous as are the kinds of cater- pillars now found on cultivated trees, some are far more abundant than others, and therefore more often fall under our observation, and come to be better known. Such, for instance, are certain gre- garious caterpillars that swarm on the apple, cherry, arid plum-trees towards the end of summer, stripping whole branches of their INSECTS. 109 leaves, and not unfrequently despoiling our rose-bushes and thorn- hedges also. These caterpillars are of two kinds, very different in appearance, but alike in habits and destructive propensities. The first of these may be called the red-humped, a name that will pro- bably bring these insects to the remembrance of those persons who have ever observed them. Different broods make their appearance at various times during August and September. The eggs, from which they proceed, are laid, in the course of the month of July, in clusters on the under-side of a leaf, generally near the end of a branch. When first hatched they eat only the substance of the under-side of the leaf, leaving the skin of the upper-side and all the veins untouched ; but as they grow larger and stronger they de- vour whole leaves from the point to the stalk, and go from leaf to leaf down the twigs and branches. The young caterpillars are lighter colored than the old ones, which are yellowish- brown, paler on the sides, and longitudinally striped with slender black lines ; the head is red ; on the top of the fourth ring there is a bunch or hump, also of a red color ; along the back are several short black prickles ; and the hinder extremity tapers somewhat, and is always elevated at an angle with the rest of the body, when the insect is not crawling. The full-grown caterpillars measure one inch and a quarter, or rather more, in length. The rest close together on the twigs, when not eating, and sometimes entirely cover the small twigs and ends of the branches. The early broods come to their growth and leave the trees by the middle of August, and the others between this time and the latter part of September. All the cat- erpillars of the same brood descend at one time, and disappear in the night. They conceal themselves under leaves, or just beneath the surface of the soil, and make their cocoons. They remain a long time in their cocoons before changing to chrysalids, and are transformed to moths towards the end of June or the beginning of July. Mr. Abbot states that in Georgia these insects breed twice a year, the first broods making their cocoons towards the end of May, and appearing in the winged form fifteen days afterwards. This, a Notodonta, is a neat and trim looking moth, and is of a light brown color ; the fore-wings are dark brown along the inner margin, and more or less tinged with gray before ; there is a dark brown dot near the middle, a spot of the same color near each an gle, a very small triangular whitish spot near the shoulders, and several dark brown longitudinal streaks on the outer hind margin ; the hind-wings of the male are brownish or dirty white, with a 110 THE PESTS OF THE FAKM. brown spot on the inner hind angle ; those of the other sex are dusky brown ; the body is light brown, with the thorax rathei darker. The wings expand from one inch to one inch and three- eighths. The second kind grow to a greater size, are longer in coming to their growth, their swarms are more numerous, and consequently they do much more injury than the red-humped kind. Entire branches of the apple-trees are frequently stripped of their leaves by them, and are loaded with these caterpillars in thickly crowded swarms. The eggs from which they are hatched will be found in patches, of about a hundred together, fastened to the under-side of leaves near the ends of the twigs. Some of them begin to be hatched about the twentieth of July, and new broods make their appearance in succession for the space of a month or more. At first they eat only tJhe under-side and pulpy part of the leaves, leaving the upper-side and veins untouched ; but afterwards they consume the whole of the leaves except their stems. These cater- pillars are sparingly covered with soft whitish hairs ; the young ones are brown, and striped with white ; but as they grow older, their colors become darker every time they cast their skins. They come to their full size in about five weeks or a little more, and then measure from an inch and three quarters to two inches and a quar- ter in extent. The head is large, and of a black color ; the body is nearly cylindrical, with a spot on the top of the first ring and the legs dull orange-yellow, a black stripe along the top of the back, and three of the same color alternating with four yellow stripes on each side. The posture of these caterpillars, when at rest, is vcfry odd ; both extremities are raised, the body being bent, and resting only on the four intermediate pairs of legs. If touched or other- wise disturbed, they throw up their heads and tails with a jerk, at the same time bending the body semicircularly till the two extremi- ties almost meet over the back. They all eat together, and, after they have done, arrange themselves side by side along the twigs and branches which they have stripped. Beginning at the ends of the branches they eat all the leaves successively from thence to- wards the trunk, and if one branch does not afford food enough they betake themselves to another. When ready to transform, all the individuals of the same brood quit the tree at once, descending by night, and burrow into the ground to the depth of three or four inches, and, within twenty-four hours afterwards, cast their cater- pillar-skins, and become chrysalids without making cocoons. They INSECTS. Ill remain in the ground m this state all winter, and are changed tc moths and come out oetween the middle and end of July. These moths belong to the genus Pygcera, so named because the cater- pillar sits with its tail raised up. The antennae are rather long, those of the males fringed beneath, in a double row, with very short hairs nearly to the tips, which, however, as well as the whole of the stalk of the antennae in the other sex, are bare ; the thorax is generally marked with a large dark-colored spot, the hairs of which can be raised up so as to form a ridge or kind of crest ; the hinder margin of tfce fore-wings is slightly notched ; and the fore- legs are stretched out before the body in repose. Our Pygcera was named, by Drury, ministra, the attendant or servant. It is of a light brown color ; the head and a large square spot on the thorax are dark chestnut-brown ; on the fore-wings are four or five trans- verse lines, one or two spots near the middle, and a short oblique line near the tip, all of which, with the outer hind margin, are dark chestnut-brown. One and sometimes both of the dark-brown spots are wanting on the fore-wings in the males, and the females, which are larger than the other sex, frequently have five instead of four transverse brown lines. It expands from one inch and three quar- ters to two inches and a half. There are seen on the oak, the birch, the black walnut, and the hickory trees, swarms of caterpillars slightly differing in color from each other and from those that live on the apple and cherry trees ; they are more hairy than the latter, but their postures and habits appear to be the same. They are probably only varieties of the ministra, arising from the difference of food. CORN CATERPILLAR. Indian corn often suffers severely from the depredations of one of the genus Nonagrians, known to our farmers by the name of the spindle- worm. This insect receives its common name from its destroying the spindle of the Indian corn ; bat its ravages generally begin while the corn-stalk is young, and before the spindle rises much above the tuft of leaves in which it is em- bosomed. The mischief is discovered by the withering of the leaves, and, when these are taken hold of, they may often be drawn out with the included spindle. On examining the corn, a small hole may be seen in the side of the l3afy stalk, near the ground, pene- trating into the soft centre of the stalk, which, when cut open, will be found to be perforated, both up wards and downwards, by a slen- der worm -like caterpillar, whose excrementitious castings surround the orifice of the hole. - This caterpillar grows to the length of an 112 THE PESTS OF THE FARM. inch, or more, and to the thickness of a goose-quill. It is smooth, and apparently naked, yellowish, with the head, the top of the first and of the last rings black, and with a band across each of the other rings, consisting of small, smooth, slightly elevated, shining black dots, arranged in a double row. The chrysalis, which is lodged in the burrow formed by the spindle-worm, is slender, but not quite so long in proportion to its thickness as are those of most of the ISTonagrians. It is shining mahogany-brown, with the ante- rior edges of four of the rings of the back roughened with little points, and four short spines or hooks, turned upwards, on the hinder extremity of the body. The fore-wings are rust-red ; they are mottled with gray, almost in bands, uniting with the ordinary spots, which are also gray and indistinct ; there is an irregular tawny spot near the tip, and on the veins there are a few black dots. The hind-wings are yellowish gray, with a central dusky spot, behind which are two faint, dusky bands. The head and thorax are rust-red, with an elevated tawny tuft on each. The ab- domen is pale brown, with a row of tawny tufts on the back. The wings expand nearly one inch and a half. In order to check the ravages of these insects they must be de- stroyed while in the caterpillar state. As soon as our corn-fields begin to show, by the withering of the leaves, the usual signs that the enemy is at work in the stalks, the spindle-worms should be sought for and killed ; for, if allowed to remain undisturbed until they turn to moths, they will make their escape, and we shall not be able to prevent them from laying their eggs for another brood of these pestilent insects. CUT WORMS. Numerous complaints have been made of the ravages of cut-worms among corn, wheat, grass, and other vegeta- bles, in various parts of the country. These insects and their his- tory are not yet known to some of the very persons who are said to have suffered from their depredations. . Various cut-worms, or more properly subterranean caterpillars, wire- worms and grub- worms, or the young of May-beetles, are often confounded together or mistaken for each other ; sometimes their names are inter- changed, and sometimes the same name is given to each and all of these different animals. Hence the remedies that are successful in some instances are entirely useless in others. The name of cut- worm seems originally to have been given to certain caterpillars that live in the ground about the roots of plants, but come up in the night, and cut off and devour the tender stems and lower leaves INSECTS. 113 THE COT WORM. of young cabbages, beans, corn, and other herbaceous plants. These subterranean caterpillars are finally transformed to moths belonging to a group which may be called Agrotidians (AGROTIDID.E), from a word signifying rustic, or pertaining to the fields. Some of these rustic moths fly by day, and may be found in the fields, especially in the autumn, sucking the honey of flowers ; others are on the wing only at night, and during the day lie concealed in chinks of walls and other dark places. Their wings are nearly horizontal when closed, the upper pair completely covering the lower wings, and often overlapping a little on their inner edges, thus favoring these insects in their attempts to obtain shelter and concealment. The thorax is slightly convex, but smooth or not crested. The an- tennae of the males are generally beset with two rows of short points, like fine teeth, on the under-side, nearly to the tips. The fore-legs are often quite spiny. Most of these moths come forth in July and August, and soon afterwards lay their eggs in the gfound, in plowed fields, gardens, and meadows. In Europe it is found that the eggs are hatched early in the autumn, at wluch time the little subterranean caterpillars live chiefly on the roots and tender sprouts of herbaceous plants. On the approach of winter they descend deeper into the ground, and, curling themselves up, remain in a torpid state till the following spring, when they ascend towards the surface, and renew their devastations. The caterpillars of the Agrotidians are smooth, shining, naked, and dark-colored, with lon- gitudinal pale and blackish stripes, and a few black dots on each THE PESTS OF THE FARM. ring ; some of them also have a shining, horny, black spot, on the top of the first ring. They are of a cylindrical form, tapering a little at each end, rather thick in proportion to their length, and are provided with sixteen legs. They are changed to chrysalids in the ground, without previously making silken cocoons. It is chiefly during the months of June and July that they are found to be most destructive. Whole grain-fields are sometimes laid waste by them. Cabbage-plants, till they are grown to a con- siderable size, are very apt to be cut off and destroyed' by them. Potato-vines, beans, beets, and various other culinary plants suffer in the same way. The products of our flower-gardens are not spared ; asters, balsams, pinks, and many other kinds of flowers are often shorn of their leaves and of their central buds, by these con- cealed spoilers. There are several species of Agrotis, the larvae of which are inju- rious to culinary plants ; but the chief culprit fe the same as that which is destructive to young corn. The corn-cut worms make their appearance in great numbers at irregular periods, and confine themselves in their devastations to no particular vegetables, all that are succulent being relished by these indiscriminate devourers ; but, if their choice is not limited, they prefer corn-plants when not more than a few inches above the earth, early sown buckwheat, young pumpkin plants, young beans, cabbage-plants, and many other field and garden vegetables. When first disclosed from the eggs they subsist on the various grasses. They descend in the ground on the approach of severe frosts, and reappear in the spring about half grown. They seek their food in the night or in cloudy weather, and retire before sunrise into the ground, or beneath stones or any substance which can shelter them from the rays of the sun ; here they remain coiled up during the day, except while devouring the food which they generally drag into their places of concealment. Their transformation to pupae occurs at different periods, sometimes earlier, sometimes later, according to the forwardness of the season, but usually not much later than the middle of July. The moths, as well as the larvae, vary much in the depth of their color, from a pale ash to a deep or obscure brown. The ordinary spots of the upper wings of the moth are always connected by a blackish line ; where the color is of the deepest shade these spots are scarcely visible, but when the color is lighter they are very obvious. This moth is very abundant in the New England States, from the mid- dle of June till the middle or end of August. The fore- wings are INSECTS. 115 generally of a dark ash-color, with only a very faint trace cf the double tiansverse wavy bands that are found in most species of Agrotis ; the two ordinary spots are small and narrow, the anterior spot being oblong oval, and connected with the oblique kidney- shaped spot, by a longitudinal black line. The hind wings are dirty brownish white, somewhat darker behind. The head, the collar, and. the abdomen are chestnut-colored. It expands one inch and three quarters. The wings, when shut, overlap on their inner edges, and cover the top of the back so flatly and closely that these moths can ^t into very narrow crevices. During the day they lie hidden under the bark of trees, in the chinks of fences, and even under the loose clapboards of buildings. When the blinds of our houses are opened in the morning, a little swarm of these insects, which had crept behind them for concealment, is sometimes ex- posed, and suddenly aroused from their daily slumber. Among the various remedies that have been proposed for pre- venting the ravages of cut-worms in wheat and corn-fields, may be mentioned the soaking of grain, before planting, in copperas-water and other solutions supposed to be disagreeable to the insects ; rolling the seed in lime or ashes ; and mixing salt with the manure. These may prevent wire-worms and some insects from destroying the seed ; but cut-worms prey only on the sprouts and young stalks, and do not eat the seeds. Such stimulating applications may be of some benefit, by promoting a more rapid and vigorous growth of the grain, by which means the sprouts will the sooner become so strong and rank as to resist or escape the attacks of the young cut-worms. Fall-plowing of sward-lands, which are in- tended to be sown with wheat or planted with corn the year follow- ing, will turn up and expose the insects to the inclemency of winter, whereby many of them will be killed, and will also bring them within reach of insect-eating birds. But this seems to be a doubt- ful remedy, against which many objections have been urged. The most effectual, and not a laborious remedy, even in field-cultuie, is to go round every morning, and open the earth at the foot of the plant, and you will never fail to find the worm at the ro(it, within four inches. Kill him, and you will save not only the other plants of your field, but, probably, many thousands in future years. PLUM WEEVIL OR CURCULIO. It is now well known that the tailing of unripe plums, apricots, peaches and cherries, is caused by little whitish grubs, which bore into these fruits. The loss of fruit, occasioned by insects of this kind, is frequently very great ; and, 116 THE PESTS OF THE FARM. in some of oi.r gardens and orchards, the crop of plums is often entirely ruined by the depredations of grubs, which are the larvae or young of a small beetle called the Nenuphar or plum-weevil, or Curculio. These beetles are found as early as the thirtieth of March, and as late as the tenth of June, and at various intermediate times, according with the forwardness or backwardness of vegetation in the spring, and have frequently been caught flying in the middle of the day. They are from three twentieths to one fifth of an inch long, exclusive of the curved snout, which is rather longer than the thorax, and is bent under the breast, betwlten the fore- legs, when at rest. Their color is a dark brown, variegated with spots of white, ochre-yellow, and black. The thorax is uneven ; the wing-covers have several short ridges upon them, those on the middle of the back forming two considerable humps, of a black color, behind which there is a wide band of ochre-yellow and white. Each of the thighs has two little teeth on the under-side. They begin to sting the plums as soon as the fruit is set, and, as some say, continue their operations till the first of August. After making a suitable puncture with their snouts, they lay one egg in each plum thus stung, and go over the fruit on the tree in this way till their store is exhausted ; so that, where these beetles abound, not a plum will escape being punctured. The irritation arising from these punctures, and from the gnawings of the grubs after they are hatched, causes the young fruit to become gummy, dis- eased, and finally to drop before it is ripe. Meanwhile the grub comes to its growth, and, immediately after the fruit falls, burrows into the ground. This may occur at various times between the middle of June and of August ; and, in the space of a little more than three weeks afterwards, the insect completes its transforma- tions, and comes out of the ground in the beetle form. This same weevil attacks all our common stone-fruits, such as plums, peaches, nectarines, apricots, cherries and apples ; and it is not at all improbable that the transformations of some of the grubs may be retarded till the winter has passed, analogous cases being of frequent occurrence. The plum, still more than the cherry tree, is subject to a disease of the small limbs, which shows itself in the form of large irregular warts, of a black color, as if charred. Grubs, apparently the same as those that are found in plums, have often been detected in these warts, which are now generally supposed to be produced by the punctures of the beetles, and the residence of the grubs. The seat of the disease is in the bark. The sap is di~ INSECTS. ID verted from its regular course, and is absorbed entirely by the bark, which is very much increased in thickness ; the cuticle bursts, the swelling becomes irregular, and is formed into black lumps, with a cracked, uneven, granulated surface. The wood, besides being de- prived of its nutriment, is very much compressed, and the branch above the tumor perishes. The final transformation of the grubs, living in the fruit, appears to take place at various times during the latter part of summer and the beginning of autumn, when the weevil, finding no young fruit, is probably obliged to lay its eggs in the small branches. The larvae or g? ubs from these eggs live in the branches during the winter, and are not perfected till near the last of the following June. Should the fall of the fruit occur late in the autumn, the development of the beetles will be retarded till the next spring ; and this is supposed to be the origin of the brood which stings the fruit. The following, among other remedies that have been suggested, may be found useful in checking the ravages of the plum-weevil. Let the trees be briskly shaken or suddenly jarred every morning and evening during the time that the insects appear in the beetle form, and are engaged in laying their eggs. When thus disturbed they contract their legs and fall ; and, as they do not immediately attempt to fly or crawl away, they may be caught in a sheet spread under the tree, from which they should be gathered into a large wide-mouthed bottle or other tight vessel, and be thrown into the fire. All the fallen wormy plums should be immediately gathered, and, after they are boiled or steamed, to kill the enclosed grubs, they may be given as food to swine. The diseased excrescences should be cut out and burned every year before the last of June. The moose plum-tree (Prunus Americana), seems to escape the at- tacks of insects, for no warts are found upon it, even when growing in the immediate vicinity of diseased foreign trees. It would, there- fore, be the best of stocks for budding or engrafting upon. It can easily be raised from the stone, and grows rapidly, but does not attain a great size. This plum-weevil, an insect unknown in Europe, when arrived at maturity, is a little, rough, dark brown or blackish beetle, looking like a dried bud, when it is shaken from the trees, which resem- blance is increased by its habit of drawing up its legs and bending its snout close to the lower side of its body, and remaining for a time without motion and seemingly lifeless. In stinging the fruit, 118 THE PESTS OF THE FARM. before laying its eggs, it uses its short curved snout, which is armed at the tip with a pair of very small nippers ; and by means of this weapon, ; t makes, in the tender skin of the young plum or apple, a crescent-shaped incision, similar to what would be formed by in- denting the fruit with the finger nail. Very rarely is there more than one incision made in the same fruit ; and in the wound, the weevil lays only a single egg. The insect hatched from this egg is a little whitish grub, destitute of feet, and very much like a mag- got in appearance, except that it has a distinct, rounded, light brown head. It appears, furthermore, that the tumors on plum and on cherry trees are infested not only by these insects, but also by an- other kind of grub, provided with legs, and occasionally by the wood-eating caterpillars of the jEgeria exitiosa, or peach-tree borer. When the grubs of the plum-weevil are fully grown, they go into the ground, and are there changed to chrysalids of a white color, having the legs and wings free and capable of some motion ; and finally they leave the ground in the form of little beetles, exactly like those which had previously stung 'the fruit. Further observa- tion seems to be wanting before it can be proved that the cankerous warts on plum and cherry trees arise from the irritating punctures of the plum-weevils and of the other insects that occasionally make these warts their places of abode ; although it must be allowed that the well-known production of galls by insects on oak-trees and on other plants, would lead us to suppose that those of the plum-tree have a similar origin. CANKER-WORMS. The insects called canker-worms are of a kind called Span-worms, or Geometers, and of the group Hybernians. The moths, from which they are produced, belong to the genua Anisopteryx. It was formerly supposed that the canker-worm moths came out of the ground only in the spring. It is now known that many of them rise in the autumn and in the early part of the winter, and in mild and open winters in every month from October to March. They begin to make their appearance after the first hard frosts in the autumn, usually towards the end of October, and they continue to come forth, in greater or smaller numbers, according to the mildness or severity of the weather after the frosts have be- gun. Their general time of rising is in the spring, beginning about the middle of March, but sometimes before, and sometimes after this time ; and they continue to come forth for the space of about three weeks. It has been observed that there are more females INSECTS. 119 than males among those that appear in the autumn and winter, and that the males are most abundant in the spring. The slug- gish females instinctively make their way towards the nearest trees, and creep slowly up their trunks. In a few days afterwards they are followed by the winged and active males, which flutter about and accompany them in their ascent, during which the insects pair. Soon after this, the females lay their eggs upon the branches of the trees, placing them on their ends, close together in rows, forming clusters of from sixty to one hundred eggs or more, which is the number usually laid by each female. The eggs are glued to each other, and to the bark, by a grayish varnish, which is impervious to water ; and the clusters are thus securely fastened in the forks of the small branches, or close to the young twigs and buds. Im- mediately after the insects have thus provided for a succession of their kind, they begin to languish, and soon die. The eggs are usually hatched between the first and the middle of May, or about the time that the red currant is in blossom, and the young leaves of the apple-tree begin to start from the bud and grow. The little canker-worms, upon making their escape from the eggs, gather upon the tender leaves, and, on the occurreHce of cold and wet weather, creep for shelter into the bosom of the bud, or into the flowers, when the latter appear. Where these insects prevail, they are most abundant on apple and elm trees ; but cherry, plum, and lime trees, and some other cultivated and native trees, as well as many shrubs, often suffer severely from their voracity. The leaves first attacked will be found pierced with small holes ; these become larger and more irregular when the canker-worms increase in size ; and, at last, the latter eat nearly all the pulpy parts of the leaves, leaving little more than the midrib and veins. A very great dif- ference of color is observable among canker-worms of different ages, and even among those of the same age and size. It is possible that some of these variations may arise from a difference of species ; but it is also true that the some species varies much in color. When very young, they have two minute warts on the top of the last ring ; and they are generally of a blackish or dusky brown color, with a yellowish stripe on each side of the body ; there are two whitish bands across the head ; and the belly is also whitish. When fully grown, these individuals become ash-colored on the back, and bla2k on the sides, below which the pale yellowish line .'remains. Some are found of a dull greenish yellow and others of a clay color, with slender interrupted blackish lines on the sides, and small spots 120 THE PESTS OF THE FAKM. of the same color on the back. Some are green, with two white stripes c. i the back. The head and the feet partake of the general color of the body ; the belly is paler. When not eating, they re- main stretched out at full length, and resting on their fore and hind legs, beneath the leaves. When fully grown and well fed, they measure nearly or quite one inch in length. They leave off eating when about four weeks old, and begin to quit the trees ; some creep down by the trunk, but great numbers let themselves down by their threads from the branches, their instincts prompting them to get to the ground by the most direct and easiest course. When thus de- scending, and suspended in great numbers under the limbs of trees overhanging the road, they are often swept off by passing carriages, and are thus conveyed to other places. After reaching the ground, they immediately burrow in the earth, to the depth of from two to six inches, unless prevented by weakness or the nature of the soil. In the latter case, they die, or undergo their transformations on the surface. In the former, they make little ' cavities or cells in the ground, by turning round repeatedly and fastening the loose grains of earth about them with a few silken threads. Within twenty- four hours afterward*, they are changed to chrysalids in their cells. The chrysalis is of a light brown color, and varies in size according to the sex of the insect contained in it ; that of the female being the largest, and being destitute of a covering for wings, which is found in the chrysalis of the males. The occurrence of mild weather after a severe frost stimulates some of these insects to burst their chrysalis skins and come forth in the perfected state ; and this last transformation, as before stated, may take place in the au- tumn, or in the course of the winter, as well as in the spring ; it is also retarded, in some individuals, for a year or more beyond the usual time. They come out of the ground mostly in the night, when they may be seen struggling through the grass as far as the limbs extend from the body of the trees under which they had been buried. As the females are destitute of wings, they are not able to wander far from the trees upon which they had lived in the cater- pillar state. Canker-worms are therefore naturally confined to a very limited space. In order to protect our trees from the ravages of canker-worms, where these looping spoilers abound, it should be our aim, if pos- sible, to prevent the wingless females from ascending the trees to deposit their eggs. This can be done by the application of tar around the body of the tree, either directly on the bark, as has INSECTS. 121 been the moat common practice, or, wliat is better, over a broad belt of clay-n:ortar, or on strips of old canvass or of strong paper, from six to twelve inches wide, fastened around the trunk with strings. The tar must be applied as early as the first of November, and perhaps in October, and it should be renewed daily as long as the insects continue rising ; after which the bands may be removed, and the tar should be entirely scraped from the bark. When all this has been properly and seasonably done, it has proved effectual. The time, labor, and expense attending the use of tar, and the in- jury that it does to the trees when allowed to run and remain on the bark, have caused many persons to neglect this method, and some to try various modifications of it, and other expedients. Among the modifications may be mentioned a horizontal and close-fitting collar of boards, fastened around the trunk, and smeared beneath with tar ; or four boards, nailed together, like a box without top or bottom, around the base of the tree, to receive the tar on the out- side. These can be used to protect a few choice trees in a garden, or around a house or a public square, but will be found too expen- sive to be applied to any great extent. Collars of tin-plate, fas- tened around the trees, and sloping downwards like an inverted tunnel, have been proposed, upon the supposition that the moths would not be able to creep in an inverted position, beneath the smooth and sloping surface. This method will also prove too ex- pensive for general adoption, even should it be found to answer the purpose. A belt of cotton-wool, which it has been thought would entangle the feet of the insects, and thus keep them from ascending the trees, has not proved an effectual bar to them. Little square or circular troughs of tin or of lead, filled with cheap fish oil, and placed around the trees, three feet or more above the surface of the ground, with a stuffing of cloth, hay, or sea-weed between them and the trunk, have long been used with good success ; and the only objections to them are the cost of the troughs, the difficulty of fixing and keeping them in their places, and the injury suffered by the trees when the oil is washed or blown out and falls upon the bark. These troughs ought not to be nailed to the trees, but should be supported by a few wooden wedges driven between them and the trunks. A stuffing of cloth, cotton, or tow, should never be used ; sea-weed and fine hay, which will not absorb the oil, are much better. Before the troughs are fastened and filled, the body of the tree should be well coated with clay-paint or white- wash, to absorb the oil that may fall upon it. Care should be taken to renew the 6 122 THE PESTS OF THE FARM. oil as often as it escapes or becomes filled with the insects. These troughs will be found more economical and less troublesome than the application of tar, and may safely be recommended and em- ployed, if proper attention is given to the precautions above named. Some persons fasten similar troughs, to contain oil, around the outer sides of an open box enclosing the base of the tree, and a projecting ledge is nailed on the edge of the box to shed the rain ; by this contrivance, all danger of hurting the tree with the oil is entirely avoided. Let a piece of India rubber be burnt over a gallipot, into which it will gradually drop in the condition of a viscid juice, which state, it appears, it will always retain. Having melted the India rubber, let a piece of cord or worsted be smeared with it, and then tied several times round the trunk. The melted substance is so very sticky, fchat the insects will be prevented, and generally cap- tured, in their attempts to pass over it. It has been suggested that the melted rubber might be applied immediately to the bark with- out injuring the trees. A little conical mound of sand surrounding the base of the tree is found to be impassable to the moths, so long as the sand remains dry ; but they easily pass over it when the sand is wet, and they come out of the ground in wet, as often as in dry weather. Some attempts have been made to destroy the canker-worms after they were hatched from the eggs, and were dispersed over the leaves of the trees. It is said that some persons have saved their trees from these insects by freejy dusting air-slacked lime over them while the leaves were wet with dew. Showering the trees with mixtures that are found useful to destroy other insects, has been tried by a few, and, although attended with a good deal of trouble and expense, it may be worth our while to apply such remedies upon small and choice trees. ^ mixture of water and oil-soap (an article to be procured from the manufactories where whale oil is purified,) in the proportion of one pound of the soap to seven gal- lons of water has been used ; this liquor, when thrown on the trees with a garden engine, will destroy the canker-worm and many other insects, without injuring the foliage of the fruit. Jarring or shaking the limbs of the trees will disturb the canker-worms, and cause many of them to spin down, when their threads may be broken off with a pole ; and if the troughs around the trees are at the same time replenished with oil, or the tar is again applied, the insects will be caught in their attempts to creep up the trunks. In the same way, also, those that are coming down the trunks to go into INSECTS. 123 the ground will be caught and killed. If greater pains were to be taken to destroy the insects in the caterpillar state, their numbers would soon greatly diminish. Even after they have left the trees, have gone into the ground, and have changed their forms, they are not wholly beyond the reach of means for destroying them. In orchards, in the autumn, root up and kill great numbers of the chrysalids of' the canker- worms. Some persons have recommended digging or plowing under the trees, in the autumn, with the hope of crushing some of the chrysalids by so doing, and of exposing others to perish with the cold of the following winter. If hogs are then allowed to go among the trees, and a few grains of corn are scattered on the loosened soil, these animals will eat many of the chrysalids as well as the corn, and will crush others with their feet. Apple, elm, and lime-trees, are sometimes injured a good deal by another kind of span-worm, larger than the canker-worm, and very different from it in appearance. It is of a bright yellow color, with ten crinkled black lines along the top of the back ; the head is rust-colored ; and the belly is paler than the rest of the body. When fully grown, it measures about one inch and a quarter in length. It often rests with the middle of the body curved upwa xls a little, and sometimes even without the support of its fore-legs. The leaves of the lime seem to be its natural and favorite food, for it may be found on this tree every year ; but is seen in considerable abundance, with common canker-worms, on other trees. It i?, hatched rather later, and does not leave the trees quite so soon as the latter. A-bout or soon after the middle of June it spins down from the trees, goes into the ground, and changes to a chrysalis in a little cell five or six inches below the surface ; and from this it comes out in the moth state towards the end of October or during the month of November. More rarely its last transformation is re- tarded till the spring. The females are wingless and grub-like, with slender thread-shaped antennae. As soon as they leave the ground they creep up the trees, and lay their eggs jn little clusters, here and there on the branches. * As these span-worms appear at the same time as canker-worms, resemble them in their habits, and often live on the same trees, they can be kept in check by such means as are found useful when em- ployed against canker-worms. THE HOP CATERPILLAR. The hop-vine is often infested by great numbers of caterpillars called Herminians, of the grc up Pyralides, 124 THE PESTS OF THE FARM. They eat large holes in the leaves, and thereby sometimes greatly injure the plant. Caterpillars of this kind have also been observed on the hop in Europe, from whence ours may have been introduced ; but until specimens from Europe and this country are compared together, in all their states, it will be well to consider the latter as distinct. Our hop-vine caterpillars are false-loopers, bending up the back a little when they creep, because the first pair of prop-legs, found in other caterpillars, is wanting in them. The rings of their bodies are rather prominent, the cross-lines between them being deep. They are of a green color, with two longitudinal white lines along the back, a dark green line in the middle between them, and an indistinct whitish line on each side of the body. The head is green, and very regularly spotted with minute black dots, from each of which arises a very short hair. There are similar dots and hairs arranged in two transverse rows on each of the rings. When dis- turbed they bend their bodies suddenly and with a jerk, first on one side and then on the other, each time leaping to a considerable distance, so that it is difficult to catch or hold them. They make no' webs on the leaves, and do not suspend themselves by silken threads like the Geometers ; but they are very active, creep fast, and soon get upon the leaves again after leaping off. When fully grown they are about eight-tenths of an inch long. They then form a thin, imperfect, silky cocoon within a folded leaf, or in some crevice or sheltered spot, and are changed to brownish chrysalids, which present nothing remarkable in their appearance. Three weeks afterwards the moths come forth from these cocoons. There are two broods of these insects in the course of the summer. The caterpillars of the first brood appear in May and June, and are transformed to moths towards the end of June, and during the early part of July, Those of the second brood appear in July and Au- gust, and are changed to moths in September. The insects of the second brood are much the most numerous usually, and do much more damage to the hop-vine than the others. The means for destroying the hop-vine caterpillars are showering or syringing the plants with strong soap-suds, or with a solution of oil-soap in water, in the proportion of two pounds of the soap to fourteen or fifteen gallons of water. THE BEE-MOTH. The bee-moth belongs to the group of Cram- bians of the Tinea3. Doubtless it was first brought to this country, with the common hive-bee, from Europe, where it is very abundant, and does nrich mischief in hives. Very few of the Tinece exceed INSECTS. 125 or even equal it in size. In its perfect or adult state it is a -winged moth or miller, measuring, from the head to the tip of the closed wings, from five eighths to three quarters of an inch in length, and its wings expand from one inch and one tenth to one inch and four tenths. The feelers are two in number ; and the tongue is very short, and hardly visible. The fore-wings shut together flatly on the top of the back, slope steeply downwards at the sides, and are turned up at the end, somewhat like the tail of a fowl. The male is of a dusty gray color ; his fore-wings are more or less glossed and streaked with purple-brown on the outer edge, they have a few dark brown spots near the inner margin, and they are scalloped or notched inwardly at the end ; his hind-wings are light yellowish- gray, with whitish fringes. The female is much larger than the male, and much darker colored ; her fore-wings are proportionally longer, not so deeply notched on the outer hind margin, and not so much turned up at the end ; they are more tinged with purple- brown, sprinkled with darker spots ; and the hind-wings are dirty or grayish white. There are two broods of these insects in the course of a year. Some winged moths of the first brood begin to appear towards the end of April, or early in May ; those of the second brood are most abundant in August ; but between these periods, and even later, others come to perfection, and consequently some of them may be found during the greater part of the summer. By day they remain quiet on the sides or in the crevices of the bee- house ; but, if disturbed at this time, they open their wings a little, and spring or glide swiftly away, so that it is very difficult to seize or to hold them. In the evening they take wing, when the bees are at rest, and hover around the hive, till, having found the door, they go in and lay their eggs. Those that are prevented by the crowd, or by any other cause, from getting within the hive, laj their eggs on the outside, or on the stand, and the little worm-like caterpillars hatched therefrom easily creep into the hive through the cracks, or gnaw a passage for themselves under the edges of it. These caterpillars, at first, are not thicker than a thread. They have sixteen legs. Their bodies are soft and tender, and of a yel- lowish white color, sprinkled with a few little brownish dots, from each of which proceeds a short hair ; their heads are brown and shelly, and there are two brown spots on the top of the first ring, Weak as they are, and unprovided with any natural means of de- fence, destined, too, to dwell in the midst of the populous hive, sur rounded by watchful and well-armed enemies, at whose expense 126 THE PESTS OF THE FARM. they live, they are taught how to shield themselves against the vengeance of the bees, and pass safely and unseen in every direc- tion through the waxen cells, which they break down and clestro- . Beeswax is their only food, and they prefer the old to the new comb, and are always found nost numerous in the upper part of the hive, where the oldest honeycomb is lodged. It is not a little wonderful, that these insects should be able to get any nourishment from wax, a substance which other animals cannot digest at all ; but they are created with an appetite for it, and with such extraor- dinary powers of digestion, that they thrive well upon this kind of food. As soon as they are hatched they begin to spin ; and each one makes for itself a tough silken tube, wherein it can easily turn around and move backwards or forwards at pleasure. During the day they remain concealed in their silken tubes ; but at night, when the bees cannot see them, they come partly out, and devour the wax within their reach. As they increase in size, they lengthen and enlarge their dwellings, and cover them on the outside with a coating of grains of wax mixed with their own castings, which re- semble gunpowder. Protected by this coating from the stings of the bees, they work their way through the combs, gnaw them to pieces, and fill the hive with their filthy webs ; till at last the dis- couraged bees, whose diligence and skill are of no more use to them in contending with their unseen foes, than their superior size and powerful weapons, are compelled to abandon their perishing brood and their wasted stores, and leave the desolated hive to the sole possession of the miserable spoilers. These caterpillars grow to the length of an inch or a little more, and come to their full size in about three weeks. They then spin their cocoons, which are strong silken pods, of an oblong oval shape, and about one inch in length, and are often clustered together in great numbers in the top of the hive. Some time afterwards, the insects in these cocoons change to chrysalids of a light brown color, rough on the back, and with an elevated dark brown line upon it from one end to the other. When this transformation happens in the autumn, the insects re- main without further change till the spring, and then burst open their cocoons, and come forth with wings. Those which become chrysalids in the early part of summer are transformed to winged moths fourteen days afterwards, and immediately pair, lay theii eggs, and die. Bees suffer most from the depredations of these insects in hot and dry summers. Strong and healthy swarms, provided with a COD- INSECTS. 127 slant supply of food near home, more often escape than small and weak ones. When the moth-worms have established themselves in a hive, their presence is made known to us by the little frag- ments of wax and the black grains scattered by them over the floor. Means should then be taken, without delay, to dislodge -the depre- dators and invigorate the swarm. Kollar. states that there is but one sure method of clearing bee-hives of the moth, and this is to look for and destroy the caterpillars or moth-worms and the chrysa- lids ; and he advises that the hives should be examined, for this purpose, once a week, and that all the webs and cocoons, with the insects in them, should be taken out and destroyed. At all events, the examination ought to be made every year, early in September, when the cocoons will be found in greater numbers than at any other time, and should be carefully removed and burned. The winged moths are very fond of sweets ; and if shallow vessels, con- taining a mixture of honey or sugar, with vinegar and water, are placed near the bee-house in the evening, the moths will get into them and be drowned. In this way great numbers may be caught every night. Several kinds of hives and bee-houses have been con- trived and recommended, for the purpose of keeping out the bee- moth ; but it does not appear that any of them entirely supersede the necessity for the measures above recommended. GRAIN MOTHS. The various kinds of destructive moths, found in houses, stores, barns, granaries, breweries, and mills, are mostly very small insects ; the largest of them, when arrived at maturity, expanding their wings only about eight tenths of an inch. The ravages of some of these little creatures are too well known to need a particular description. Among them may be mentioned the grain- moth (T. grundld), with some others belonging to a group, which may be called Tineans (TINEAD^E), and the Angoumois grain-moth (Anacampsis cerealella,) both of which are to be included among the Yponomeutians. Stored grain is exposed to much injury from the depredations of two little moths, in Europe, and is attacked in the same way, and apparently by the same insects, in this country. The European grain-moth (Tinea granella), in its perfected state, is a winged insect, between three and four tenths of an inch long from the head to the tip of its wings, and expands six tenths of an inch. It has a whitish tuft on its forehead ; its long and narrow wings cover its back like a sloping roof, are a little turned up be- hind, and are edged with a wide fnnge. Its fore-wings are glossy 128 THE PESTS OF THE FAEM. like satin, and are marbled with white or gray, light brown, and dark brown or blackish spots, and there is always one dark square spot near the middle of the outer edge. Its hind-wings are black- ish. Some of these winged moths appear in May, others in July and August, at which times they lay their eggs ; for there are two broods of them in the course of the year. The young from the first laid eggs come to their growth and finish their transforma- tions in six weeks or two months; the others live through the winter, and turn to winged moths in the following spring. The young moth-worms do not burrow into the grain, as has been as- serted by some writers, who seem to have confounded them with the Angoumois grain-worms ; but, as soon as they are hatched, they begin to gnaw the grain and cover themselves with the frag- ments, which they line with a silken web. As they increase in size they fasten together several grains with their webs, so as to make a larger cavity, wherein they live. After a while, becoming uneasy in their confined habitations, they come out, and wander over the grain, spinning their threads as they go, till they have found a suitable place wherein to make their cocoons. Thus, wheat, rye, barley, and oats, all of which they attack, will be found full of lumps of grains cemented together by these grain- worms ; and when they are very numerous, the whole surface of the grain in the bin will be covered with a thick crust of webs and of adhering grains. These destructive grain-worms are really soft and naked caterpillars, of a cylindrical shape, tapering a little at each end, and are provided with sixteen legs, the first three pairs of which are conical and jointed, and the others fleshy and wart-like. When fully grown, they measure four or five tenths of an inch in length, and are of a light ochre or buff color, with a reddish head. When about six weeks old they leave the grain, and get into cracks, or around the sides of corn-bins, and each one then makes itself a little oval pod or cocoon, about as large as a grain of wheat. The insects of the first brood, as before said, come out of their cocoons, in the winged form, in July and August, and lay their eggs for another brood : the others remain unchanged in their cocoons, through the winter, and take the chrysalis form in March or April following. Three weeks afterwards, the shining brown chrysalis forces itself part way out of the cocoon, by the help of some little sharp points on its tail, and bursts open at the other end, so as to allow the moth therein confined to come forth. There is another grain-moth, which, at various times, has been INSECTS. 129 found to be more destructive in granaries, in some provinces of France, than the preceding kind. It is the Angoumois moth (Ana- campsis ? cerealella), an insect evidently belonging to the family of Yponomeutians. The winged moths of this group have only two visible feelers, and these are generally long, slender, and curved over their heads. Their narrow wings most often overlap each other, and cover their backs horizontally when shut. The Angoumois grain-moth probably belongs to the modern genus Anacampsis. In the year 1768, Colonel Landon Carter, of Sabine Hall, Virginia, communicated to the American Philosophical Society at Philadel- phia, some interesting " Observations concerning the Fly- weevil that destroys wheat." The Angoumois moth, or Anawmpsis cerealella, in its perfected state, is a four-winged insect, about three eighths of an inch long, when its wings are shut. It has a pair of tapering curved feelers, turned over its head. Its upper wings are narrow, of a light brown color, without spots, and have the lustre of satin ; they cover the body horizontally above, but droop a little at the sides. The lower wings and the rest of the body are ash-colored. This moth lays its eggs, which vary in number from sixty to ninety, in clusters, on the ears of wheat, rye, and barley, most often while these plants are growing in the field, and the ears are young and tender ; sometimes also on stored grain in the autumn. Hence it appears that they breed twice a year ; the insects from the eggs laid in the early part of summer, coming to perfection and provi- ding for another brood of moth-worms in the autumn. The little worm-like caterpillars, as soon as they are hatched, disperse, and each one selects a single grain, into which it burrows immediately at the most tender pail, and remains concealed therein after the grain is harvested. It devours the mealy substance within the hull ; and this destruction goes on so secretly, that it can only be detected by the softness of the grain or the loss of its weight. When fully grown this caterpillar is not more than one fifth of an inch long. It is of a white color, with a brownish head ; and it has six small jointed legs, and ten extremely small wart-like proplegs. Duharnel has represented it as having two little horns just behind the head, and two short bristles at the end of its tapering body. Having eaten out the heart of the grain, which is just enough for all its wants, it spins a silken web or curtain to divide the hollow, lengthwise, into two unequal parts, the smaller containing the rejected fragments of its food, and the larger cavity serving instead of a cocoon, wherein the insect undergoes its transformations. Before turning to a chry- 6* 130 THE PESTS OF THE FAKM. sails it gnaws a small hole nearly or quite through the hull, and sometimes also through the chaffy covering of the grain, through which it can make its escape easily when it becomes a winged moth. The insects of the first, or summer brood, come to maturity in about three weeks, remain but a short time in the chrysalis state, and turn to winged moths in the autumn, and at this time may be found, in the evening, in great numbers, laying their eggs on the grain stored in barns and granaries. The moth-worms of the second br<5bd remain in the grain through the winter, and do not change to winged insects till the following summer, when they come out, fly into the fields in the night, and lay their eggs on the young ears of the growing grain. When damaged grain is sown it comes up very thin ; the infected kernels never sprout, but the insects lodged in them remain alive, finish their transformations in the field, and in due time come out of the ground in the winged form. It has been proved by experience that the ravages of the two kinds of grain-moths, whose history has been now given, can be effectually checked by drying the damaged grain in .an oven or kiln ; and that a heat of one hundred and sixty-seven degrees, by Fahrenheit's thermometer, continued during twelve hours, will kill the insects in all their forms. Indeed the heat may be reduced to one hundred and four degrees, with the same effect, but the grain must then be exposed to it for the space of two days. The other means, that have been employed for the preservation of grain from these destructive moths, it is unnecessary to describe ; they are probably well known to most of our farmers and millers, and are rarely so effectual as the process above mentioned. HESSIAN FLY. Under the name of DIPTERA, signifying two- winged, are included all the insects that have only two wings, and are provided with two little knobbed threads in the place of hind- wings, and a mouth formed for sucking or lapping. Various kinds of gnats and of .flies are therefore the insects belonging to this order. The proboscis or sucker, wherewith they take their food, is placed under the head, and sometimes can be drawn ap and concealed, partly or wholly, within the cavity of the mouth. The young insects, hatched from the eggs of gnats and of flies, are fleshy larvae, usually of a whitish color, and without legs. They are commonly called maggots, and sometimes are mistaken foi worms. They vary a good deal in their forms, structure, habits and transformations, so that it is somewhat difficult to give an} general description of them. Most insects are hatched from eggs INSECTS. 131 which are laid by tte mother on the substances that are to serve for the food of her young. The far-famed Hessian fly and the wheat-fly of Europe, and of this country, are small gnats or midges, and belong to the family called CECIDOMYIADJS, or gall-gnats. The insects of this family are very numerous, and most of them, in the maggot state, live in galls or unnatural enlargements of the stems, leaves, and buds of plants, caused by the punctures of the winged insects in laying their eggs. The Hessian fly, wheat-fly, and some others differ from the ma- jority in not producing such alterations in plants. The proboscis of these insects is very short, and does not contain the piercing bris- tles found in the long proboscis of the biting gnats and musquitos. Their antennae are long, composed of many little, bead-like joints, which are larger in the males than in the other sex ; and each joint is suiTOunded with short hairs. Their eyes are kidney-shaped. Their legs are rather long and very slender. Their wings have only two, three, or four veins in them, and are fringed with little hairs around the edges ; when not in use, they are generally carried flat on the back. The hind-body of the females often ends with a retractile, conical tube, wherewith they deposit their eggs. Their young are little, footless maggots, tapering at each end, and gene- rally of a deep yellow or orange color. They live on the juices of plants, and undergo their transformations either in these plants, or in the ground. The Hessian fly was scientifically described by Mr. Say, in 1817, under the name of Ceddomyia destructor. It obtained its common name from a supposition that it was brought to this country, in some straw, by the Hessian troops under the command of Sir Wil- liam Howe in the war of the Revolution. The head and thorax of this fly are black. The hind-body is tawny, and covered with fine grayish hairs. The wings are black- ish, but are more or less tinged with yellow at the base, where also they are very narrow ; they are fringed with short hairs, and are rounded at the end. The body measures about one tenth of an inch in length, and the wings expand one quarter of an inch, or more. It is a true Cetidomyia, differing from JLasioptera in the shortness of the first joint of its feet, aifd in the greater length of its antennae, the bead-like swellings whereof are also most distant from each other. Two broods or generations are brought to ma- turity in the course of a year, and the flies appear in the spring and autumn, but rather earlier in the Southern and Middle States than 1S2 THE PESTS OF THE FARM. in New England. The transformations of some in each brood ap- pear to be retarded beyond the usual time, as is found to be the case with many other insects ; so that the life of these individuals, from the egg to the winged state, extends to a year or more in length, whereby the continuation of the species in after years is made more sure. It has frequently been asserted that the flies lay their eggs on the gram in the ear ; but whether this be true or not, it is certain that they do lay their eggs on the young plants, and long before the grain is ripe ; for many persons have witnessed and testified to this fact. In the New England States and New York, winter wheat is usually sown about the first of September. To- wards the end of this month, and in October, when the grain has sprouted, and begins to show a leaf or two, the flies appear in the fields, and, having paired, begin to lay their eggs, in which business they are occupied for several weeks. The Hessian fly lays her eggs in the small creases of the young leaves of the wheat. If the weather be warm, the eggs commonly hatch in four days after they are laid. The maggots, when they first come out of the shells, are of a pale red color. Forthwith they crawl down the leaf, and work their way between it and the main stalk, passing downwards till they come to a joint, just above which they remain, a little below the surface of the ground, with the head towards the root of the plant. Having thus fixed themselves upon the stalk, they become stationary, and never move from the place till their transformations are completed. They do not eat the stalk, neither do they pene- trate within it, as some persons have supposed, but they lie length- wise upon its surface, covered by the lower part of the leaves, and are nourished wholly by the sap, which they appear to take by suc- tion. They soon lose their reddish color, turn pale, and will be found to be clouded with whitish spots ; and through their trans- parent skins a greenish stripe may be seen in the middle of their bodies. As they increase in size, and grow plump and firm, they become imbedded in the side of the stem, by the pressure of their bodies upon the growing plant. One maggot thus placed seldom destroys the plant ; but, when two or three are fixed in this man- ner around the stem, they weaken and impoverish the plant, and cause it to fall down, or to wither and die. They usually come to their full size in five or six weeks, and then measure about three twentieths of an inch in length. Their skin now gradually hardens, becomes brownish, and soon changes to a bright chestnut color. This change usually happens about the first of December, when the INSECTS. 183 insect may be said to enter on the pupa state, for after this time it takes no more nourishment. The brown and leathery skin, within which the maggot has changed to a pupa or chrysalis, is long egg- shaped, smooth, and marked with eleven transverse lines, and mea- sures one eighth of an inch in length. In this form it has been commonly likened to a flax-seed. The maggots of the Hessian fly do not cast off their skins in order to become pupae, wherein they differ from the larvae of most other gnats, and agree with those of common flies ; neither do they spin cocoons, as some of the Ceci- dornyians are supposed to do. The pupa gradually cleaves from the dried skin of the larva, and, in the course of two or three weeks, is wholly detached from it. Still inclosed within this skin, which thus becomes a kind of cocoon or shell for the pupa, it remains throughout the winter, safely lodged in its bed on the side of the stem, near the root of the plant, and protected from the cold by the dead leaves. Towards the end of April and in the forepart of May, or as soon as the weather becomes warm enough in the spring, the insects are transformed to flies. They make their escape from their winter quarters by breaking through one end of their shells and the remains of the leaves around them. Very soon after the flies come forth in the spring, they are prepared to lay their eggs on the leaves of the wheat sown in the autumn before, and also on the spring-sown wheat, that begins, at this time, to appear above the surface of the ground. They continue to come forth and lay their eggs for the space of three weeks, after which they entirely disappear from the fields. The maggots hatched from these eggs, pass along the stems of the wheat, nearly to the roots, become sta- tionary, and turn to pupae in June and July. In this state they are found at the time of harvest, and, when the grain is gathered, they remain in the stubble in the fields. To this, however, as Mr. Havens remarks, there are some exceptions ; for a few of the in- sects do not pass so far down the side of the stems as to be out of the way of the sickle when the grain is reaped, and consequently will be gathered and carried away with the straw. Most of them are transformed to flies in the autumn, but others remain unchanged in the stubble or straw till the next spring. In the winged state, these flies, or more properly gnats, are very active, and, though evrj" small and seemingly feeble, are able to fly to a considerable distance in search of fields of young grain. Their principal mi- grations take place in August and September in the Middle States, where they undergo th^ir final transformations earlier than in New 134 THE PESTS OF THE FARM. England. There, too, they sometimes take wing in immense swarms, and, being probably aided by the wind, are not stopped in their course either by mountains or rivers. On their first appearance in Pennsylvania they were seen to pass the Delaware like a cloud. Being attracted by light, they have been known, during the wheat harvest, to enter houses in the evening in such numbers as seriously to annoy the inhabitants. The old discussion, concerning the place where the Hessian fly lays her eggs, has lately been revived by Miss Margaretta H. Morris, of Germantown, Pennsylvania. Miss Morris believes she has es- tablished that the ovum (egg) of this destructive insect is deposited in the seed of the wheat, and not in the stalk or culm. She has watched the progress of the animal since June, 1836, and has sat- isfied herself that she has frequently seen the larva within the seed. She has also detected the larva, at various stages of its progress, from the seed to between the body of the stalk and the sheath of the leaves. According to her observations, the recently hatched larva penetrates to the centre of the straw, where it may be found of a pale greenish white semitransparent appearance, in form some- what resembling a silk worm. From one to six of these have been found at various heights from the seed to the third joint. From the foregoing, we are led to infer, that the egg, being sowed with the grain, is hatched in the ground, and that the maggot afterwards mounts from the seed through the middle of the stem, and, having reached a proper height, escapes from the hollow of the straw to the outside, where it takes the pupa or flax seed state. The fact that the Hessian fly does ordinarily lay her eggs on the young leaves of wheat, barley, and rye, both in the spring and in the au- tumn, is too well authenticated to admit of any doubt. If, there- fore, the observations of Miss Morris are found to be equally cor- rect, they will serve to show, still more than the foregoing history, how variable and extraordinary is the economy of this insect, and how great are the resources wherewith it is provided for the con- tinuation of its kind. Various means have been recommended for preventing or less ening the ravages of the Hessian fly ; but they have hitherto failed, either because they have not been adapted to the end in view, or because they have not been universally adopted ; and it appears doubtful whether any of them will ever entirely exterminate the insect. Miss Morris advises obtaining " fresh seed from localities in which the fly has not made its appearance," and that " by this INSECTS. 186 means the crop of the following year will be uninjured ; but in order to avoid the introduction of straggling insects of the kind from ad- jacent fields, it is requisite that a whole neighborhood should per- severe in this precaution for two or more years in succession." The stouter varieties of wheat ought always to be chosen, and the land should be kept in good condition. If fall wheat is sown late, some of the eggs will be avoided, but risk of winter-killing the plants will be incurred. If cattle are permitted to graze th'e wheat fields during the fall, they will devour many of the eggs. A large num- ber of the pupae may be destroyed by burning the wheat-stubble immediately after harvest, and then plowing and harrowing the land. This method will undoubtedly do much good. As the Hes- sian fly also lays its eggs, to some extent, on rye and barley, these crops should be treated in a similar manner. It is found that lux- uriant crops more often escape injury than those that are thin and light. Steeping the grain and rolling it in plaster or lime tends to promote a rapid and vigorous growth, and will therefore prove beneficial. Sowing the fields with wood aShes, in the proportion of two bushels to an acre, in the autumn, and again in the first and last weeks in April, and as late in the month of May as the sower can pass over the wheat without injury to it, has been found use- ful. Favorable reports have been made upon the practice of allow- ing sheep to feed off the crop late in the autumn, and it has also been recommended to turn them into the fields again in the spring, in order to retard the growth of the plant till after the fly has dis- appeared. Too much cannot be said in favor of a judicious man- agement of the soil, feeding off the crop by cattle in the autumn, and burning the stubble after harvest ; a proper and general atten- tion to which will materially lessen the evils arising from the dep- redations of this noxious insect. 48660