excessive heat at the time of filling; buckwheat injured by dry weather; apple crop small; peach crop "very large." Oakland reports the apple crop as "below the average;" the hop crop "very good "-worth fifteen cents per pound. St. Joseph reports that Indian corn and potatoes were much injured by hot and dry weather in July; apples, one-fourth of an average crop, the deficiency being attributed to the cold winter and spring, the apple moth, &c.; peaches, one-tenth of an average, the deficiency attributed to the cold winter; peppermint, good crop-sixteen lbs. of oil per acre, worth $4 per lb. Tuscola reports potatoes much injured by drought in July and August. Orchards are young, many not yet in bearing. Apples and peaches give from five to a hundred bushels per acre. In Van Buren wheat is said to have made a heavy growth of straw, which lodged badly, in some instances rusted, and the grain was considerably shrunken. The hot weather is said to have been "hard" on oats and buckwheat, and in consequence of the latter not coming up at the proper time, it did not all ripen before frost came. Some pieces of Indian corn reported as "very poor." Apples and peaches reported as "good" in the western part of the county. Hops in some instances "good;" in others, "very poor," but quoted at only ten cents per pound. Washtenaw reports the apple crop as about one-fourth of an average crop, and peaches "very few."

REMARKS ON SOME INSECTS

INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION, IN MICHIGAN.

BY A. J. COOK, PROFESSOR OF ENTOMOLOGY, IN THE MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

The science of insects, or Entomology, technically considered, is of wondrous interest; involving so much of the beautiful and marvelous, as to win the most energetic thought and study of some of the finest minds. But it also possesses an economic importance, which is gaining, and justly too, greatly increased attention. As Dr. Harris, our country's great and honored pioneer in this direction, has suggested: A disturbing of the original balance in nature by destroying the forests and insectiverous animals, has left the insects greatly in excess of the native vegetation. They are thus led to attack fruit and grain plants, often to such an extent as to destroy entirely the hopes of the husbandman. Millions of dollars worth of property are thus annually destroyed in the United States, and we have but to mention the Hessian-Fly, and Wheat-Midge, to remind the farmers of Michigan that they sustain a generous share of the burden.

During the past year, Michigan has been very fortunate, as those great evils just mentioned have not been much among us. But we have had to entertain, with ill-grace to be sure, several insect visitors; some to enjoy a season and then leave us for years; others, doubtless, will abide with us; while others have only as yet given a foretaste of the mischief they have in store for us.

Before speaking of some of the insects that have been some

what troublesome in our State during the past year, it will be well to say a word as to insects in general, preparatory to a better understanding of what shall follow.

All insects have three separate stages-the larva, pupa, and imago. The larva is that condition which immediately succeeds hatching, and lasts from a few days or weeks,-as in our common maggots and caterpillars,-to several years, as the larvae which develop into our stag-beetles and seventeenyear cicada. In this state they are worm-like, wingless creatures, and generally, feed voraciously. Some are without legs, as are our common maggots; though the most possess six anterior legs, and a large number, several fleshy posterior ones. This is the season of the much dreaded destruction, with most of the orders.

In the second, or pupa stage, all beetles, butterflies, moths, bees, and all allied forms, and our common flies, are in a state of profound quiescence, seemingly without life; while others, as our locusts, or grass-hoppers and bugs, are quite like the larvæ, except that they possess stubs of wings and have increased in size, and even do more damage, as they are larger, and eat accordingly.

In the imago, or perfect state, all have six feet-an exclusive character of insects-and generally possess four wings, although one order,-Diptera, including the common house-fly, mosquitoes and gnats,-have but two, and yet a few, as lice and ticks, are without wings. A large number, as beetles, locusts and the like, have jaws which move sidewise; while bugs, and two winged insects have instead, a strong back; and butterflies and moths are furnished with a long sucking-tube. The locusts, and many beetles, are very great pests during this period: "eating every green thing from off the face of the earth," while others, as butterflies and moths do little else than pair and deposit their eggs. Thus copying some bipeds in not being content to die, till they have prepared for a vast deal of future mischief.

In the report of 1867, quite a lengthy account was given of the Colorado potato beetle-(Doryphora 10-lineata) of Say. Happily for us, this merciless forager has not made its usual progress in our State, having spread but little during the past season. We expressed the opinion in the Western Rural, of 1867, that the settlement in the south-western corner of our State was not a full colony, but only a few stragglers, the main body having been retarded, perhaps, by the lake. This may account for the slackened speed in their eastward march. The presence of fowls has been thoroughly tried as a remedy, and signally failed, as they show commendable taste in preferring a different diet. The only efficient remedy as yet practiced, is hand-picking. These insects will live for weeks, with a pin through their bodies; and through a bath of several hours, they still live and move, and have a being. We can well `understand the devastation they cause, if we remember that they feed both as larvæ and imagos; breed continously throughout the season, and that the female deposits somewhat over a thousand eggs. It would almost seem that "increase and multiply," was also spoken to these lower beings in creation, and what an example of obedience!

The seventeen-year cicada has also been among us, but only in the southern counties of the State. These insects live in the earth as larvæ for seventeen years, feeding on the roots of plants. Myriads of the imago often come forth from the ground in a single night. Leaving their detached pupa-cases on the ground, or hanging from some object, they go forth, the males giving out their dolorous sounds, while the female goes into the branches of various trees, forming incisions in which to deposit her eggs. Thus the luckless farmer may have his orchard pruned, not according to the most approved methods. The presence of this insect is not very alarming, as the pruning process only takes place at long intervals, and their mining operations are not as injurious as they would seem to be. The terrible accounts of their fatal sting, are to be reckoned among egregious humbugs.

Benj. D. Walsh, of Illinois, an admirable observer, and perhaps the best general entomologist in this country, has recently expressed the opinion, in the American Entomologist, that there is also a thirteen-year cicada, a different species, yet closely resembling the cicada septemdecim. By the way, this paper, which is published in St. Louis, would be an invaluable possession to every farmer. This digression will be pardoned by all who know the worth of the journal alluded to.

The oak tree caterpillar, larvæ of the Dryocompa senatoriahas been even less numerous about Lansing, than in 1867; though along the Michigan Central Railroad, especially in Kalamazoo, they have been fearfully numerous. In a communication from Judge Wells, of that place, written in September it was stated that for three years the oaks had been entirely denuded of their leaves, and that nearly all the trees first attacked were dead. In Lansing, they only work on the red oak —Quercus rubra-though in Kalamazoo they were equally severe on the white oak-Q. alba-but did not attack this till the red oaks were well covered. As we published in the Western Rural of 1867, a full description of this insect and its habits, we will not again inflict it upon the public, but will only say that during the last days of June, a beautiful ochreyellow moth, often with quite a reddish tint, its primary wings with a clear white spot, lays clusters of small white eggs on the under side of the leaves, which soon hatch. The larvæ are at first green, but towards maturity assume a yellow hue, with longitudinal dark stripes. After feeding till the middle of September-I have seen them till the very lastthey enter the ground, don their pupa coat of brown, and await, in death-like quiet, the balmy June evenings, when the gaily-attired moth, the harbinger of so much mischief, lightly flits, not only in sylvan retreats, but also into our windows and around our study-lamp.

From experiments tried during the summer, we are convinced that syringing the trees with solutions, will avail but little. Keeping fowls under the trees, and violently shaking