Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1860-07-13

sack, through which, by muscular pres
sure, the eggs are propelled one after
| the other and deposited by this singu-
lar apparatus with the regularity of
lhooks on the shelf, until the apartment
] is full. You will now see her move up
ward on the limb, perhaps half an inch,
when the same process is gone through
with, and again, until the limb is full.
As this cutting and boring is generally
done on small twigs, not more than a
quarter Of an inch in diameter it is by
| this time about one-half cut through,
and either dies or breaks off, thus often
destroying whole trees, if not entire
nurseries. Her task being completed,
the female dies, followed in few days
by the male, and the woods and groves,
for weeks vocal with unwonted music,
resume their sombre quiet, not to be
similarly broken for seventeen years.
The gentle warmth Of an Autumnal
sun soon quickens into active life the
young grub in the twig, which emerg-
ing falls to the ground, enters it, and
commences its downward course, which
it follows until 1T reaches the tempera-
ture and consistency of soil most favor
able to its proper development. Whe-
ther it reaches certain point and there
remains for years until its appointed
time for revisiting the surface where
its existence commenced, or passed one
half of it's time in descending and the
remainder in ascending, I must leave
to those who have gone deeper into the
matter than myself to determine. I
know that three years before their
engagement have found them twenty
one feet below the surface. Others
may have found them lower. But l am
satisfied that in the precise point where
the small maggot went down in 1843,
at that point the full grown grub en-
erged in 1860, sometimes, no doubt
thoroughly astonished at the physical
changes the surface had undergone in
his long absence. l have seen them
emerge in the cellars Of houses built
within seven or eight years, and often
in other positions yet more awkward.
When the grub is near the surface,
as it is for year or more before its
last change, it Is a fat, oily substance,
much sought for by swine, which root
up many acres Of woodland in search of
them in our western woods, and else
where, where swine run at large, and
also at later periods, when breaking
cover, fowls will greedily fatten on
them, catching them when first drying
in the air. This oily matter appears
to be consume by the daily life of the
insect while above ground, until at the
close of their season their bodies ap-
pear to be mass of dry dust, the
whole abdomen, from the breast back
ward, being often found wanting.
I have alluded to the fact that doubt
yet existed to some extent whether
these insects we're periodical in their
appearance, and whether their period
was seventeen, fourteen, or some other
term of years. This is owing, think,
solely to the fact of different families
occupying different sections Of the coun-
try, each having its own period of ap-
pearance, yet each having its own IN
terval Of seventeen years. Thus in our
own locality, l843 was their period of
appearance here, and re-appearing in
1850, to appear again in 1877. In
some parts Of Western New York and
Northern Ohio their last appearance
was 1916 their next most assuredly
will be in 1868. In that part of Penn
sylvania lying west of the Laurel Hill
1ange, and south Of the Ohio, and the
adjacent parts of Maryland and Vir-
gina, their last appearance, was in
1o48; their next will be in 1865. In
some other southern localities there is
yet third family, but whose periodI
cannot with confidence fix. TO nv
knowledge not single fact exists to
disturb the theory Of a seventeen years
of interval. WILSON MLLOR.
a, CAPITOL, June 13, 1860. ,o,at.,
WELL PUT IN.-At a Pr;ntorss IT,.