The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1870-06-16
The Bark-Louse-Its Period,
Decline and Extinction.
From Grant County Herald.

FROM dfduL OOuAby heIdlu'
l inclose herewith some orange parings,
upon which are seen cluster of the
shells of bark-lIce, as you will see, the
same in kind as may be found now or but
recently in myriads upon the apple or
chards trees in Wisconsin and other parts
Of America.
I learn that about fourteen or fifteen
years ago they first appeared in the or
ange and other fruit gardens Of the Azore
Islands, and that in a year or two they
spread gradually over the orange, lemon,
apple, pear, fig and some other fruit tree
kinds in such quantities as to cover the
bark in places, and in damp recesses
spreading in patches upon the orange
truit,as shown upon the samples inclosed.
The injury to trees was very great, the
apple trees often killed by them, and the
orange and lemon trees being so far ex
hausted of their vital fluid as to bear DIM
inutive fruit The orange and fruit bus.
mess, so far as supplying the foreign mar
kets, was quite suspended during severa!
years, and many feared the evil might be
continuous, perhaps permanent. The IN
furious run Of these oyster she'll clad in
sects was during about ten years, after
which hey rapidly declined in numbers,
and are now TO be found but occasionally
only in places where the trees are dense
ly shaded
So far as known they have had their
run in all these islands, and in Madeira,
aud also In parts of Spain and Portugal,
and their period of power for damage
was usually ten to twelve years, their
height Of damage about the tenth year,
1t is said they first appeared in Spain,
thence gradually spreading over Europe,
chiefly by means of the cuttings sent
abroad for propagating kinds of fruit,
aud ny which means they doubtless found
their way to America, 1t is reckoned
about thirty years ago.
A Portuguese naturalist, in treating up.
on the local entomology of this country
some years ago says, these shell clad in
sects glued to the limbs cf fruit trees and
living upon the fluid drawn from the
bark, propagate or hatch in swarms sew.
eral times year, aad for term OF years
are extremely hurtfui to trees and their
fruit. But they never reappcar. so tar as
known, IN parts where they once existed
and became extinct" He affirins the
theory now commonly held as law, that
'sthis insect, like all others which sudden
| lyappear in excessive multitudes and are
pestilent devnurers, beget Of themselves
a monster devourer of their kind which
! destroys it's unnatural ancestors and takes
permanent possessipil--as did the Ro
llans who came, conquered and settled
| forever" #
| have given much attention to this in
sect ever since its appearance IN our sec
t on OF the West, about the year 1913,
| first brought IN SOME trees, as was be.
lieyed, from Wadhan's Grove Nursery in
Illinois. And like Others | made many
experiments III view of protecting my
orchard from its rayages, fearing that UNI
less remedy were found it would be a
death blow To our orchard prospects.
But no check was ever discovered that
awaited as an oh tacle t., their increase of
numbers. Some years since | adopted
with full confidence the opinion Of our
great American Ent0molngist, Prof.
Walsh. late the editor of a paper devoted
TO that science, at St. Louis, Mo, and
whose views were substantially those OF
the Portuguese writer above. And since
then have not felt troubled as to any
permanent settlement of the bark lice in
our orchards.
During the past two or three years my
observations have warranted conclusions
coinciding with what these naturalists
wrote many yeare ago. In the year 1866,
some Of the orchards in Grant county
showed diminished quantities Of lice, and
for two years the dlminution continued
slowly but quite perceptibly, in al the
orchards. In the year 1869, heard sew
eral farmers say the bark lice had left en-
tirely or were leaving their orchards; the
dead shells still adhering to the limbs.
| A Milwaukee German told me last
fall that his orchard was first effected
with lice about eighteen years ago, and
for some years was nearly used up by
them, but for two years they had dlsap-
peared Since the discussions raised a
!. couple of years ago by Mr.. WEIGH, OF
Madison, who supposed that he had dis
covered that these lice bred and burrow-
ed in the earth, whence they crawled up
the trees, there has nothing appeared in
the papers, by which it may be inferred
they have been disappearing generally
from the orchards. If SO, my letter may
close the record of their existence in ouI
State, perhaps for ever.
J. G. Cover.
FAYAL, AZORES, PORTUGAL.