The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1880-06-30
AGRICULTURAL.
Breeding Characteristics.
philadelphia Record.


ing of improved or fancy stock, but there is
one phase of the matter / have never seen
mentioned in print, which, il true, is exceed
ingly important Most stock breeders will
remember that In 1872 Mr.. Samuel Camp
bell, OF New York Mills, near Utica, n. Y,
had the most successful stock auction sale
ever known. a triAe over 100 pedi-
greed ANIMALS bringing over $780,
900, one COW alone bringing the unpre-
cedented price OF $40 600. The winter
previous to this sale ! CHANGED to visit Mr..
CampbelPs stables, and was shown through
them by him in person. While examining
and admiring his magnificent Short Horn
bulls / asked HIM II the farmers of the vi
cinity pstronized him frequently-meaning
whether they appreciated his stock we'll
enough to cross their own herds in order to
improve them. Rather to my surprise he
answered: "Oh, no; l would not permit
it." 1 inquired why, and he replied, in
substance: Because 1t would weaken
their capacity for producing pure stock
when coupled with females OF their own
breed" That is to cay, to produce
stock OF the highest possible purity aud ex-
cellence the male must not be contami-
mated sexually with anything inferior to
himself in quality. did not attempt to
discuss the question, because / had no we'll
defined opinions about 1t; and, besides an
opinion from 50 successful q breeder as Mr..
Campbell was entitled to the highest
spect, in spite of its novelty or startling ma
ture. Butif fact, 1t certainly is important,
and must modify in some measure our esti-
male of those high bred males with long
MISREPRESENTATION bulls, stations bears or
even turkey cocks-whlch, for a liberal con-
sideration, are coupled indisc Intimately with
all females Of high or low degree Whose
owners can raise the cash 10 pay tor the
costly service.
But is it true? Generation, we all know,
is very mysterious matter, about which
much is yet to be learned; but are the shades
of influence so subtle and mysterious that a
high-bred male Is deteriorated ever after by
sexual association with a scrub, or an infe-
rior In any respect? II so, the service of a
hlgh-bred animal let Unfortunately must
be worth far less than one coupled only with
his equals in blood and pedigree; and 1.-The
get" of such stock must share In the de precia-
ton. And if this theory OF contamination
be true of animals, whose rather scanty minds
If they have any-can have but slight in
hUeDce in modifying the equalities of their
offspring, how must such a fact effect the
race of man? Is there not here q justi-
fcation, founded on natural laws, for the
caste ideas of the E asst Indies, or the exclu-
siyeness OF the European nobility? only
refer to these phases OF the subject to show
how far reaching it is but with no purpose
to pursue the thought. But, if true, it fully
justites an owner OF high-bred stock In being
exclusive toward the common herd" or in
charging rates for services that bear some
proportion to the meanness and impurity OF
the females presented. And then on the
other hand, assuming that the rule works
both ways, the male should be improved by
association with a female altogether his su-
perior in blood and breeding; and in such a
case the owner OF the male should be the one
to pay! Why not?
The Army Worm
Professor Comstock, THE entomologist of
the Agricultural Department, after visit to
Delaware, where he investigated the army
worm, has Just made a report, in which be
says: The adult insect is a night flying moth
of dull brown color, marked in the center
of each fore wing with s. distinct white spot,
and with an eXIanse Of wing Of a little over
an inch and three-qusrters. The
moth deposits her eggs N folds of leaves or
grass or grain, nearly always concealIDg
them from sight. During winters OF unusual
mildDess q succession of broods is kept up
through the entire year. During the present
winter C79'S0) we have received full grown
worms, with accounts of damage to winter
grain in the months of December January
aud February, from localities as far north as
Union County, South Carolina, and Marion
County, Tennessee. Ordinarily, however,in
these States, and always further North. the
insect lies dormant through the winter
we eau SAFELY SthJ6 tQhL IL passes
the winter both in the moth and chrysalis
state. In either case, as soon as the weather
becomes warm, in the spring, the moths
emerge from their pal cases or their hiber-
mating quarters, and lay their eggs The
natural habitat of the army worm was stated
by DR.. Glitch to be ''in the wild grass OF wet
spots in swamps and on the borders of
marshes" and in his statement be has been
followed by nearly all succeeding writers
He then says that they may be destroyed by
burning over the Oyeriands where they are
found. When discovered on cultivated lands
they sould be confined 70 the land where
found. They may be crushed with rollers,
and when they attempt to migrate to other
Fields. bitches should be dug around the in
tested fields. The bitches can be made quite
rapidly; first pillow a furrow with the
"land side" next to the fed to
be protected, and then with q spade make
this side of the furrow vertical,
or, if the sell be compact enough to admit of
it, oyerhsnging. When the ditch is COM
pleted holes should be dug in IL from one
foot to eighteen inches deep, and from
twenty to thirty feet apart The sides of
these noles should also be vertical or, If pos
sible, overhanging. The worms, unable to
climb up the vertical side OF the ditch, will
crawl along the bottom of it and fall into
the hole where they soon perish. Where
the soil is sandy, go that the ditch can not
be made with vertical side, it should be
dug deeper than in other cases, and the side
made as nearly perpendicular as possible; 30
that when the worms attempt to crawl up,
the sand will crumble beneath them and
cause them to fail back again.
Leaf Calls on the Grape Vine.
Leaf gals on the grape vine are the gals
OF the pbylloxera. Each gall, according to
Professor G. V. Riley, contains a wingless
mother-louse and her more or less wIngless
egg, from which hatch young lice, which
spread to other parts OF the vine form
gall their parents did. There are sew
-eral generations of this gall-making forms
OF phylloxera vastatrix, which is but
temporary or transient form of that perni-
-cious insect, occurring more abundant on
the Clinton, but found also on almost every
other variety of our American grape vines,
both wild and cultivated. It appears very
generally over the whole Of the United States
east OF the Rocky Mountains, and in Ontario.
IL may be very abundant one year, and
scarcely noticed the next; and while some
times causing the destruction of ell the
leaves, does very little injury to the vine in