Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-11
SHIPPERS IN HAMS.
Millions Lost Annually in the Lively
Sugar-Cured Pork.
HOW LARVE GET UNDER CANVASS.
Their High-TOned Tastes the Principal
Cause of Trouble.
PLANTATION DARKIES WHO EAT THEM

"The Comics are a feeble folk, yet they
make their houses IN the rocks" A Pitts
burg amateur entomologist connected with
the provision trade has discovered that, not
only may sermons be found in stones, books
in running brooks, ETC., but also interesting
information learned from skippers in
cheese and hog hams, and the insect that
makes them is fully as interesting as the
bedbug, and can discount the cimer lectuldr-
tHs in the matter of wings.
This savant was drawn out yesterday on
the subject, and his first statement was one
that is familiar to but very few outside the
provision trade, viz: That the loss
bv heating, coaguIation of blood and
the ravages of the skipper fly amount to
millions of dollars yearly. Though fear
was once expressed that wild animals might
increase in Palestine to the detriment of
the human population, which was exhorted
to multiply to prevent it, the danger to-day
is not from wild animals, but from insects,
worms, etc. We shudder to hear of an in
vasion of the army worm or the locust,
which leaves nothing green in its wake; and
vet, perhaps, 100000 of our population
to kill the songsters and other feathered
fowl which are our greatest allies in our
fight with some of the werst things in the
insect world.
BETTER FOR BIRDS THAN MEN.
OF course the insect is a valuable crea-
ton in its place; but it was evidently a
large part of the purpose Of its creation that
E. i H. h,,-,le
are exterminated the insects may destroy
the world-do more harm than those great
world-stormers, Alexander Cesar, Hanni-
bal, Attilla, Ghengis, Khan, Napoleon, etc.
Our entomologist hadn't ciphered out the
name of the particular insect under dis
cussion further than to dub it the skipper
hv. 1t is about one-fourth the size of the
common house fv, and it is gamey and
pugnacious to the last degree, never ceas-
ing in its contests with one of its species
while it is able to get to the scratch; and it
doesn't wait for time to be called. The fe-
male is armed with powerful lance, and
when she has discovered an aperture even
in the canvass covering of a ham enough to
admit the point of a cambria needle she
thrusts her lance into it and proceeds to
deposit her eggs. Each one matches, if the
temperature be high enough, in three days,
and three DAYS later is a fully-developed
skipper or maggot. In this state the skip
per is very voracious, and as he has nothing
ITO do but eat the world he inhabits, he lives
right royalty, and probably doesn't ask for
eggs with his ham.
ITS COFFIN AND RESURRECTION.
In few days more he becomes dyspeptic
and proceeds to incrust himself in coffin,
in which he remains for a time, when he
has a resurrection and comes out of his
tomb, if circumstances are favorable, and
at once sets up again in business as a
skipper fly.
The insect evidently is highly philopro-
renitiye for it chooses only sugar-cured
hams in which to deposit its Larvae, and this
explains what so many people wonder at
why canvassed hams are so much more
likely to be infested by shippers than the
ordinary salt cured. The skipper has
sweet tooth, and his mother labors to in
dulge the future appetite of her offspring.
If she cannot find -sugar-cured hams, she
will content herself with salt, but she either
is not so prolific in this case, or her Larvae
DO not hatch or thrive so well on salt-cure
alone as when mixed with sugar. Cold
weather will kill the fiv, but not the Larvae,
and attempts to destroy it by the
applications of sulphur, Cayenne pepper
and steam have all failed. When the eggs
are deposited and the meat is frozen before
they have time to hatch they remain dor
mant until sufficiently high temperature
is reached, when they hatch and begin work
at once. Persons who buy canvassed hams
have noted how particular the canvassers
have been to make the covering thick and
air-tight. This precaution is absolutely
necessary, if they wish to secure the ham
from the skipper-fy.
Is 1T so CoNSoLING?
There is one consolation in this connec-
ton. The skipper is rarely found in any
but good hams. 1t is the same with cheese.
In fact, some people who are especially fond
of cheese always choose that inhabited by
shippers. The skipper itself can scarce be
considered anything more than an animated
mite of cheese or ham.
1t may not be generally known-but such
is the case-that the plantation negro of the
South is the medium that rios the Northern
market of skippered meat. There is regu-
lar demand for it from the South. These
people want cheap meat, and are either not