INDIANA FARMEK.
Devoted to Agriculture, Horticulture, mechanics nnd tlie Useful Arts.
"SSS-r?nl!1   RICHMOND, JULY 15, 1855.
I Holloway & Co., Publishers.
1   vol. iv rto. is.
THE   LOCUST.
The cicada septemdicem, or seventeen year
locust, lias made its appearance in severa]
portions of the country. In Illinois, Missouri,
portions of Kentucky and Virginia, and the
southern part of Ohio, they abound in great
numbers.
It is a little singular that the history and
habits of an insect which appears in large
numbers almost every year in some parts of
the oountry, and often in countless myriads,
ihould be so little known; and that so many
false statements and contradictory stories
should be told in regard to it. It is represented as being provided with a sting like a bee
or wasp, that it cuts off the twig in which it
deposits its eggs, and in a paper before us, it
is described as sucking the sap of trees and
shrubs, and otherwise attacking and injuring
vegetation. In our younger days we firmly
believed that this insect was identical with
the one which once eat up every green thing in
the land of Egypt, and to confirm us that such
wa* the case, it was every now and then crying in plaintive tone "Pha-r-o-o-o, pha-r-o-o-
o." And it would seem that this opinion is
held by grewn-up boys, even at the present
day.
The locust, so called in the United Stales,
is an insect totally unlike tho old Egyptian
Locust, clouds of which sometimes still make
'heir descent in Africa and other eastern
countries, darkening the air, and eating up
everything in the shape of vegetation before
'hem. It is, with a single exception which
*e shall shortly name, perfectly harmless,
<intr eating any thing in the winged state.—
A' the time approaches for it to doff the hor-
s~ incrustation which envelopes it in the grub
"a'**, it emerges from the ground, fastens its
claws into the bark of a tree, or something of
'he kind, generally close to the ground, where
Us shell remains, while the beetle escapes, and
*eeks its home among the green leaves and
belies of the nearest trees. 'In this state
"continues some six weeks and then dies.—
•■« female is provided with a hard, horny
"'^stance at the extremity of the abdomen,
-■•lied unovipositor, with which she punctures
«• twigs of your apple and other trees, for
the purpose of depositing her eggs. These
punctures or holes are usually found in a row
equi-distant from each other, and aie perhaps
a quarter of an inch apart and nearly half as
deep. By cutting away the wood, the eggs
are found in great numbers. In the course of
a few weeks they hatch, and young insects
fall or crawl to the ground, where they immediately burrow, feeding on roots and the like,
until another period of seventeen years is accomplished.
The locust has, correctly speaking, no sting,
wounds are sometimes inflicted by the female
with her ovipositor, or egg-layer, which produce inflamation, causing death. Whether
she does it by a kind of mistake, thinking to
puncture a place for depositing her eggs, or,
as a matter of self defence, is undecided.—
Boys should never be allowed to catch and
handle them, or place them in their hats or
on their persons, as it is evidently unsafe to
do so. That the periodical return of the locust occurs every seventeen years, is fully established. It is true that in some localities
they appear two or three times in the course
of this time, but they are as many distinct
tribes, or sets, and the return of each can bo
traced to its own proper period. A few stragglers generally precede and follow after tho
main army, and in some places a small number make their appearence almost every year,
but there is no doubt but seventeen years is
the regular period at which each set makes
its return. R.
 1    SI.   ■	
Wheat in the South.
The American Farmer for June, gives a
rather gloomy account of the wheat crop, in
Maryland and Virginia. Late sowing on account of the drouth, an unfavorable fall, a
hard winter, and a dry spring have all been
against it. Added to this the chinch bug, is
doing great injury, especially in Virginia, and
the joint worm and fly have also been at work
to blast the hopes of the farmer. Harvest
is now (July 7th) at hand, and we hope soon
to hear better accounts.
*&• An excellent method for keeping Tomato vines from falling to the ground, is to
place a thick layer of rye straw under them.