OAK INSECTS. The oaks are subject to the. attacks of various insects, including the leaves, the young wood, the inner bark, and also boring into the solid wood. Of the latter the borers, especially the water borers, are particularly destructive to the timber. The oak twig pruner, Stenocorus putator,(Elaphidion villosum,) deposits an egg in the tender twig, which hatching the grub subsists upon the pith until fully grown. It then gnaws away the wood, and retiring back wards, waits until the branch falls to the ground, when it is in due time transformed into the per fect insect. Sometimes, branches several feet in_ length and an inch in diameter are thus severed. Their destruction is easy by collecting and burn ing the fallen branches. The same means will apply to all the twig pruners. The following is a list of insects the larva of which attack the wood and dead leaves of the oak, which with the succeeding will be of interest to many readers.. Chrysobothris femorata, wood; Chrysoboth,ris ealcarata, white oak wood; Chrysobothris den tipes, wood ; Agrilus, Europe, some, in wood; Throscus, Europe, soine, in wood, wainscoting; Eucnemidce, wood; Fornax, stumps; Alaus ocu latus, wood; Alaus myops, wood; Ptilodactyla elaterina, wood; Prionocyphon discoideus, hollow stumps, in water; Dictyopterus sanguineus, Eu rope, under bark; Talus am,bulans, wood; Cis tele ceramboides, Europe, in oak; Lagria 'arta, Europe, dead leaves; Pyrochroa coccinea, rotten wood; Synchroa punctata, rotten wood; Lucamas clama, wood; Platycerus quercus. wood; PumaNs corrodes, wood; Lyntexylon itavale, Europe, ship timber and wood; Lymexylon serireuni, wood; Hylorcetus America lots, wood; Ptilinus pectini eornis, Europe, wood. Insects attacking the foli age are as follows: Macrodactylus subspinosus, f oliage ; Lachnosterna fusee, foliage ; Lachnosterna mimes, foliage; Lachnosterna hirtacuict, foliage; Holotrichia creaulata, foliage; Trichestes tristis, foliage; Polyphylla cariolosa, foliage; Cotalpa land gera, foliage; Osmoderma scabra, foliage. The following insects attack the stumps or work under the bark: Centronopus twice rub's. stumps of black oak; .XPlopinus sctperdoides,. stumps of black oak; Helops micans, under bark; Peudo clerus ichneumoaeus, under bark, probably destroying other insects. The oak also suffers from the attack of phylloxera, principally inhabiting the leaf galls, but found generally on the hickory; as the American oak phylloxera, P. Rileyi, which, says Dr. Riley, is found on the under side of the white and post oaks, in the wingless state. Of insects not given in the pre vious list attacking the oak, Dr. Thomas gives the following: Treater columba, Xylentes robinie, Pandeletrius Lucanus elephus, Phyllo phaga fracerita, P. pilosicollis, P. fusca.
OAT. Arena sativa. The native country of the cultivated oats like most of our cultivated grains is uncertain. It was in earlier times, cul tivated extensively as food for man, and of late years, since improved processes in hulling and preparing the grain have been invented, its use as a most healthy and nutritious food is yearly increasing. The best and heaviest oats are raised
in cool and moist climates; Scotland and Fries land, having long been noted for the superior weight and quality of the crop. In the United • States, Canada, Wisconsin, and the Red river country of the North are eminently adapted to the cultivation of the crop. Oats are said to have been cultivated in Massachusetts as early as 1602. As in England their great use is as food for horses, than which there is no other grain that alone can tak'e the place, where fast work is demanded. Skinless oats, Amcor nanct, have from time to time been introduced under various names, but they shell so easily and suffer front so many contingencies that their cultiva tion is not profitable. Oats like a firm, strong, moderately dry clay or loani, though they may be successfully cultivated on lighter soils, if not too dry, than for most other cereals. Excelsior, White Shonen, Potato oats, New Brunswick, White and Black Swedish, Red, or rust proof oats, (for the South,) Hopetoun, Yellow, (re markably early,) Wythe, King William, Gooch land, Wilkes' Blount, Clark, Sandy, Board of Trade, (probably White Norway,) Tartarian, Poland, White Dutch, Surprise, and Probsteir, are all varieties that have succeeded well. These varieties are not really new as to the list, but new, or comparatively so, to the United Stateg. Among the varieties that have done well gener ally, may be mentioned, Potato, Poland, Sur prise, White Shonen, Tartarian, Somerset, and Probsteir. The average yield of oats for the -United States may be stated at thirty to thirty five bushels. Upon good land, well prepared, and in good seasons, the yield will average forty bushels, and in particular instances the crop will give eighty and even 100 bushels per acre. As an instance of what may be done by manuring on thin soil, at the Massachusetts Agricultural College, on a rocky, drift soil, a plot without manure gave fifteen bushels per acre, with manure the yield was sixty-two bushels per acre. In relation to the value of sowing clean seed, an experiment at tbe Agricultural College of the University of Wisconsin, made by Prof. Daniels, reports that, repeating an experiment made in 1871, he sowed May 24, 1872, two adjacent plots, each of 112 square rods, with Surprise oats, fifty-four quarts to each plot. The seed on one plot had been well cleaned frOm chaff and light grain, and the seed on the other plot was sown as ta.ken from the bin; weight of the cleaned seed, sixty-six and three-quarter pounds, and of the uncleaned, sixty-two and one-half. The fol lowing table summarizes the results for the two years: In the prairie region of the West oats should always be sown on fall plowing, and as early in the spring after wheat sowing, as the soil is dry and in good condition for working. Late sown oats are as a rule light from the heat and drought of the advancing season. Nevertheless oats should not sprout until all danger of extreme frost is over. Yet we have never had oats killed if sown at any time after the frost is out and the ground settled in spring.