Honey locust

“ The wood of the honey locust resembles that of the black locust, but is seldom used or appreciated save for fencing and similarly unimportant purposes. Trees grow rapidly and are not subject to the attacks of insects, so that they frequently attain to normal proportions. The flowers are much smaller than those of the black locust, but the pods are several times as long (twelve to eighteen inches) . These often curl in drying and are thus rolled to some distance by the wind. Thorns or spines are present on some individuals and are often from three to six inches in length. ”

“ The honey locust earns its name in the summer time, when the curving green pods are full of a sweet, gelatinous pulp. Boys would like to get these honey pods, but the vicious thorns permit no climbing of the trees. Stoning and other throwing of missiles is a slow and unsatisfactory means of obtaining the forbidden fruit that hangs so high. By the time they ripen and fall off the pods are bitter as gall. ”

“ The name Locust applies to species of three distinct genera, all of which belong to the family Leguminosæ. The black locust (Robinia pseudacacia) , the honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) , and the Mesquite or honey locust (Prosopis juliflora) are principal representatives of their respective kinds. The first-named genus is North American, the other two have species on both continents.
BLACK LOCUST (Robinia pseudacacia) .
Black locust wood is tough, durable, unequalled for torsional strength and resilience, and is in every way in the first rank of American woods. ”

“ The large hard shelled seeds resist attack by most animals. Seemingly they are used by white-footed mice, [Pg 122] as they have often been found stored in the nest cavities of these mice, beneath rocks or in logs.
Gleditsia triacanthos.—Honey locust is at present one of the more important species of trees on the area. There are scattered locusts throughout most parts of the woodland. In the bottomland fields there are groves and scattered trees of medium to large size. On south slopes honey locust, osage orange and red elm form thickets. ”

“ They are small, but well flavoured.
The bees are so numerous, as in some places to obstruct the passage of travellers. The honey is but partially collected. That buzzing noisy insect, the locust, is also a frequent visitor. Clouds of them appear in the air; and the natives, by screams and various noises, endeavour to prevent their descending to the earth. In the district where they pitch, every particle of vegetation is quickly devoured. The natives eat them with avidity, both roasted and boiled, and formed into balls as a paste. ”

“ This crop is peculiarly susceptible to the ravages of locusts, which, however, have a catholic taste for every kind of vegetable and are said to have destroyed half the crops in 1880. One of the most miserable sights in the world is cornfields ravaged by these pests; nothing is left but slender stumps and the sickening odour of rotting locusts. For the locust is itself subject to a parasite which consumes its inside, and it has been suggested that the parasite might be introduced into the winter-breeding grounds of the locusts. ”

“ The young locust grows very fast, and it is mainly during the period of growth that it consumes vegetation. When once the animal has attained its full size, it becomes comparatively inert, and its capacity for destruction is vastly diminished. If the swarm of young locusts arrives before the middle of April, when the rainy season is not quite over, the first showers revive the plants that have been devoured almost to the root with surprising rapidity. Perennial species throw out new buds, and are soon again covered with leaf and flower ”

“ There is an article of food which is used by the natives, in its proper season, and does not prepossess a European in its favor. This is the locust, the well-known insect which sweeps in countless myriads over the land, and which does such harm to the crops and to everything that grows. The eggs of the locust are laid in the ground, and at the proper season the young make their appearance. They are then very small, but they grow with great rapidity—as, indeed, they ought to do, considering the amount of food which they consume. ”

“ At the present time locusts are used as food by many oriental peoples, though usually by the poorer classes only. Of the passage referring to locusts as part of the Baptist's food while he lived as a recluse in the desert, Farrar (Life of Christ, p. 97, note,) says: "The fancy that it means the pods of the so-called locust tree (carob) is a mistake. Locusts are sold as articles of food in regular shops for the purpose at Medina; they are plunged into salt boiling water, dried in the sun, and eaten with butter, but only by the poorest beggars." ”

“ A dense growth of locust growing in deep, fertile soil well supplied with moisture, or locust trees with trunks shaded by slower growing heavy-foliaged species of trees as a rule are found to be thriftier and less subject to infestation.
(6) Protect young black locust from all grazing by livestock. It is a legume and palatable at all times of the year, and subject to heavy browsing, particularly in the dormant season, when green foliage is absent. Cattle and horses, as well as sheep and goats, browse freely on the locust twigs and branches and often break down young trees. ”

“ Amongst Orthoptera we find many noxious insects, notably the locusts, which travel in vast cloud-like armies, clearing the whole country before them of all vegetable life. The most destructive locust is the migratory locust (Locusta migratoria) , which causes wholesale destruction in the East. Large pits are dug across the line of advance of these great insect armies to stop them when in the larval or wingless stage, and even huge bonfires are lighted to check their flight when adult. ”

“ Trees live for 40 or more years, in good soil and favorable regions, before showing signs of old age.
One of the essentials of good soil for growing locust is the presence of nitrifying bacteria, as indicated by the abundance of nodules on the roots. These bacteria seem to have a direct bearing on the growth and therefore the extent of attack by the locust borer. In places where the roots show relatively few nodules, the insect infectation is more serious than in places where the root nodules are abundant. Additional information about growth and insect attack is needed for different regions. ”

“ The trees from the second growth or sprout crop, will grow faster and can be harvested at least 5 years sooner than those of the original seedling crop. They are usually less subject to insect attack than trees of seedling origin. To cut the crop of trees would often prove a good, means of renewing badly infested stands of black locust. ”

“ The locust is a medium-sized tree developing a slender straight trunk when grown alongside of others; see Fig. 82.
Range: Canada and United States.
Soil and location: The locust will grow on almost any soil except a wet, heavy one. It requires plenty of light.
Enemies: The locust borer has done serious damage to this tree. The grubs of this insect burrow in the sapwood and kill the tree or make it unfit for commercial use. The locust miner is a beetle which is now annually defoliating trees of this species in large numbers. ”

“ The planting of black locust involves a risk of some damage and, in some localities, of serious loss because of the locust borer. In this connection too much emphasis cannot be laid upon the desirability of getting the advice of the State forester, of the State forestry organization, or of the State extension forester who is connected with the agricultural extension service. By planting on good soils, by interplanting with other heavy-foliaged trees, or by moderate spacing and good cultivation, black locust can often be grown with fair to good success in insect-infested localities. ”

“ Birds of almost every description, more especially storks and kites, are seen devouring them greedily.
The great enemy of the locust, however, is the locust-bird, or the “spring-haan vogel,” as it is termed by the colonists. This is described as a species of thrush, about the size of a swallow, and is a constant attendant on the insect. It is even said to build its nest and rear its young in the midst of locusts, which, moreover, occasionally prey on each other; for when a locust becomes maimed or crippled, its companions instantly pounce upon and devour it. ”

“ At this rate, for seven hours a day, a brood would consume 210 locusts per day, and the passerine birds of the eastern half of Nebraska, allowing only twenty broods to the square mile, would destroy daily 162,771,000 of the pests. The average locust weighs about fifteen grains, and is capable each day of consuming its own weight of standing forage crops, which at $10 per ton would be worth $1743.26. This case may serve as an illustration of the vast good that is done every year by the destruction of insect pests fed to nestling birds. ”

“ The green portion, or chlorenchyma, has been eaten by an insect known as a locust leaf miner. The most common species in the Eastern States is a sawfly (Odontota dorsalis) but there are known to be one or more closely related insects that mine the green in the leaves. The effect is to retard the growth of the tree slightly, but nothing more serious. It is not practicable to attempt to check the insect. ”

“ I do not know, but I should rather think not, and for one reason, which is, that although a person in the wilderness might subsist upon these animals, if always to be procured, yet the flights of locusts are very uncertain. Now there is a tree in the country where St. John retired, which is called the locust-tree, and produces a large sweet bean, shaped like the common French bean, but nearly a foot long, which is very palatable and nutritious. ”

“ Exceptionally large and healthy specimens of the black locust tree are sometimes found growing as a part of the native arboreal flora, their, at least partial, immunity from insect injury doubtless being due to local causes, some of which are obvious and some obscure. For example, some of the best American specimens of the tree are found to have grown in, or around, cattle-pens, barnyards or other farmstead inclosures where domestic animals are gathered, the conditions of which places are known to be favorable to the tree, and they are apparently unfavorable to the insects. ”

“ It spreads by underground shoots and is useful for holding and reclaiming badly gullied lands. The usefulness of the black locust is, however, very greatly limited by the fact that it is subject to great damage from an insect known as the locust borer. ”

“ A general description of the distinctive physical features of migratory locusts might be given as a strong, wild-looking head, a strong collar inside which the neck moves, powerful and peculiarly-formed legs attached to a short, strong, square trunk or thorax, four wings, two antennae or feelers, six legs, and a long segmentary abdomen. The ground colour of the locust is generally brownish, straw, or red, but its colour varies somewhat according to the particular season of the year or some other peculiar circumstance, but nothing certain is known as to what influences the shade of colour. ”

“ THE LOCUSTS
“Grandma,” said Bobby one evening, “did you ever see a locust—a seventeen-year locust? And why are they called seventeen-year locusts?”
“Oh, yes, I’ve seen locusts and heard them, too,” answered Grandma, taking up her knitting. “They are called seventeen-year locusts because they come every seventeen years. They lay their eggs in a tree. These eggs hatch tiny worms, called larvae, which fall to the ground and stay there for seventeen years changing slowly until they have turned into locusts. They live only about thirty days, but they often do a great deal of damage in this time. ”

“ All are vegetable feeders, and, as in all orthopterous insects, have an incomplete metamorphosis, so that their destructive powers are continuous from the moment of emergence from the egg till death. The migratory locust (Pachytylus cinerascens) may be considered only an exaggerated grasshopper, and the Rocky Mountain locust (Caloptenus spretus) is still more entitled to the name. ”

“ This favors more rapid growth, which in turn reduces the menace of the black locust borer and twig borer. Black locust is a sun-loving tree which produces only a light shade, offering insufficient shade for retaining good soil moisture. In regions where the borers are not a serious pest and in good-quality soils where growth will likely be rapid, plantings of locust alone will often give satisfactory results. ”

“ But the locust, an insect very like the large grasshopper, is beginning to make sad ravages, by destroying the crops, as it has done for the last three years, at the Settlement. These insects multiply so rapidly, that they soon overspread the land, or rather the whole country; and had not a wise Providence limited their existence to a year, they would no doubt (if permitted to increase) soon destroy the whole vegetative produce of the world. They seem to devour, not so much from a ravenous appetite, as from the rage of destroying every vegetable substance that lies in the way ”

“ The Hebrew אַרְבֶּה, the locust proper, from רָבָה, to multiply, is used chiefly for the ravaging locust, as Exod. x. 12., probably a larger kind; while חָגַב, which is translated grasshopper in our version above, Vulg. locusta, Sept. ἀκρίδες, rendered by Fuerstius (Heb. Conc.) locusta gregaria, is mostly used as implying diminutiveness, as Numbers, xiii. 33., and but once as a devouring insect, 2 Chro. vii. 13. It is translated indiscriminately, in our version, locust and grasshopper; all these were edible and permitted to the Jews. ”