I. AGRICULTURE AND RURAL ECONOMY. 389 



price is high. Professor Dumas, however, states that ar- 

 rangements are being: made for their manufacture on a laro-e 

 scale, and that at any rate the cost is inconsiderable com- 

 pared with the benefits to be derived. One or two applica- 

 tions a year will be sufficient, and one of the best methods 

 of making such application consists in mixing the substance 

 with the manure and applying the two together. 6 D, April 

 26, 1049. 



DESTRUCTION OF EARTH-WORMS OX GRASS-PLOTS, WALKS, ETC. 



Sprinkling grass-plots, garden-beds, etc., with clear lime- 

 w r ater, in damp weather, when the worms are near the sur- 

 face, in most cases several times, is said to be destructive 

 of the worms, while it is rather beneficial than otherwise to 

 the vegetation. 9 C, July, 1874, 105. 



THE DESTRUCTION OF SMALL BIRDS THE CAUSE OF THE 



SPREAD OF PHYLLOXERA. 



It has been suggested by Dr. Turrel that the rapid spread 

 of the Phylloxera, or grape-vine louse, in France, is due more 

 than any thing else to the rapid extermination of the small 

 birds of that country. It is well known that a regular dis- 

 charge of guns is heard all over France at certain seasons 

 of the year, every person who can hire or borrow a musket 

 entering into the crusade, and that an indiscriminate slaugh- 

 ter is made of birds of all kinds and characters. This view 

 of Dr. Turrel is strengthened by the fact that in America, 

 where the Phylloxera originated, its ravages have never been 

 of any great extent. Even if the birds themselves can not 

 reach the vine louse, it is suggested that other kinds of in- 

 sects which are attacked by birds leave the vine in a weak- 

 ened condition, and more liable to destruction by parasites. 

 12 A, Nov. 19, 1874, 56. 



THE COTTOX-WORM. 



Dr. A. R. Grote advances a somewhat novel and at the 

 same time encouraging theory in regard to the cotton-worm, 

 so injurious to the agricultural interests of the Southern 

 States. The result of careful inquiry into its history has 

 led him to the inference that it is in reality a native of South 

 and Central America, that its appearance in the United States 



