C 69 ] 



XX, Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



AGRICULTURE. 



J\.T the Holkham sheep-shearing, held at the beginiiiug tff tl.is 

 month, Mr. Coke, of Norfolk, alliuling to that destructive in- 

 sect the wire-worm, oi>oerve(l, that as rooks devoured great 

 quantities of these insects, it was impolitic to wage indiscriminate 

 war against these birds. 



^ The Earl of Albemarle then commnnicated the following 

 highly useful information : 



" I think I may with confidence state, that oil-dust destroys 

 the wire-worm. — I ground my assertion on the successful result 

 «f two experiments, one on turni]js, the other on wheat. The 

 iirst was an old sainfoin layer for turnips, a small part of which 

 was sown with oil-dust, at the rate of half a ton to an acre, be- 

 fore the last ploughing for turnips. — When they came up, there 

 was a perfect plant all over the field, but soon went off in every 

 part except where the dust was sown ; they continued to look 

 strong and healthy. The portion which failed was ploughed and 

 sown again with tuinips — again the wire-worm destroyed them. 

 They were, for the third time, sown with coleworts, which shared 

 the same fate as the turnips — the dusted part remaining at this 

 time uninjured, and produced a fine crop. 



" In order," continued the noble lord, •' more fully to prove 

 that it was the oil-dust, and no incidental change of soil, which 

 thus preserved my' turnips, I must explain to you, that the dust 

 was. not sown as the steches were drawn out, but, most fortunately 

 for the success of my experiment, diagonalbf. This direction 

 , was, in the first instance, purely accidental — I verily believe that 

 you might see exactly the path in which the seedsman walked. 

 — The next was a piece of wheat, which had also partially been 

 jtown with oil-dtist. In the spring the wire-worms attacked it j 

 but on examining the roots, I found five wire-Avorms dead in one 

 piece of oil pasre. It sustained but little injury, produced eight 

 coomljs per acre, and I have no reason to doubt was preserved 

 by the oil-dust." 



OXALIC ACID. 



Although it is an uufiuesfionable fact that all concentrated acids 

 are d.-structive of anijnal life if taken in any considerable quan- 

 iitv ; yet they have not in general been denominated poisons, 

 owing, perhaps, to the vague a{)plication of this term. Some 

 'hemiyts have even ventured to deny their poisonous quality, 

 notwithstanding the destructive powers of prussic and other 

 acids ; and Guytou Morveau has recently denied tliat the oxalic 

 E d acid 



