328 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



The distance betwixt the rows which we have found to answer best, is from 

 14 to 15 inches, although it seemed to grow as well at 12 inches. In the 

 latter case, however, after standing for a few years it does not admit of being 

 so perfeclly hoed. The most convenient plan that we found for sowing it, 

 is after the ground has laid for about ten days, and the annuals have sprung 

 up, for a man to go over it with a one-horse small paring plough, and form 

 it into ridges as ebb as possible. If the seed is two inches under ground 

 when the drills are levelled, it seems quite sufficient. The seed is put into a 

 bottle, and a piece cut out of the side of the cork, or a quill put into it, so 

 as to allow the seed to run from it fast enough to sow about 25 lb. upon an 

 acre, which quantity we have found to answer well; and one man following 

 the plough, with the bottle in his hand, and properly regulated, will go over 

 an acre in a day* I have no doubt that a machine might be used which 

 would sow it more expeditiously. 



It would not be easy to determine the exact expense requisite for bringing 

 forward an acre, as it would differ so much under different circumstances. 

 The little that was. made into hay got rather dry and hard, although the 

 horses seemed to eat it very readily; but. the quantity being so small, did 

 not afford an opportunity of ascertaining the eflcct it had upon their condi- 

 tion. However, I have no doubt that it is more advantageous to use it 

 always as green food, and should suppose that clover and rye-grass make 

 fully as good hay. But in comparing the quantity of lucerne produced 

 upon an acre during the season, with that of clover and rye-grass, I have not 

 the least hesitation in saying, that any acre of lucerne we have produce-;, at 

 the least, one-third more, either in green food or hay. — Mr. Cumtinghame 

 in Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



Dragon Flics. — "Another and a most, destructive enemy of the living in- 

 sect is'the tribe of libettula, or' dragon r fly, a name which they will merit 

 from their voracious habits. 



" The (French have chosen to call them 'demoiselles,' from the slim ele- 

 gance and graceful ease of their figure and movements. But, although 

 their brilliant colouring, the beauty of their transparent and wide-spread 

 wings, may give .them some claim to this denomination, yet they scarcely 

 would have received it hail their murderous instincts been observed. So 

 far from seeking an innocent nurture in the juice of fruits or of flowers, they 

 are (says Reamur) warriors more ferocious than the Amazons. They hover 

 in the air only to pounce upon other insects, which they crush with their 

 formidable fangs ; and if they quit the hanks of the rivulet, where they may- 

 be seen in numbers durng an evening walk, it is only to pursue and seize 

 the butterfly or moth, which seeks the shelter of the hedge 



"The waters are their birth -place; their eggs are protruded into this 

 element at once, in a mass which resembles a cluster of grapes. The larva 

 which comes out of these eggs is six-footed. The oidy difference between 

 the larva and nymph is, that the latter has the rudiments of wings packed 

 up in small cases on each side of the insect. 



" In this latter state it is supposed that the creature lives at the bottom of 

 the water for a year. It. is equally voracious then as in its perfect state. 

 Its body is covered by bits of leaf, wood, and other foreign matters, so as 

 to afford it a complete disguise, while its visage is concealed by a prominent 

 mask, which hides the tremendous apparatus of serrated teeth, and serve& 

 as a pincer to hold the prey while it is devoured. 



" Its mode of locomotion is equally curious; for th6ugh it can move in 

 any direction, it is not by means of feet, or any direct apparatus that it 

 moves, but by a curious mechanism, which has been well illustrated by 

 Reaumur and (uvicr. If one of these nymphs be narrowly observed in 

 water, little pieces of wood and other floating matters will he seen to be 

 drawn towards the posterior extremity of the insect, and then repelled; at 

 the same time that portion of its body will be observed alternately to open 

 and shut. If one of them be placed in water which has been rendered 

 turbid by milk, or coloured with indigo, and then suddenly removed into 

 a more limpid (luid, a jet of the coloured water will be seen to issue from 



* About J ruorgeii. 



