THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



of various forest trees and shrubs with an avidity 

 not much less tlian that of the locust, so that in 

 certain seasons in particular districts, they become 

 an oppressive scourge and tlie source of much mis- 

 ery to the iiihal)itaiits. 



"Mouff'et relates that in the year 1574 such num- 

 bers of them fell into the river Severn, as to stop 

 the wheels of the water mills ; and in the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions it is stated that in tlie 

 year ]6tfS, they filled the hedges and trees 

 in Gahvay in such infinite numbers, as to cling to 

 each other, like bees, when swaxming ; and when 

 on the wnig, darkened the air, annoyed travellers 

 and produced a sound like distant drums. In a 

 short time, the leaves of all the trees for some 

 miles round, were so totally consumed by them, 

 that at midsummer, tlie country wore the aspect 

 of the depth of winter." 



The commissioner further reporls.that '-In Ander- 

 son's Recreations it is stated, that a cautious obser- 

 ver, liaving found a nest of five young jays, remar- 

 ked that each of these birds, while yet very young, 

 consumed at least fifteen of these full sized grubs 

 in one day ; and of course would require many 

 more of a" smaller size Say that on an average 

 of sizes, thoy consumed twenty apiece. These tfir 

 five birds make a hundred. Each of the parents 

 consume aiy fifty. So that the pair and fami- 

 ly devoured two hundred every day. This in three 

 months amounts to twenty thousand in one season, 

 but as the grub continues in that state four seasons, 

 this single pair with their family alone, without 

 reckoning their descendants after the first year, 

 would destroy o ghty thousand grubs. Let us sup- 

 pose, that haif of these grubs, viz. forty thousand, 

 are iem-.iles, and as it is known, that they lay about 

 two hundred eggs each, it will appear, that no less 

 than eight railtions have been destroyed or pre- 

 vented from being hatched by the labors of a sin- 

 gle family of jays. 



It is by reckoning in this way, that we learn to 

 know of what importance it is, to attend to the 

 economy of nature, and to be cautious how we de- 

 range it, by our short sighted and fiit.le operations. 

 Our own country abounds in insectiverous beasts 

 and birds, the more than abundant melolontha',bee- 

 tles,that form a portion of their nourishment." 



Again he observes, " our insectiverous birds un- 

 doubteilli' consume many of the rose bugs both in 

 the perfect an.'l larva state, and deserve to be cher- 

 ished and protected for their useful habits." 



H<'nep we learn some important facts relative to 

 the other continent, as v/ell as this, and the views 

 of scientific men, as to the proper remedies to 

 meet and reduce the practical evil of insects; and 

 impending dangers of still darker aspect. 



It is an established fact, tliat that well known 

 hut unwelcome quadruped, the pole cat, with all 

 his ofiensive properties, makes up for his occasion- 

 al larceny of a hen's nest, that happens within his 

 reach, by feeding almost entirely upon the dorr 

 and other bugs, together with their larva?. It is 

 for this purpose, that they so frequently visit our 

 fields and examine the corn hills. 



All growers of Indian corn, who have too often 

 found the cause, tliat their Indian corn did not ap- 

 pear, was the little yellow wire worm, which de- 

 vours the eye of the kernel; and when their corn 

 does appear above ground and while yet young, 

 find on every morning, many hills cut off by the 

 cut wor.n, and when their crirn is half grown and 

 more, the stalks bored by another worm, and their 

 wheat heads hall' devoured by the wevil and Hes- 

 sian fly ; and their stone fruit trees bored by larva; 

 and their fruit it&elf filled with the maggot of an- 

 other insect, and falling to the ground; their ap- 

 ple trees bored and their gardens devoured by a 

 o-real variety of insects ; their bee-hives filled v.'ith 

 the moth of the bee miller; their sheep dying from 

 the maggot of the blow-Uy ; their horses and cattle 

 tormented by insects of the fly kind, and them- 

 selves not escaping unacath.ed ; all such must fi'el 

 a deep interest upon this subject. And if there 

 be remedies against such evils, they will seek them 

 diligently and tecuie them carefully. 



If the remedy wer;. dear bought and far fetched, 

 we should in these daj's of corporations and socie- 

 ties, see corporate companies with large capitals, 

 l)repared to inipa.'-t the remedies. 



But instead of such c-"cpen3ive arrangements, to 

 protect the farming interest, we have notlring tod. 

 hut to be still and let the oirds labor for us. They 

 are the surest, sat'est and least expensive tarifi' tf' 

 protect the agricultural interest. They are the in- 

 digenous producticm of the country, and will if un- 

 molested multiply to the wish of man. 



If our boys must hunt, let them hunt the hawk. 

 Thus far the boys and the hawks appear to act as 

 allies, carrying on jointly a war of extermination 

 against our best fiiends, the humble inoftensivc 



songsters that enliven our door yards, our fields and 

 our°forests. Of the two warlike parties, the birds 

 of prey are by far the most conscientious. What 

 they destroy, they appropriate to supply their 

 wants and thnt of their young. 



Whenever our boys commit their forays for 

 sport, the spoils which they gather are castefi" by 

 the way side, to become the deposite banks of the 

 carniverous insects; .ind within which their young 

 larvre aije to riot and fatten. 



I advise to break the truce with the hawk and 

 make war upon him, " et id omne genus." But if 

 our youth must have small game, we consign to 

 them all the tribes of insects. Upon these they 

 may exercise their gunnery, either on the perch, or 

 on the wing. 



I am, sir, resjiectfuUy, yours, 



CORN'PLANTER. 



the Hottentots, that a yonth, to be raised into tho 

 compaiiv of men, sliould prove his manhood by 

 beating his mother. I would advise you, therefore, 

 not to attempt unchaining tlie tiger, but to burn t!i'-3 

 piece before it is seenby aiy olh-r person, whereby 

 you will save yourself a grert deal of mort ficat on 

 from the enemies it may raise against you, and 

 perhaps a good deal of rrgret and lepentance. 



"If mi'U are wieki'd wi h religion, what would 

 they be without it .' I intei.d this letter itself as a 

 proof of my friendship, and therefore add no pro- 

 fessions to It, but subscribe, sinip'y. Yours, 



B. IRA-NKLI.\." 



"To aid the cause of Virtue and Re- 

 ligion." 



Be.nj.\mis Frank:. i.v, beyond question, was the 

 ablest thinker and philosopher, that America has 

 yet produced : in tliis respect, of the age in which 

 lie lived he had no superior in the civilized world. 

 The age of his usefulne:<3 was before that of] 

 Washington, Adams, Jetferson, and other patriots 

 of the revolution — older than any one of them, he 

 was behind none in exerting a salutary influence 

 in the rise and progress of our wisest institutions. 

 But we have seen and read nothing from his pen 

 more worthy of admiration and delight than tlie 

 letter below. Bigotry, perhaps based on misrepre- 

 sentation, had desciibed tile sage and the philoso- 

 pher as a skejitic in his belief of tlie religion of 

 Jesus ; what will bigotry now say of such skepti- 

 cism as that of Franklin in the following letter ? 

 If he had expressed no other religious opinion in 

 his whole life, leaving this letter upon record, he 

 has done more for Christianity than would atone 

 for a life of many sins. To find the recorded evi- 

 dence of such a man as Franklin in favor of a par- 

 ticular Providence is a sweeter consolation to an 

 unalrickcn conscience than the listening to many 

 sermons from the purest minds and best talents of 

 our clergy. Franklin's honest belief on any sub- 

 ject would go far towards dissipating all doubt : 

 the testimony of Franklin in favor of a particular 

 Providence leads us to turn with exultation on the 

 opinions of hundreds of learned small men who 

 have only gone deep enough to doubt every thing 

 that is not accompanied with an explanation of its 

 natural cause. 



From llic Glellfi, 



F.inklin's Opinion of Infidelity. 



The annexed letter from tlie pen of Benjamin 

 Franklin, is contained in vol. 3, p. 279 of his works. 

 London edition, edited by his grandson, William 

 F. Franklin. It is supposed to have been address- 

 ed to Thomas Paine. 



" Dk.^r Sir : I have read your manuscript with 

 some attention. By the argument which it con- 

 tains anainst a particular Providence, though you 

 alhnv a general ProvidcU'^e, you strike at the foun- 

 dation of all religion. For, without the belief of Prov- 

 idence, that takes coo-nizance of,guards and guides, 

 and may favor particular persons, there is no motive 

 to worship a Deify, a .fpar of his displeasure, or to 

 pray for his protection, i will not enter into any 

 discu.'ision of your principles, though you seem to 

 desire it. At present I shall only give you my 

 opinion, that though your reasonings are subtle, 

 and may prevail with some readers, you will not 

 suci'ced so as to change the general sentiments of 

 mankind on tint subject, and the consequences of 

 printing this piece will be a great deal of odium 

 drawTi upon ;)Ourself, mischief to you and no ben- 

 efit to others He that spits against the wind spits 

 on his own face. 



But were you to succeed, do you imagine any 

 good will be done bj- it ? You yourself may find it 

 eas\- to live a virtuous life witiiuut the assistance 

 afforded by religion ; you iiave a clear perception 

 of the advantages of virtue and the disadvantages 

 of vice, and possessing a strength of resolution 

 suftrcient to enable you to resist common tempta- 

 tions. But think how great a portion of mankind 

 consists of ignorant men and women, and of inex- 

 perienced, inconsiderate youth of both sexes, who 

 have need of the motives of religion to restrain 

 thein from vice, support their virtue, and retain 

 them in the practice of it till it becomes habitual, 

 which is the great point of its security. And per- 

 haps you are indebted to her originally, that is, to 

 your religious education, for the habits of virtue 

 upon which you now justly value yoursidf. 



You might easily display your excellent talents 

 of reasoning upon a less hazardous subject, and 

 thereby obtain a rank with our most distinguished 

 authors ; for amonc us it is not neeessarv, as among 



CUtrano) t, Muy'Mi, 1330. 



Hon. Is.A.ic Hill— Dear Sir: — I notice in the 

 Farmers Visitor for May, a rcprcsen'ation of the 

 Bryant calf raisetl in this town by Mr. Johnson. 

 You say that this calf is of the same breed with 

 the Ilubljard ox Olympus : this is a mistake. The 

 grandsire of the Bryant calf v.'as the bull Comet, 

 raised in Massachusetts, owned and kept at Wind- 

 sor,Vt. and was of the Holderness mixed with some 

 other foreign breed, as I understood from the man 

 who took him to Windsor. Perhaps he had a little 

 of the Durham ; he was a v\:yy fine animal. The 

 sire of the Hubbard ox Olympus, was im])orted by 

 George Bond of Boston, and was out of a full blood 

 Durham cow. It was not known what tile sire 

 was. The dam of the Hubbard o.\ was from abrced 

 brought to Ch ivlestown from Hoosuck, N. Y. for- 

 merly an in;po;ted breed at Long Island The 

 Hubbard ex was raised on the banks of the 

 Connectieut; liic Bryant steer six miles out, en 

 Green Mountain, near the east line of Claremont. 

 The grandsire of the Br3'ant steer was a much 

 better looking animal than the sire of the Hubbard 

 ox. I mention this only to prevent misrepresenta- 

 tion. 



In the same paper I notice an article to destroy 

 bugs in ])eas by scalding them. This I tried more 

 than thirty years ago ; it did not answer complete- 

 ly. A better wa}-, 1 think, is to keep seed peas o- 

 ver one summer before sov/ing. Every bug will 

 die or leave the pea. A FARMER. 



IJj^The remarkable ox Olympus, which was ex- 

 hibited in this town one year ago, by the latest ac- 

 count from hiin, had arrived in England. We do 

 not doubt he will be as much a wonder among hor- 

 ned cattle tliere as he was here — exceeding in 

 size and weight any otlier animal of his kind. His 

 name had been changed by the owner to tliat of 

 "Brother Jonathan," as more distinctive of the 

 country of his nativity. 



Fur Ihe Fariiii-rs Muiillilj Vl.-itor. 

 Gov. Hill: — It has been a subject of common 

 remark that the quantity of snow W'hich fell during 

 the last winter, in the western part of V'crinont, was 

 less than had been previously known in any winter 

 since the SI ttleiiient of the country. But perhaps 

 it is not generally known that tlie '.juantity of wa- 

 ter which has fallen in snow and rain during the 

 last two years has been so much less than usual, 

 as is the fact. That your readers may see the dif- 

 ference between the last year and some preceding 

 ones, 1 have extracted the following table from a 

 Meteorological journal, which I have kept at this 

 place during the most of the time, for several years 

 past. Our mean annual quantity of water is about 

 43 or 44 inches. The greatest quantity I have 

 known was in 1630, being between .59 and Gi) in 

 ches, and the least was in 1838, being a little le'ss 

 than 31 inches, as shown in the following table, 

 where the measurements are given in inches and 

 decimal parts. 



18AS 1632 1833 1.838 1839 

 inch. inch. inch. inch, ineli 

 Jannarv 1.30 3.56 1.J6 2.o2 0.8.'i 



February 2.10 3.22 2.(J3 1.32 1.211 



March 1.35 2.31 1.48 1.10 1.43 



Aj.ril 2.7.3 l.'.G 1.28 1.34 I .GO 



Mav 2.4.'> 5.71 9.85 4.51 2.43 



June 3.70 3.41 4.2S 5.37 



July 5.95 3.52 7.54 3.25 



Auijust 4.30 4.76 7.34 2.41 



September 9.85 1.81 4.17 1.33 



October 1.65 4.05 6.01 2.98 



November G.25 3.01 1.91 3.78 



December 1.65 2.27 1.59 0-G2 



Annual quantity 43.30 39..5U 49.34 30.83 



As a consequence of the small quantity of water 

 which has fallen, our springs and wells have been 

 remarkably low. During the greater part of the last 

 winter many of our wells were entirely dry, which 

 had previously furnished a plentif'ul supi)ly of wa- 

 ter. During the last summer, though tlie quanti- 

 of rain was small, the showers were so seasonable 



