FARMERS' REGISTER— AMERICAN LOCUST. 



37 



not quite hard. I suppose that time to have been 

 as early as any one would have ventured then. 

 The ibliowing are all the dates of the connnence- 

 nient of my liarvests, ^vhiL•h were recorded before 

 my change of practice, and for some years alier- 

 wards. 



1818— June 25th. 

 1819— " 23rd. 

 8th. , 

 13th. 

 lllh. 

 10th. 



12th. — and might have been begun 5 

 days sooner, if" the state of 

 other crops had permitted, 

 16th. — the ripening stated to have been 

 made unusually late, by. the 

 depredations of Hessian Fly, 

 added to a cold season. 



1822— 

 1823— 

 1824— 

 1825— 

 1826— 



1827- 



1828— 

 1829— 



12th. 



' 19th. — the beginning having been de- 

 layed two or three daj-s by 

 the pressure of other work. 

 The purple straw, and golden chaff wheats, 

 were the kinds sowed. 



There is so much difference in these dates, ad- 

 ded to mj' recollection of our late harvests in gene- 

 ral, formerly, that I am somewhat tempted to think 

 that there has been an increase of average tempe- 

 rature, as well as of change of practice in reaping. 

 But if that was the case, so important a fact could 

 not have escaped the notice of the many curious 

 and particular observers of the changes of tempe- 

 rature, as indicated by the thermometer. 



E. R. 



REMARKABLE HABITS OF THE A3IERICAN LO- 

 CUST. 



There is no longer any doubt that these singu- 

 lar insects are to make their usual periodical ap- 

 pearance the present season. They are already 

 easily to be found, at the depth of six or seven 

 inches, in gardens, and especially in orchards, un- 

 der old trees. By skimming off the surface of the 

 earth, thousands of holes are perceptible, where 

 they have been penetrating to the surface, in or- 

 der we presume, that their way may not be ob- 

 structed on their day of general resurrection. An 

 old gentleman of tliis place, informs us that his 

 father kept particular note of their appearance in 

 four instances, and that he himself has followed it 

 up, and preserved observations, also, in four tn- 

 Btances — and that they have uniformly appeared 

 ever}' seventeen years; but what is singularly strik- 

 ing,that in all these eight instances,they were found 

 to have a general resurrection day, which has re- 

 gularly occurred on the 25th May. He further 

 says, that two or three days previously, a few 

 make their appearance, as a reconnoitering party; 

 but on the 25th, the whole country is deluged with 

 one interminable swarm.— G cnnantoto a Td. 



[If it is indeed true that there is so much regularity 

 in the continuance of the dormant state of these insects, 

 the time of their coming forth is not the same in differ- 

 ent places. It was in 1829 that they appeared in pro- 

 digious numbers in this county, (Prince George,) 

 where they had not been observed before witliin the 

 recollection of any person whose opinions we heard 



expressed. They were in much the greatest numbers 

 in woodland where the soil was stiff and close: and in 

 all such places, every tree was supplied with lo- 

 custs in such numbers, that a traveller for miles togeth- 

 er could perceive no cessation, or change in the loud 

 but monotonous chorus kept up by their voices. These 

 insects caused no injury. They-were not much more 

 than half as large as the common green and black 

 locusts, (or dry flies, as vulgarly called,) which, in small 

 numbers, appear here every summer. The color of 

 the former was touched with a pale dingy red, instead 

 of the green which the common locust has. The 

 name applied to both these insects is doubtless in- 

 correct, as both difier widely from the great plague of 

 the eai'th in other regions, of \^'hich we are so fortu- 

 nate as to know notldng in this countiy, except by 

 report. 



There is too much of the marvellous in the regidarly 

 returning visits of our locusts for the statement to be 

 altogether credited, though it has been stated in seve- 

 ral publications besides that quoted above. But at any 

 rate, there must be enough in the habits of these in- 

 sects, that is both true and strange, to excite curiosity, 

 and invite attempts at investigation.] 



HARDENIXG OF IROIV. 



From the Southern Pfanter. 

 Dr. Bartldt — It may be considered presump- 

 tion in me to attempt to give directions to a black- 

 smith how to temper a tool when he has made it. 

 If I cannot teadi a blacksmith I can tell a farmer 

 how to avoid imposition. — I have noticed for 

 several years that ploughs made and tempo I'ed by 

 some smiths would last twice as long as the same 

 kind made by others — this is owing to the manner 

 of tempering. — ,In tempering a plough, all that ia 

 necessarj' is to give it a thorough heating and 

 cool it quick. In order to cool cjuick, it is necessa- 

 ry to have plenty of water, and that of a good 

 quality. — To undertake to cool a plough that 

 weighs 8 or 10 pounds in two or three gallons of 

 water, is absurd; more especially if that water has 

 been heated a great many times. 



\VM. H. RAIFORD. 



Henry co. May 5th, 1834. ^ 



BUTTER MAKING IN CHILE. 



From Waldie's Journal of Belles Letters. 



In Chile, butter is packed in sheep skins, wth 

 the wool side out, and would be very good, in 

 spite of appearances, were it not so much salted. 

 The operation of churning is performed by a 

 donque [an ass;] the cream is put into large gourds, 

 or dry skins, placed on his back, and then the 

 animal is kept trotting round the j^ard till the but- 

 ter is made. In this art they seem not to have ad- 

 vanced a single step since its discovery; tor we are 

 told that a countryman somewhere lost a large jug 

 of cream, by carrying it for some distance on a 

 hard-trotting horse, which accident led to the im- 

 portant invention of churns and butter. A friend 

 told me, that he had presented, some years ago, a 

 Yankee'churn to a faniil}- residing near the capital, 

 and taught them to use it. So long as it was a 

 novelty they were pleased, but at the end of a fev/ 

 weeks decided the donque made butter just as well, 

 and conseqnenth' threw it aside! 



