FARMERS' REGISTER— SCHOOLS FOR FARMERS^ SONS. 



harm; but I shall probably be allowed to take that 

 for granted. The destruction of the turnip-crop 

 alone is a very serious national evil. Slugs, grubs, 

 and wire-worms eat the seed in the groiuid, and 

 other creeping things in the granary. Flies tor- 

 ment the domestic animals whilst alive, and blow 

 their flesh when dead. Caterpillars eat cabbages, 

 and moths riddle holes in cloth. Almost every 

 plant has its insect enemy. Clover-seed is de- 

 stroyed by a small weevil (Apioii flavi-Jhnora- 

 fiiTO;J Dutch-clover by the jfp ion flavipes; peas 

 in the pod by the small beetle (Bruchus granari- 

 us.) The wire-worm is the grub of the beetle 

 (Elater Segeiis.) The turnip-fly is properly a 

 beetle — a little jumping beetle (Haltica nemorum.) 



The problem of course is how to destroy this 

 lecion of enemies. Now, to do this with the 

 greatest effect, we must watch them through all 

 their changes. There may probably be many 

 persons ignorant that most insects pass through 

 four stages of existence, (of which the silk-worm 

 affords a familiar instance;) — 1st. The egg — 2dly. 

 The caterpillar — 3dly. The chrysalis — ancl, 4thly. 

 The butterfly or imago. It is in the second stage 

 that insects generally do the most mischief! In 

 the egg and the chrj'salis they do none; and in the 

 imago, some do and some do not. Though we 

 are all familiar with the insect in the shape in 

 which its ravages compel our attention, we are 

 frequently unconscious of its identity under other 

 fghapes. Though our last year's crop was destroy- 

 ed by the wire -worm, we should probably pass by 

 a swarm of the parent beetle, the Elater Segetis, 

 without being aware of the relationship; and in 

 the same manner we look on the eobckchater, with- 

 out suspecting that its issue is the grub which eats 

 the roots of tlie grass. But however desirable a 

 knoTvledgc of entomology may be, no single indi- 

 vidual could acquire it all for himself. He would 

 need the eyes of Argus — the patience of Job — 

 and the years of Methuselah. The diligence and 

 sagacity of men who have passed their lives in 

 this study have at length accumulated a body of 

 fects of the highest value; being printed, they 

 have become the property of eveiy body who will 

 take the trouble to read them; and thus a school- 

 boy may learn in a lew months facts which the 

 labors of his Avhole life might have been vainly ex- 

 erted in seeking. 



Messrs Kirby and Spence are the great authori- 

 ties upon this subject, and from their book most of 

 the facts here stated have been taken. They 

 themselves suggest a similar application to prac- 

 tice of the truths of their flivorite science. "With 

 respect to noxious caterpillars in general," say 

 they, "farmers and gai'deners are not usually 

 aware tliat the best mode of preventing their at- 

 tacks is to destroy the female fly before she has 

 laid her eggs; to do which, the moth proceeding 

 from each must be first ascertained; but if their 

 research were carried still farther, so as to enable 

 them to distinguish the pupa, and discov^er its 

 haunts (and it would not be ditlicult to detect that 

 of the greatest pest of our gardens, the cabbage 

 butterfly) the Avork might be still more efTectually 

 accomplished." 



The follies committed for want of a little know- 

 ledge of entomology, are well illustrated by ano- 

 ther passage of the same authors. "In Germany, 

 the gardeners and country people with great in- 

 dustry gather whole basketsful of the destructive 



cabbage-moth (Nodiin Brassicce,) and then bury 

 them— which is just as it they should endeavor to 

 kill a crab by covering it with water — for many of 

 them being full grown, and ready to pass into their 

 next stated whidi they do under ground, instead of 

 destroying them by this manteuvrc, their appear- 

 ing again the following year in greater numbers is 

 actually fixcilitated. Yet this plan, applied to our 

 common cabbage-caterpillar, which does not go 

 under ground, would succeed." • 



The process of destroying noxious insects by 

 attacking them in their early stages is not new in 

 this country. P. Musgrave collected the chrysa- 

 lids in the spring, so as to become acquainted with 

 them, and then employed people to catch and kill 

 the moths and butterflies. If you catch 200 in a 

 day, you destroy 10,000 eggs, which would give 

 120,000 in a fortnight. — Might not boys and girls 

 be well employed in doing this? They have all 

 the organ of Destructiveness. 



In short, it is abundantly CAddent, that if we 

 knew them in all their changes, and know where 

 they are concealed in autumn, Avinter, and spring, 

 Ave might exterminate those multitudes Avhich are 

 noAv as the sands which are upon the sea-shore. 

 And if not all the knoAA'ledge required be yet in 

 our possession, a great deal is, and might be easily 

 imparted to the young farmer, if Ave could catch 

 him in his chrysalis state; and Avhat little is still 

 Avanting AA'ould soon be accumulated Avhen Ave had 

 set so many keen and interested eyes to observe: a 

 fly could scarcely move but they AA^ould be Avatch- 

 ing him. 



The Diseases of Cattle. — This is an important 

 subject. There is no individual of many years' 

 experience in farming, Avho has not suffered severe 

 losses from the death of horses, coaa^s, or sheep. 

 Diseases amongst sheep arc perhaps the most 

 common and the most extensive, and to Avhom is 

 the cure of them entrusted? Generally to a la- 

 boring man, Avho has not the remotest knoAvledge 

 of the several organs Avhich compose the animal 

 frame, or of their functions, and Avhose education 

 has not fitted him to reason correctly eA'en upon 

 the few facts Avhich he knoAvs. What should AA^e 

 think of entrusting our friends or relations in sick- 

 ness to a man Avho had studied no more of anato- 

 myor medicine than a shepherd? And the mis- 

 chief is not confined to their ignorance of the true 

 remedy. Ignorant men are the most irreclaima^ 

 ble theorists. They attribute disorders to the most 

 fanciful cause, and then from their assumed and 

 absurd premises, they argue aAvay to a conclusion 

 as hardily as a geometrician. I have heard many 

 striking instances of this from a friend of mine, 

 Avho is himself both a physician and a philosopher. 

 One poor patient laid the blame of his sufferings 

 upon a cause Avhich fcAV Avould ha\'e thought of. 

 "Sir," says he, "it is the xoind meeting the disges- 

 terj'''' and no doubt his remedy AA'ould ha\'ebeento 

 haA-e put some coA-ering round the disgester, to 

 keep the Avind aAvay. Another ])oor fellow was 

 troubled Avith "a rising of the //g/iis;" and being 

 asked AA'hether he had taken any thing for it, 

 "Yes," he said, "he had swallowed some shot to 

 keep them down.'''' And I beg to assure the incred- 

 ulous, that this is an extremely common disease 

 and remedy in this neighborhood; and these are 

 the very men Avho prescribe for our sheep! For- 

 merly it was the custom to ascribe diseases to the 

 direct operation of the devilj and of course the 



