S22 



FARMERS' REGISTER— ASHES ON FARM- YARD LITTER, &c. 



three feet deep, and of a length that may be most 

 convenient. Filling this tank with the sokition, 

 tlae posts to be jirepared may be set upon the ends 

 intended to be put into the ground, until they have 

 imbibed their quantity, and then removing them 

 let them be replaced by others, and so on. It will 

 be necessary that the tank should stand under 

 cover irom rain, and prudence will at once suggest 

 the propriety of having it under lock and ke}'. 



Perhaps B. has already commenced the prepa- 

 ration of timber upon Mr. Kyan's plan; if so, we 

 shall probably have some useful information irom 

 his pen, as to the best and least expensive way of 

 preparation, with its actual cost in this countr\\ 

 Or the New York State Agricultural Society ma}" 

 think well of causing a series of experiments to be 

 instituted and re))orted through their own useful 

 little paper, "The Cultivator." 



Could J have lain my hand on the extracts on 

 this subject, which have already appeared in your 

 paper, but which I believe are in one of the num- 

 bers of the third volume, now at the binders, I 

 probably should not have been led into so much 

 repetition. You will, however, prune and curtail 

 my long communication to suit your own conve- 

 nience and the patience of your readers. 



R. 



Maple Grove, April 25, 1834. 



ASHES ON FARM YARD LITTER. 



To the Editor of llie Farmers' Register. 



I am pleased at the many communications made 

 in the Register, upon the subject of manures, than 

 which there is nothing more important. From a 

 little attention, I now manure two acres for one. 

 My farm pen manure, composed of stalks, straw, 

 leaves, &c., imparted very little fertility to the land, 

 Irom the cattle dropping their excrement under 

 their shelters, and very sparsely mixed with the 

 litter of the pen. I have found it advantageous, 

 (and from the present appearance of my corn, ad- 

 mitted by my neighbors,) that by putting a few 

 cart loads of ashes on my farm pen as the litter 

 increases, the difference is scarcely perceptible in 

 the corn on land manured from the farm pen and 

 that from the stable. 



s. 



THE CICADA SEPTEMDECEM OR, '^SEVENTEEN 

 YEARS LOCUST." 



From tlie New England Farmer. 

 Mr. Fessenden — Much alarm has been created 

 among those whose reliance for a livelihood is on 

 the fruits of the earth, by the annunciation that 

 the land is this year to be overspread with locusts. 

 Many stories of the devastations committed by 

 this fillh plague of Pharaoh have been collected 

 and circulated; and it is doubtless impressed on the 

 minds of multitudes, tliat we are, in reality, about 

 to see this direful scourge of the east — that the 

 earth is to be covered and the land darkened, and 

 every herb of the land and all the fi'uit of the trees 

 is to be eaten, and that no green thing is to remain 

 in the trees or in the herb of the field. All this 

 honest misrepresentation and consequent panic, 

 only shows how much there is in a name. For 

 these stories are in no important particular appli- 

 cable to our insect. At your request, therefore, I 

 of!er the following, as the best account I can s-ive 



of them. And why does not the entomologist do 

 as great a service to the public, by being able to 

 dissipate their groundless fears, as the astronomer, 

 who by his labors, has taught us the cause, period 

 and harmless nature of an eclipse, a ])henome- 

 non which is still regarded by the untaught savage 

 with consternation. 



The truth is, our locust is not a locust — it be- 

 longs to an entirely different order of insects. Its 

 history, so far as I have been able to collect it is 

 as follows. — It belongs to the genus Cicada of 

 the order Hamipteru, section ILnnoptera. Some of 

 the CicADiADiE have long been celebrated for 

 their musical powers; so much so, that a portion of 

 them have been grouped together and distinguish- 

 ed by the name of Cantatrices, or singers. Their 

 music, which is peculiar to the males, is not pro- 

 duced by the mouth, but by a musical instrument, 

 something like a kettle drum in construction, situ- 

 ated under the chest and covered by two large 

 scales or plates. They live on trees and shrubs, 

 the juices of which they suck. For this purpose 

 they are provided Avith a long, pointed tube, com- 

 posed of several distinct pieces, which they fold 

 underneath them Avhen not in use. From the per- 

 forations which some of them make in a species of 

 ash ( Orniis) exudes the substance so well known 

 to us under the name of manna. The female is 

 provided with an ovipositor or auger, of a horny 

 substance, about a third of an inch in length, usu- 

 ally resting in a sheath or groove in the body. 

 This is composed of tliree pieces, two of which are 

 sjiear-pointed and finely indented at the end with 

 teeth like a rasp. With this she perforates oblique- 

 ly the solid substance of the small twigs, and then 

 forming the three pieces into a tube, conveys her 

 eggs through it into the opening. Having filled 

 this with eggs, she moves a little, either along the 

 limb or directly sideways, and jjerfbrms the same 

 operation until she has deposited all her eggs, 

 which usually amount to from 500 to 700. The 

 eggs are long, white and shining, and somewhat 

 resemble herd's grass seed. The perforations are 

 marked by little elevations, caused by small sjjlin- 

 ters fixed at one end and detached at the other, 

 thus serving as a lid or valve to the opening; and 

 they look as if they might have been produced by 

 shot, driven in at an angle of 45°. Virgil sup- 

 posed that these grooves were actually caused by 

 the bursting of the very shrubs fi-om the loud and 

 querulous music of the insect. They usually 

 select dry twigs for this purpose, probal)ly because 

 the moisture of a green one would prove injurious 

 to their eggs; and in the case of the seventeen 

 year species, the shrub oak is most frequently 

 sought. When the eggs are hatched, the young 

 Iarva3 immediately enter the earth, which they 

 reach either by travelling down the tree, or ac- 

 cording to some, by the dropping of the dead twig 

 to the ground before they are hatched. In the 

 earth they remain in a nj-mjih state till the seven- 

 teenth summer, from which circumstance they re- 

 ceive their specific name. Cicada septemdecem. Of 

 their develo]}enient or mode of lite in this state, 

 little, if any thing, is known, though a course of 

 observations is now in process from which we may 

 hope to learn something, if the observers should 

 be permitted to live out this insect's term of life. 

 Probably, however, they are rather useful than in- 

 jurious, by keeping down a superabundant growth 

 of herbao-e. 



