662 



FARMERS' REGISTER— FIRE WOOD— BURYING BEETLE. 



not go fur enough. Every farmer it5 sensible, that 

 corn topped becomes more thoroughly dried by ex- 

 posure to the direct rays of the sun, and must 

 therelbre be expected to weigh less at the time of 

 gathering than corn shaded by tiie tops, or cut up 

 by the bottom and sianding in slacks till husked. 

 My corn the past year had been cut up by the bot- 

 tom, with the exception of a iiivv pieces oi rows, 

 belbre the thought ol' making any experiments 

 myself on the si^ojcct occurred. In order to see, 

 however, whether my ideas oi" the diti'erent rate of 

 shrinkage between topp-ed corn, ajid that cut up, 

 were correct. I carciuiiy weighed a basket full of 

 ears of each kind, at the time of gathering, and 

 placing them in a dry chamber, where they lay 

 undisturbed, let them remain until the middle of 

 January, when I had both kinds carefully shelled 

 and weighed. By this experiment, it appeared 

 that the corn cut up by the bottom shrunk three 

 pounds in ^-j bushel more than the topped; but this 

 did not mark the extent of the diflerence, as at the 

 time of shelling, the former was easily distin- 

 guished from the latter by its comparative damp- 

 ness, though both parcels were bright, fine corn. 

 I cannot, thereiore, consider the question as en- 

 tirely put at rest by any experiments that have 

 .yet been made, but as the matter is certainly one 

 of importance, I hope that another season will not 

 pass without its being done efi'ectuaily. In order 

 to do this, all the specimens must not ot^ly be 

 weighed and measured at the tim.e ol'gathcring and 

 at the time of shelling, but be suffered to remain in 

 some position favorable to the evaporation of all 

 dampness imlil the corn is completely and tho- 

 roughly dried, when a careful comparison of the 

 whole would show the true result. 



\V. G. 



From tiic Genesee Farmer. 

 ON SPLITTING FIUE-WOOD. 



We have lately examined a quantit}^ of fire- 

 wood, which was cut and corded last winter; and 

 we have become still more strongly impressed with 

 the importance ol having every stick split that is 

 large enough to receive a stroke of the axe, longi- 

 tudinally. It not only dries belter, but some kinds 

 of wooil are rendered by this operation nearly of 

 double value; and we are v\'arranted by our exam- 

 inations in saying that hickory is one of those kinds. 

 Sticks of six or eight inches diameter, which were 

 quartered at that time, are now seasoned, hard 

 and solid; while such as were left to soak in their 

 sap, are most miserably worm eaten. The round 

 sticks of bass-wood escaped these depredators, but 

 Iheir value is greatly lessened by incipient decay; 

 antl reliiin too much moisture to be profitably used 

 without kiln-drying. We are persuaded that to 

 split all such wood, and to let out the sap, is a most 

 judicious investment of capital. 



From tlie Montlily Magazine. 

 THE EURYIIVa BEETLE. 



A foreiiin naturalist gives a very interesting ac- 

 count of the industry of this insect. He had of- 

 ten remarked that dead moles, when laid upon the 

 ground, especially if on loose earth, were almost 

 sure to disappear in the course ol two or three days, 

 often of twelve hours. To ascertain the cause, he 

 placed a mole upon one of the beds in his garden. 



It had vanished by the third morning; and on dig- 

 ging where it had been laid, he ibund it buried to 

 the depth of three inches, and under it four bee- 

 tles, which seemed to have been the agents in this 

 singular inhumation. Not perceiving any thing 

 particular in the mole, he buried it again; and on 

 examining it at the end of six daysf he found it 

 swarming with n)nggots, apparently the issue of 

 the beetles, which M. Glcditsch now naturally con- 

 cluded had buried the carcass lor the food of their 

 future young. To determine these points more 

 clearly, he put four of these insects into a glass 

 vessel, half filled with earth and properly secured, 

 and, upon the surface of the earth, two ii'ogs. In 

 less than twelve hours, one of the frogs was inter- 

 red by two of the beetles; the other two ran about 

 the whole day as if busied in measuring the di- 

 mensions of the remaining corpse, which on the 

 third day was also found buried. He then intro- 

 duced a dead hnnet. A pair of the beetles were 

 soon engaged upon the bird. They began their 

 operations by pushing out the earth from under 

 the body, so as to form a cavity for i<:s reception; 

 and it was curious to see the efforts whi(di the bee- 

 tles made, by dragging at the feathers of the bird 

 li'om beiovv', to pull it into its grave. The male, 

 having driven the female away, continued the 

 work alone for five hours. He lifted up the bird, 

 changed its place, turned it and arranged it in the 

 grave, and from time to time came out of the hole, 

 mounted upon it, and trode it under foot, and then 

 retired below, and pulled it down. At length, ap- 

 parently wearied with this unintciTupted labor, it 

 came forth, and leaned its head uj.on the earth 

 beside the bird, without the smallest motion, as if 

 to rest itself, for a full hour, when it again crept 

 under the earth. The next day, in the morning, 

 the bird was an inch and a half underground, and 

 the trench remained open the whole day, the 

 corpse seeming as if laid out upon a bier, surround- 

 ed with a rampart of mould. In the evening, it 

 had sunk half an inch lower, and in another day 

 the -work was completed, and the bird covered. 

 M. Gleditsch continued to add other small dead 

 animals, which were all sooner or later buried; 

 and the result of his experiment was, that in filly 

 days four beetles had interred, in the ver}' small 

 space of earth allotted to them, tv/elve carcasses; 

 viz. four frogs, three small birds, two fishes, one 

 mole, and two grasshoppers, besides the entrails of 

 a fish, and two morsels of the lungs of an ox. In 

 another experiment, a single beetle buried a mole 

 forty times its own bulk and weight in two days. 



From tlio Lilirary of Useful Knowledge, Farmer's Series. 

 GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 



[Concluded from p. 597, Vol. II.] 

 7'he English Horse. 



The earliest record of the horse iii Great Biitain 

 is contained in the history given by .Julius Caesar 

 of his invasion of our island. The British army 

 was accompanied by numerous war-chariots, 

 drawn by horses. Short scythes were fastened to 

 the ends of the axletrees, sweeping down every 

 thing before them, and carrying terror and devas- 

 tation into the ranks of theii' euenn!es. The con- 

 (]ueror gives a most animated description of the 

 dexterity with wdiich the horses were managed. 



What kind of liorse the Britons then possessed, 



