FARMERS' REGISTER— GRAIN WORM— INGENUITY OF SPIDERS. 723 



community of our country, how greatly the work 

 of" improvement would advance, and the comforts 

 of" the human family be muUiplied: were each to 

 contribute his mite of practical knowledge, in the 

 branch in which he most excels, what a treasure 

 of information would be collected, to guide us in 

 our practice, and to stimulate us to habits of in- 

 dustry. And do we not already possess, in a con- 

 siderable degree, these precious advantages? 

 What are our agricultural journals, but a record 

 of instructions, by the best farmers of our own 

 and every other country — a detail of the methods 

 by which they have succeeded — have excelled — 

 in the various departments of husbandry? There 

 is not a man in the community who may not pro- 

 fit, in some degree, by the teachings of these 

 journals. The self^wise are ever the most pro- 

 foundly ignorant; for as we advance in knowledge, 

 we become more and more humbled by the con- 

 eciousness of our comparative ignorance. 



We beg that the readers of the Cultivator will 

 take this matter into serious consideration, and re- 

 member, that an obligation rests upon them in- 

 dividually, to requite the favors which they are 

 monthly receiving from others, by communicating 

 whatever of their practice that may promise to be 

 beneficial to their brother farmers. 



From the Cultivator. 

 GRAIN WORM. 



We promised to insert the memorial of the 

 State Agricultural Society to the legislature in this 

 number; but as we understand that the committee 

 tx> whom it was referred, deem it not worth report- 

 ing upon, we shall content ourselves with stating 

 its purport The journals of the day noticed it 

 as being an application for aid. The fact is not 

 so. The memorial states, that the ravages of the 

 grain worm have become alarming; that in some 

 of the northern and eastern countries, the loss in- 

 cident to their destruction of the wheat crop has 

 already exceeded, by computation, two hundred 

 thousand dollars; that it is progressing south and 

 west, at the rate of 40 to 60 miles a year; and 

 that unless some means are devised to check the 

 evil, it threatens to become destructive to the great 

 staple of the west Viewing the magnitude of 

 the evil, and the prospect of its greatly increasing, 

 the society thought it might comport with the duty 

 and the dignity of the legislature, who are ap- 

 pointed to watch over the interests of the state, to 

 endeavor to arrest it, by holding out pecuniary re- 

 wards for the discovery of an efRcient remedy. 

 This, they supposed, would tend to call the atten- 

 tion of scientific as well as practical men, particu- 

 larly to the subject, and might eventuate in the 

 di*:covery of a preventive of the evil — in which 

 case the state would be benefited a thousand times 

 the value of the premium to be paid — and if no 

 such discovery should be made, then the money 

 would remain in the treasury. There are men, 

 who still believe it is impious to raise rods to avert 

 the lightning from our buildings. The money 

 which is often spent in a day's useless debate, at 

 the shrine of personal vanity, if ofTered to check 

 this evil, miM save the state many millions of 

 dollars — and could not possibly do any harm. 



From the American Journal of Science and Arts. 

 A LIVE SNAKE SUSPENDED BY SPIDERS. 



Batavia, N. Y., Sept. 30, 1S35. 



Sir — In the "Spirit of the Times" of this vil- 

 lage, of the date of Aug. 26, 1834, I puhlislicl 

 over the signature of "A Witness" an account of 

 a snake found suspended by spiders' web, by the 

 tail, in the wine cellar of a gentleman in tiiis vil- 

 lage. 



A gentleman who also saw and examined the 

 phenomenon, promised to send you a dnivving and 

 account of it. Whether he has done so or not, I 

 do not know. And as the story has been treated 

 as a fable by some of the papers, I send you en- 

 closed the account above mentioned, and a correct 

 drawing, (though rough and done in haste,) made 

 by James Mihior, Jr. Esq., a clerk in the Holland 

 Company Land Office. 



The gentleman in whose 'wine cellar the snake 

 was found, is the Hon. David E. Evans, agent of 

 the Holland Land Company, who requests me to 

 forward to you the drawing and account, which he 

 pronounces to be accurate. 



Mr. Evans, Mr. Milnor, Mr. Mix, Dr. Van 

 Tuyl, and a great number of other gentlemen, ex- 

 amined this subject critically on several diflerent 

 days, while the snake was yet alive, and all con- 

 cur in the accuracy of the account. 



I hope you will procure a correct engraved cut 

 of the drawing, and publish it with the account in 

 your journal. And if you do, you are at liberty 

 to use all the names mentioned in this letter, or to 

 publish it at lengtli, if you think proper. 



Most respectfully, your obedient servant, 



8. CUMMJNGS.* 



The following is the account alluded to in the 

 above letter: 



On the evening of the 13th inst.. a gentleman 

 in this village found in his wine cellar a live striped 

 snake, nine inches long, suspended between two 

 shelves, by the tail, by spiders' web. The snake 

 hung so that his head could not reach the .shelf 

 below him, by about an inch; and several large 

 spiders were then upon him, sucking his juices. 

 The shelves were about two feet apart; and the 

 lower one was just below the bottom of a cellar 

 window, through which the snake probably passed 

 into it. From the shelf" above it, there was a web 

 in the shape of an inverted cone, eight or ten 

 inches in diameter at the top, and concentrated to 

 a focus, about six or eight inches from the under 

 side of this shelf From this focus, there was a 

 strong cord made of the multiplied threads of the 

 "spiders' web, apparently as large as common sevv- 

 in<T silk; and by this cord the snake was suspend- 

 ed. 



Upon a critical examination through a magnify- 

 ing glass, the following curious facts appeared. 

 Themouih of the snake was fast tied up, by a 

 great number of threads, wound around it, so tight 

 that he could not run out his tongue. His tail was 

 tied in a knot, so as to leave a small loop, or ring, 

 through which the cord was fastened; and the end 

 of the tail, above this loop, to the length of some- 



* We understand that Mr. Cummings is first Judge of 

 the Court of Common Pleas in' this county, and also 

 Postmaster of Batavia. 



