90 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



pend on the services of the black ant, that it be- 

 comes, without the aid of its slave, too indolent 

 to provide or arrange its stores of food, and even 

 to feed itself. The sanguinea, however, is 

 more energetic and courageous, and will even 

 protect its slaves and transport them when it be- 

 comes necessary to change their habitation. — 

 The tact displayed by the assailants in their in- 

 vasions of the black colonies, and the defen.sive 

 arrangements of the latter, are given by these 

 writers with a vividness and minuteness which 

 invest the subject with the charm of a beautiful 

 fiction ; and by those not conversant with the 

 study of these insects, it may be regarded as 

 such — for any one but a close observer of insect 

 economy and habits, would declare that such 

 perfection of skill and management is unattain- 

 able but by human intellect. 



It is worthy of remark that while, against 

 foreign and hostile tribes, ants afford examples 

 of skill aiid valor in war, iu their domestic gov- 

 ernment they equally inculcate lessons of bene- 

 volence and social harmony ; for while among 

 some barbarous nations, such as the Africans, it 

 is the custom when one faction gains the ascend- 

 ant, to sell their rivals in bondage, or, what is 

 worse, exclude them from employment and 

 starve them to death, ants in power never make 

 war on their fellow citizens, but always on a 

 different species. Thus, according to an emi- 

 nent naturalist, " when one fellow laborer is ac- 

 cidentally wounded at his work, he is assisted 

 by others, and taken to the hospital ; but if his 

 case be evidently past the skill of surgerj-, his 

 body is only then thrown away among the rub- 

 bish of the nest." 



Into the boundless field of natural history, 

 however, it is no part of the pni-pose of (Ids ar- 

 ticle to carry the reader further than may suffice 

 to stimulate a thirst after gi-eater knowledge. — 

 To men exempted from the pressing cares of 

 life, gifted with a per-severing spirit of inve.stiga- 

 tion, and who have the talent as well as the 

 time to employ in the quiet, close and patient 

 research which it demands, the labor will bring 

 an ample reward in the discovery of entertain- 

 ing facts and the accumulation of curious and 

 useful knowledge. To such as these the world 

 is a great debtor. All its knowledge of the mi- 

 nuter organisms and various habits of the innu- 

 merable tribes of insects which draw their hour- 

 ly tributes of existence from the vegetable king- 

 dom, it owes to their indefatigable exertions. — 

 The brief view and suggestions here thrown out 

 are solely designed to lead the practical cultiva- 

 tor to that door of the temple of Knowledge 

 which may have heretofore been unapproached 

 by him, and. by opening to him glimpses of the 

 treasures which may be acquired from the ap- 

 plication of a small portion of his othervvi.se un- 

 emploved hours, to enable him to protect his 

 "(198) 



crops, in some measure, from the depredations 

 to which they arc now annually and grievously 

 exposed — to make the pursuits of Agriculture 

 more attractive to intellectual minds, and to ele- 

 vate the diaracter and standing of the Farmer 

 in the social scale. By the production of these 

 desirable ends, the whole object of this paper 

 would be accomplished. Still further to pro- 

 mote that end by the relation of anecdotes illus- 

 trative of the instinct and the habits to which 

 we have referred, we shall give occasionally in- 

 teresting particulars with which eminent men 

 have managed to enliven their contributions to 

 Natural History. In the pursuit of this purpose, 

 we solicit the aid of gentlemen whose studies 

 and observations qualify them to aid in giving 

 to the pages of the Farmers' Library, that vari- 

 ety which we desire them to present, but which 

 no one mind, ho%vever much more gifted than 

 ours, can well impait. 



P S. — At a late meeting of the Fanners' 

 Club, on a call from the Chair for a subject for 

 discussion at the next meeting, a gentleman of 

 varied knowledge and experience expressed 

 his belief that it would take millions — ay. mil- 

 lions — to repair the annual losses to the farmer 

 and the orchardist, caused by the ravages of in- 

 sects ; and so general seemed to be the convic- 

 tion of the truth of his impression, that the sub- 

 ject was given out as one of paramount impor- 

 tance, inviting the patriotic and earnest consider- 

 ation of every friend of rural economy. 



Agricultural iNCONsisTENriES.— Prejudice 

 and error generally go hand in hand ; a man 

 may be allowed to indulge in ob.stinacy for his 

 own gratification, but when society is effected 

 by it, the sooner a new light breaks in upon him, 

 the better. I proposed subsoiling my heavy 

 land for beans, .so as to admit the action of frost 

 and air abundantly. A demurrer was instantly 

 raised by a farmer present. Oh ! we always 

 plow shallow for beans. Well, I know you do. 

 Do you ever double-.spit your gardens ? Oh, 

 certainly we do. Do you ever grow beans in 

 your garden ? To be sure, capital ones. What, 

 and that on double dug ground ? Impossible, 

 surely. It would puzzle a conjurer to tell why 

 a farmer always digs his garden 20 inches, and 

 plows his land only 5 inches. Docks, thistles, 

 couch, and other strong deep-rooted weeds, are 

 not to be found in his garden. ^Vhat reason 

 can a fanner give for drilling his beans at 

 inches in his field and 27 in his garden ? Does 

 the former mode give him a larger or earlier 

 produce ? Again, a farmer will caution yon 

 against sitting in a draught, or lying on a damp 

 bed— of course he takes care not to do so him- 

 self: but whilst he practises this for himself, 

 and recommends it to his friends, he pursues au 

 entirely different plan with his cattle. They 

 mu,st be exposed to both ; as if their sensations 

 and physiology differed in that respect from our 

 own. Let us keep our cattle warm, drj', and 

 well-fed, and we shall .seldom feel the cramp in 

 our pockets. — /. J. Mcchi, 4 LeadevhalU-trcet. 

 [Chelm.-itbrd Chronicle. 



