MEDITERRANEAN WHEAT ENTOMOLOGY, &C. 



249 



wheat from an acre, weight 02 lbs. to tlie bushel, 

 and averaging, say 40 grains to the head, how 

 mach of its sevei'al constituent salts is thereby 

 taken from the soils, and how much of these 

 must be replaced. I will suppose given for the 

 solution of this problem, the analysis of the soil 

 as accurate as may be, the usually observed 

 meteorological phenomena, and any other data 

 it may be in the power of a practical man to 

 i furnish. I think such a problem as this within 

 ' the scope of a Jackso.v or Dana to investigate. 

 I I conceive that a close relation will be found 

 ' between the nitrogen assimilated bj' any plant, 

 I and some inorganic constituent (alkali ?) required 

 I to feed it. I conceive, also, that the soil and at- 

 ' raosphere exert a reciprocal influence on each 

 I other ; a full supply of soluble mineral salts 

 ' causing, in the plant, a larger appropriation of 

 carbonic acid and ammonia, and when the Ibr- 

 mer are wanting, favorable weather may im- 

 part such vigor to the plant, as to enable it to 

 decompose the soil. 



Passing by many other points. I ^vould only 

 remark in our author's use of marl. Will not 

 the planters of this peninsula acknowledge the 

 beneficial effects of a layer of marl, jmly one 

 half an inch thick, 1-24 of his amount ? 

 St. Marys Co. Md. LOWOOD. 



THE F-UIMERS' LIBRARY IN DELAW.IRE— 



MEDITERRANEAN WHEAT. 

 Extract of a letter to the Editor from the Preeideut 



of the New-Castle Agricultural Society, giving an 



account of their late meeting, and sowing Wlicat 



early among Com. 



Wilmington, Sept. 20, 1845. 



O.N the subject of the " Farmers' Library," I 

 have not heretofore had time to write you. I will 

 now say it exceeds my most sanguine expecta- 

 tions, and is eveiy thing the farming interest 

 could desire in this or any other countiy. You 

 will soon have a number of subscribers in this 

 County, through your agents here. Several 

 copies have been ordered by our Society. I 

 shall in a week or two be at more leisure, and 

 will do all in my power to promote the circula- 

 tion of the " Library'' in this quarter. Now that 

 you have the command of an extensively circu- 

 lated journal, I wi.sh to draw your attention to 

 the practice of Mr. .Joseph Hos.singer of this 

 County, seeding Mediterranean wheat amongst 

 corn — communicated to me as President of our 

 Society, and which was .so satisfactorily received 

 last year, that about .'500 acres ^vcre thus put in, 

 aiid with complete success — this year twice or 

 thrice as much, and yet this method is not known 

 as it deserves to be. Mr. Hossinger's plan is to 

 manure his land that he intends for v\-heat, well 

 ■ in the Spring, and put it in corn, and in the last 

 plowiniT in July or first of August, to seed it 

 (501) 



with Mediterranean wheat — cut the corn off and 

 slack it as usual — tho' more open at bottom, to 

 admit air and light; and then husk the corn 

 when it is dry enough to house, and haul off" the 

 corn fodder — the growing wheat is not injured by 

 stacking the corn on it in this way. The pro- 

 duct has been from 20 to 39 bushels of wheat 

 per acre — a good com crop, and a saving of ex- 

 pense of fall plowing. &c. Experience in this 

 latitude with this variety of wheat, shows also 

 that it may be seeded much earlier than was 

 supposed, and with a certainty of procuring a 

 good crop. Nothing has astonished several gen- 

 tlemen from wheat district.s, in riding with me 

 lately, more than the gi-een fields of wheat among 

 corn, after the manner of my friend Hossinger, 

 and were surprised that this Delaware i)ractice 

 was not generally known in so important a mat- 

 ter as the production of wheat. 



Ae ever, tnily your fiiend, 



JAMES W. THOMSON. 



ENTOMOLOGY. 

 [Editorial Correspondence.] 

 To John S. Skin'ner, Esq : Your discourse 

 on insects in the second number of the Monthly 

 Journal of Agriculture is what most fanners very 

 much need. There is great ignorance preva- 

 lent on the subject of destructive insects. Few 

 are able now to distinguish their friends from 

 their foes. "What! friends among insects !" 

 some one will say, " I thought all insects were 

 enemies, to vegetation, and should be destroyed 

 without much discrimination." If any think so 

 they are in error, for many insects are carnivo- 

 rous, living on other insects, and doing injury to 

 no vegetable production. All persons have no- 

 ticed the swift-ninning, dark-colored beetles in 

 their gardens and fields. In the day time tiiey 

 may be found under stones and hoards, or in the 

 thick grass. These insects should be protected, 

 for they destroy va.st numbers of grubs and cat- 

 erpillars, that live in or near the ground. Tiiey 

 destroy them in the larvas-state as well as in the 

 perfect .state. They have been known to eat up 

 the cut-worm at the root of a cabbage-plant — 

 but the gardener seeing the plant destroyed, and 

 after digging finding nothing but the insect de- 

 stroyer, has taken this to be the enemy, and 

 crashed him forthwith. Many vegetable bene- 

 factors have thus been exterminated, for want 

 of a little entomological knowledge. 



]Jut I am not about to write a long letter on 

 this subject. My object is to commend to your 

 notice a work " on insects that are injurious to 

 vegetation," by Dr. T. ^V. Harris, of Cambridge, 

 Mass. It was published in 1841, agreeably to 

 an order of the Legislature. Although it pro- 

 fes.'sedly treats of the in.sects of Massachu.setts, 

 still it will prove a useful book in the hands of 



