EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 93 



place of those severer studies with wliich children are too often tasked prema- 

 turely, and as absurdly as if a dandy were required to take up the load of a giant. 

 This extract cannot fail at all events, short as it is, to signify as well the value, 

 as the interesting nature of the study of entomology in all our country schools, as 

 it is obvious that by a little encouragement and explanation, it may be brought 

 within the comprehension of very youthful minds. 



'■ It is somowliut starllii'.g to jiffinn that tho condition of tho Imman race is seriously in- 

 jured by these petty annoyances; but it is peifectly true that tlie art and industiy of man 

 have not yet been able to overcome the collective force, the individual ])erseveranco, aud 

 the complicaTed nuicliineiy of destruction whicli in.sects emj)l()y. A small ant, accordiu"- to 

 a most careful and pliilosopliiial obsener, imposes almost invincible ol)stac;los Ut tlio pro'Tess 

 of civilization iii many parts of tlie equinoctial zone. These animals devour paper and parch- 

 inent ; they destroy eveiy book and manuscript. Many provinces of Sjianish America can- 

 not, in conseciuence, show a written document of a hundred years' existence. ' What de- 

 velopment,' lie adds, ' can the civilization of a people assume, if there be nothing to connect 

 the present witli the past — if tlie deposit')ries of human knowledge must be constantly re- 

 newed — if tho monmueuts of genius and wisdom cannot be transmitted to posterity ? '* 

 Again, there are beetles which deposit their larvie in trees in sucli foimidaljle numbers that 

 whole forests perish beyond the power of remedy. The j)ines of tln> Hart/, bave thus been 

 destroyed to an enomious e.xtent; and in North America, at one ])lace in .South Carolina, at 

 least ninety trees in every liundred, u[)on a tract of two thousand acres, were swept away by 

 a small black, winged bug. And yet, according to Wilson, the historian of American birds, the 

 people of the United States were in the habit of destroying tlie red-hea(h>(l woodpecker, tlie 

 great enemy of these insects, because he occasionally spoilt an apple. t The same delightful 

 writer and tnie naturalist, speaking of the labors of the ivory-ljilled woodjiecker, says 

 ' Would it be believed that the larvae of an insect or fly, no larger than a grain of rice, should 

 silently, and in one season, destroy some thousand acres of pine-trees, many of them from 

 two to three feet in diameter, and a hundred and tifty feet high ? In some places the whole 

 woods, as far as you can see around you, are dead, stripped of the bark, their winliy-looking 

 arms and bare trunks bleaching in the sun, luid tumbling in niiiis before eveiy blast. 't The 

 subternuieous larva of some species of beetle has often caused a complete failure of the seed 

 corn, as in the district of Halle in 1812. || The corn-weevil, which extracts ^le flour from 

 grain, leaving the husk behind, will destroy the contents of the largest storehouses in a veiy 

 short jieriod. The wire-worm and the turnip-fly are dreaded by eveiy fanner. The rav- 

 ages of the locust are too W(>11 known not to be at once recollected as im example of the for- 

 midable collective power of the insect race. The white ants of tropical counti-ies sweep 

 away whole villages with as much certainty as a fire or an inundation ; and ships even have 

 be<;n destroyed by these indefatigable republics. Our own docks and enibankmeufs have 

 been threatened by such minute ravagers." 



GOOD MANAGEMENT, AS SHOWN IN ITS RESULTS. 



"Walnut Grave, near Genev.\, N. Y. 20th March. 1846. 

 " I CULTIVATE about 130 acres of land, and my fann is situated on the shores of the Seneca 

 Lake, a short distance south of Geneva. By particular attention to three simple things for a 

 few yeai-s past, I have niised the product of my fann to a point which is exciting a good deal 

 of attention. The things refened to are, verj- deep plowing aud the very fi-ee use of clover 

 seed and plaster. In 1814 I raised 1,.504 bushels wheat, 700 corn, 600 potatoes, and 100 of 

 clover seed, and cut about 80 tons of hay. In 1845 I raised 1,500 bushels bai'ley, 800 of 

 com, 1,057 of potatoes and 12^ bushels clover seed, and cut upward of 100 tons of hay. 

 This year I expect to exceed either of the two previous years, and when this additional test 

 of the excellence of my system is furnished, I shall, if you deem it [as we certainly do] of 

 sufficient consequence, communicate the particulars for The Farmers' Library. If not tres- 

 passhig on your time and politeness, I will thank you to infonn me whether clover hay is 

 much sought and used in yom- city." 



Clover hay is not in demand in cities. It is usually reserved by Long Island 

 and other farmers when made, as it not often is, unmixed, for their neat cattle. 

 It makes excellent food for n^ilch cows, cut and mixed, wet, Avith Indian meaL 



* IJumboMt, Voyage, lib. vii. ch. 20. f Amer. Omith. i. p. 141. 



% Aiuer. Ornith. iu. p. 21, || Bluxnenbach ; see aiao Insect Tranflfcrmations. p. 231. 



(169) 



