NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



417 



THE MICROSCOPE, 



No very earnest interest can be taken in a sub- 

 ject unless we know something of it. A person 

 who has little taste for mechanical matters, who 

 never examines machinery or reads upon the sub- 

 ject, looks upon the precise and beautiful action of 

 the locomotive as it passes him, with about the 

 same interest that most of us would upon a rusty 

 page of Arabic or Low Dutch. So it is with the 

 Farmer. When the weevil destroys his wheat, 

 the grub his corn, the fly his turnips and potatoes. 

 the caterpillar his trees and the curculio his fruit, 

 in his vexation of spirit, and the utter want of 

 knowledge of the purposes of the Great Architect 

 in sending these destroyers, he is apt to look upon 

 them as an unqualified evil. In heaviness of heart 

 he is led to inquire, — why is it necessary that an 

 interminable warfare must be waged against count- 

 less numbers of ever-changing, destructive insects, 

 before we can reap in the crops, the fruits of our 

 wearisome toils ? We seem to have learned that 

 weeds, after all, are a blessing — and if with patient 

 assiduity and trusting hope we pursue our investi- 

 gations, we shall by-and-by become satisfied that 

 the beautiful creatures which we now denounce as 

 robbers, depredators and pests, were perhaps ne- 

 cessary to our own comfort and welfare ! 



Let us, then, use every means within our reach 

 to ascertain what their office and destiny is, what 

 part they act in the great field of operation which 

 we occupy, and how far they may be permitted to 

 share with us the fruits of our labors. To do this 

 we must study their persons and habits patiently 

 and carefully, learn when they come and go, where 

 they inhabit, and what they are about while with 

 us, and if they encroach too largely on the crops 

 we are cultivating, this knowledge may aid us in 

 averting their encroachments. 



The use of the microscope will not only aid us in 

 our researches, but will open a world never con- 

 ceived of before by many, and afford the liveliest 

 gratification to the inquirer. As we examine and 

 study, the insect and vegetable world will rise, not 

 only into importance, but into a magnificent crea- 

 tion, exciting in us the most profound admiration 

 of the wisdom and skill of the Creator ! In a crea- 

 ture so small as scarcely to be visible to the naked 

 eye, we find a perfect organization and wonder- 

 ful adaption of parts to its habits. We find a 

 strength and agility infinitely surpassing that of 

 any man or quadruped that has ever existed ; and 

 a perfectness of construction and brilliancy of col- 

 oring outstripping the most gorgeous plumage and 

 dyes of any of the feathered race. 



Apply anything to its wonderful power, the mi 

 nutest piece of skin taken from the delicate finger 

 that never toiled, and, lo ! it has deep cells and 

 high prominences, exhibiting a surface so uncouth 

 as almost to shock the sensibilities of its late 

 fair possessor ! There are its deep recesses with 



their corresponding ridges and shining, granulated 

 appearance. You look into the mouth of a spider 

 no larger than the head of a small pin, or see him 

 close his beautiful eye. You "examine the edge 

 of the sharpest razor and it will appear fully as 

 broad as the back of a knife ; rough, uneven and 

 full of notches and furrows. An exceedingly small 

 needle resembles an iron bar. But the sting of a 

 bee seen through the same instrument exhibits ev- 

 erywhere the most beautiful polish without the 

 least flaw, blemish or inequality, and ends in a 

 point too fine to be discovered. The threads of a 

 fine lawn are coarser than the yarn with which 

 ropes are made for anchors. But a silk worm's 

 web appears_ perfectly smooth and shining, and 

 everywhere equal. The smallest dot made with a 

 pen appears irregular and uneven. But the lit- 

 tle specks on the wings or bodies of insects are 

 found to be the accurate circle." How wonder- 

 ful are these things to the mind that will reflect 

 upon them ! 



But to what end shall all this labor be applied ? 

 will be the inquiry of the indifferent. Does he 

 forget that the insect under the glass is the work 

 of an Almighty Hand, lives, breathes, and enjoys, 

 and makes a part of the wonderful creation about 

 us ! That it receives omnipotent care ; comes 

 forth and retires at its bidding ; has its specific 

 work assigned, perhaps to rear a mountain in the 

 ocean, or undermine a city, or is, perhaps, too 

 minute in its operations to arrest our observation, 

 but still under the same fatherly care with our- 

 selves ! "In wisdom has he made them all. These 

 all wait upon thee, that thou mayest give them 

 their meat in due season. That thou givest them 

 they gather ; thou openest thine hand, they are 

 filled with good. Thou hidest thy face, they are 

 troubled : thou takest away their breath, they die, 

 and return to the dust." 



"0 Lord, how great are thy works ! and thy 

 thoughts are very decp. ,, 



Remembering, then, that the tiniest of the in- 

 sects which destroy our crops are the work of His 

 "eery deep thoughts'''' — that they all wait upon 

 Him, that they may have their '•'■■meat in due sea- 

 son^ it becomes us to protect ourselves in all 

 humility, in trusting hope, and all thankfulness of 

 heart, for the abundance that is left. 



Black Rain. — On Friday morning, says the 

 Kilkenny Moderator (Ireland,) between six and 

 seven o'clock, a heavy shower, which lasted for 

 upwards of twenty minutes, fell over tlm city and 

 a considerable district adjoining. The rain proved 

 upon examination to have been of almost an inky 

 blackness, and had all the appearance of being 

 impregnated with soot and charcoal. In the last 

 year of the cholera we were visited by a similar 

 shower, and in the popular superstitions the ap- 

 pearance of that dreadful disease was largely at- 

 tributed to the circumstance. 



