122 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



vate them. Then again, the fact that a soil is usually in this 

 condition when poor, is agreeable to analogy. Animals are not 

 infested with worms until they are lean and poor. Children poor- 

 ly fed, are the subjects in which worms most abound. On the 

 other hand, children and the young of all animals which are sup- 

 plied with abundance of nutricious food, are rarely if evertifflicted 

 with parasitic worms. We may look at the subject in another 

 point of view. Animals which are well fed resist the effects of 

 worms. So a soil which is rich, produces plants which are capable 

 of withstanding the injuries of worms. A feeble plant which 

 would be inevitably destroyed by a worm, might, if vigorous, con- 

 tinue to grow and finally outlive the injury. If the views we 

 have expressed are but partially correct, we think we are warrant- 

 ed in the conclusion that one of the best remedies for worms is 

 high cultivation ; and as a preservative means, that cultivation 

 which preserves the soil in a good condition is the one which will 

 ensure it against these animals. But admitting that we are not cor- 

 rect in the view we take of the subject, still, we are satisfied that 

 most of the remedies which have been proposed are worthless. 

 Salt, for instance, is not unfrequently recommended, which is to be 

 sowed broadcast over the field. Now, it would seem that if a 

 person would reflect a moment, they would see that the small quan- 

 tity of this material to which we are restricted, would not have the 

 least etTect on the worm ; and so of any substance whatever which 

 has hitherto, or which can be recommended for this specific pur- 

 pose. Soaking the seed in bitter, saline or poisonous substances is 

 by far a more direct method of efCeciing the object; still it is w 

 (juestion whether even their good effects do not originate from the 

 vigor which the young plant derives from the solution. We leave 

 tlifs subject at this time with one additional recommendation, 

 viz : preserve the birds from the (U-adly fire of the rascally boys of 

 the neighborhood. We would extend protection even to the crow, 

 that black coated vagabond, as he has been called ; every humane 

 farmer, however, will of course see that the birds are not only not 

 destroyed, but protected; and every selfish, narrow contracted one, 

 we sboukl expect, would guard his interest so far, as to prevent the 

 deftruction of animals which are of so much importance to him as 

 robins, sparrows, swallows and bluebirds, together with hosts of 

 others equally usefui. 



