^^W EMGlrAIVB FABMEII. 



PuLHsked by Joh. B. Russex.., ai M. 52 mHl^MarkHJtreH, (over the ^^Vu^uraT^-a^e^^^^^^^l^^^^^ITG^f^^^^^l^ 



VOL vn. 



BG^TW^RID^VTocfo^^ 828. 



No. 13. 



AGRICULTURE. 



(Prepared by the Editor.) 



ILLS OF IGNOR4KCE IN ENTOMOLOGY. 



We are told that in Germany, tlie gardenere 

 and country people, wi»h sreat iiidustrv ffather i .„„„ . • 



whole basket's full of the caterpillar of \lfeTs'TeI'V"'"'' T^ "^ '"^^-°-' '^'^ 



tractive cabbage u.oxh(XoHua Bras.ice, Fab.) a:J ^- been nnported. It was thns that the moth 



entomological knowledge is necessary, both to 

 I prevent fatal mistakes, and to enable ns to check 

 i with cflcct the rovages ofinsccts. But ignorance 



in this respect is not only unfit to remedy the evil; 



on the contrary it may often be regarded as its' 



pause. A large pro:.r>rtion of the most noxious 



liicn bury them, which as Roesel well observes, is 



■.(Tinea Mdlovella) so destrii.-five in bee-hives, and 



just as if we should endeavor to kill a crab by .'''!,> "T"'"'®"^ ^l^.^i- (Lema A.paragi. F.) .vere 



covermg it with water ; for, many of them being 

 full grown and ready to pass into their next state, 

 which they do under ground, instead of destroy- 

 ing them by this manoauvre, their appearance 

 again the following year in greater numbers is ac- 

 tually facilitated. Yet this plan applied to our 

 common cabbage caterj)illar, which does not go 

 under ground would succeed. So that some 

 knowledge of the manners of an insect is often 

 requisite to enable us to check its ravages effect- 

 ually. With respect to noxious caterpillars in 

 general, agriculturists and gardeners are not usu- 

 ally aware that the best mode of preventing their 

 attacks is to destroy the female fly before she ' 

 laid her eggs, to do vthich the moth 

 from each must be first ascertained 

 research were carried sti 

 them to distinguish the 

 haunts, and it woul- 



made denizens of Sweden. The insect that has 

 destroyed all the peach trees in St Helena was 

 imported from the Cape ; and in England (not to 

 mention bugs and cockropxhes) the great pest of 

 our orchards; the apple .Vphis, there is good reas- 

 on to believe, was introduced with some foreign 

 apple trees. Now, extensive as is our commerce, 

 :l is next to impossible, by any precautions, to pre- 

 vent the injportation of these noxious agents. A 

 cargo, or even a sample, of peas from North 

 America, might present us with that ravager of 

 |>ulse, the pea-beetle (Bruclms Pisis L); or the 

 famed Hessian fly, which some years ago caused 

 such trepidation in our cabinet, might have been 

 conveyed here in a ship load of wheat. Leeu- 

 wenhock's wolf ^r(ne« srranella, F.) might visit us 

 in a similar conveyance, from Holland or France. 

 But though introduced, were entomology a more 

 general pursuit, their presence would soon be 

 detected, and the evil at once nipt in the bud ; 

 whereas in a country v,'here this science was not 

 £:«.i)l) or little cultivated, they would most proba- 

 bly have increased to such an extent before they 

 attracted notice, that every effort to 

 them would have proved ineffectual. 



We have seen some further specimens of paper 

 made from straw and from blue f!;russ, according 

 to McGiiw's patent. The invention is said to 

 prove entirely successful. A manufactory has 

 been established at Chambcrshurg, in this state, 

 and machinery, &c. is jireparing t^'r the manufac- 

 ture of 300 reams a day. TIk! paper is firm and 

 strong, carries ink well, and is very suitable for 

 wrapping, and it is believed, for hanging also, and 

 for all other purposes where strong paper is re- 

 quired, and can be fnrnisiied at a price so much 

 below that made from any other material as to 

 supercede every other of the kind. — Penn. Gcr.. 



extirjiate 



lias 

 proceediuL'^ 

 But if their 

 11 further, so as to enable 

 pupa and discover its 

 not be at all diflicult to de- 

 tect that of the greatest pest of our gardens the 

 cabbage butterfly, the work might be still more 

 effectually accomplished. 



Some larvae are polyphagous, or feed upon a 

 variety of plants ; among others that of the yel- 

 low-tail moth (Bomhyi chrysot-hrea, F.); yet gar- 

 deners think they have done enough if they des- 

 troy the web-like nests which so often deform our 

 fruit trees, without suspecting that new armies of 

 assailants %vill wander from those on other plants] 

 which they have suffered to remain. Thus will 

 thousands be produced in the following season, 

 which had they known how to distinguish them, 

 might have been extirpated. Another instance 

 occurred to a friend when walking with a 

 gentleman in his estate at a village in Yorkshire. 

 His attention was attracted by several circular 

 patches of dead grass, each having a stick with 

 rags suspended to it placed in the centre. He at 

 once discerned that the larva of the cock-chafer 

 had eaten the roots of the grass, which being pull- 

 ed up by the rooks [crows] that devour thfs mis- 

 chievous grub, these birds had been mistaken by 

 the tenant for the cause of the evil, and the rags 



were placed to frighten away his best friends.— i 



Nor could he convince him by "11 that was said, A Maine paper, the Wiscasset Intclli-encer 

 that the rooks were not the cause of the evil.- k\vs that the crops of hav in that state the present 

 tyen philosophers sometimes fall into gross mis- ^'.ason, have been abmulant— the crop of -rain 

 takes from this spec.es of ignorance. Dr Darwin | lolerably good— of Indian corn there is a good 



upply, we" 



A new species of the Bejuco de Guaco, so cel- 

 ebrated in South America for its !)ower of curing 

 wounds made by the most poisonous serpents, is 

 now in full flower in the stove of A. B. Lambert, 

 Esq. of Buyton House, Wilts, (one of the Vice 

 Presidents of the Linnajan Society,) running from 

 one end of the stove to the other, and filling the 

 house with the perfume of its flowers. It was 

 rai.sed from seed sent tiom Carthagena last year 

 to a gentleman in this town, by Mr Watts, the 

 British t'on.sul there. The Theopiirasta Ameri- 

 cana, a most curious plant, with the appearance of 

 a palm, raised from seed, brought from St Domin- 

 go, by Dr Hamilton, ten years ago, has flowered 

 in the same gentleman's stove this summer for 

 the first limn. — English pa. 



DAIRIES. 



Nothing but milk and cream should be kept in 

 liries ; nor anything that has a strong scent, al- 

 though it may be sweet, should ever be placed in 

 or near the milk room; but bad scents, particu- 

 larly, greatly lessen the product of butter dairies, 

 !iy preventing a complete separation of the cream 

 from the milk — IvaisttlVs Designs fur Agricullu- 

 ral Buildings. 



LOFTS OVER STABLES, 



Are bad places for both hay and corn ; as these 

 articles \n that situation, must be more or less im- 

 l)regnate"d with the noxious effluvia arising from 

 the stale and dung, as well as from the breath of 

 horses, thereby diminishing the nutritive qualities 

 of the food, and occasioning disgust to the animals 

 that eat it. — Ibid. 



^Igricultvre. — The iHi.ntpelier (Vt.) Republican 

 states that the p;. necLs of the farmer are bright- 

 ening in that quarter. Wheat and flour have'la- 

 ken a raiiid rise. The former was selling last 

 week at $1.40 per bushel, and the latter at §7 

 per barrel, and very probably will rise. This itn- 

 provement in the prices of agricultural products 

 is very properly ascribed in part to a prospect of 

 an increased demand in Europe, and partly to the 

 influence of the tariff in creating a market at 

 home. The fanner may often be at a loss, as to 

 the most favorable moment for disposing of his 

 surplus iiroduce. It would perhaps, be the safest 

 policy, as a general ruje, to accept of fair prices, 

 without indulging extravagant ex|)cctations. We 

 can do no more than give, from time to time, all 

 the information in our power, as to the state of 

 the market, leaving our agricultural subscribers to , 

 judge for themselves — //. Y. Statesman. 



has observed, that destroying the beautiful but in- 

 jurious woodpeckers is the only alternative for 

 preventing the injury they do to "our forest trees 

 by boring into them ; not being aware that they 

 bore only those trees which insects had previous- 

 ly attacked, and that they diminish very consider- 

 •tbly the number of such as are prejudicial to our 

 forests. 



From these facts it is sufficiently evident that 



ri])ened, and already mostly harvest- 

 ed — potatos not so abundant — the crop of grain 

 tolerably good— of Indian corn there is a good 

 supply well ripened, and already mostly harvest- 

 ed— potatos not so abundant as in some former 

 seasons, but a pretty fair crop. 



Hams afler being smoked, may be preserved 

 through the year by packing them in oats. 



Fall of leaves. — An article on this subject, trans- 

 lated from a paper by Prof Vaucher, in the JIc- 

 moirs of the Natural History Society at Geneva, 

 is given in Brewster's Journal for October, 182tj. 

 which appears to us to account for the phenome- 

 na of the fall of the leaf in a more satisfactory 

 manner than any preceding theory. According 

 to Prof Vaucher, every leaf consists of a distinct 

 system of fibres, which liave only a temporary 

 ! continuity and unity with the shoot, kept up by a 

 kind of adhesive substance, which, when the 

 purpose of the leaf in the parent plant is severed, 

 is dried up or dissolved. "The adhesive sub- 

 stance is iirobably formed by some portion of the 

 parenchyma interpo.sed between the two system.? 

 of fibres. While this parenchyma is under the 

 influence of the vegetable action, the adhesion is 

 maintained ; when this action ceases, the union is 



