384 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Arc. 



ing established your pasture lots in proportion 

 to your farm v/ants, which can always be kept in 

 a high grazing condition, and at little expense, 

 convert the balance into woodland, and a few 

 years will give you a forest of great value. The 

 dead pasture waste, sometimes half of the farm 

 territory, seems to me one of the great farming 

 oversights of the more populous parts of New 

 England. How often do we see the "axe laid at 

 the root of the tree," to make more "tillage land," 

 while the old, cleared acres, are suffering for want 

 of the plow. The pasture lies, a bald, grimmy 

 waste, perhaps, and probably, the best soil on 

 the homestead. Neither spade or plow has 

 opened its surface since the removal of its pri- 

 meval forest. Within its bosom, may be found 

 rocks enough to lay your walls, and at odd jobs, 

 with small expense, a great and permanent work 

 can be accomplished. 



Mr. Editor, I humbly trust you and every farm- 

 er will subscribe to my doctrine ; and my only 

 regret is, my inability to do the subject greater 

 justice. li. Poor. 



Brooklyn, L. 1., June 12, 1859. 



With regard to this insect travelling along under 

 the ground, I think this doubtful ; they may, and 

 they undoubtedly do, enter all the roots in near 

 proximity, but farther than this, they probably 

 do not progress until the next season, when the 

 perfect insect emerges in the spring. 



I received two ounces of the Weathersfield red 

 onion, last spring, part of v/hich I sov/ed, and 

 the bed is well filled v/itli the worm. The balance 

 of this seed is that with which I have made these 

 experiments of soaking. J. M. IVES. 



Salem, July, 1859. 



THS RIV^H OF LIFE. 



For the AVa> England Farmer. 

 ONION FIiT. 



A correspondent in your last Farmer recom- 

 mends soaking onion seed "36 hours in strong 

 soap-suds before sowing," with the impression 

 that the eggs of this insect are laid upon the seed. 

 In this I apprehend that he is entirely mistaken. 

 I have, by the strictest examination with the mi- 

 croscope, before and after soaking, been unable 

 to detect eggs or germs of any kind in the seed. 

 Another quite as strong proof that the eggs are 

 not found upon the seed, is, that one cultivator 

 this spring, who sowed three pounds of the 

 Weathersfield red onions, has not as yet been able 

 to detect a single instance of the worm in his 

 patch, while another, who sowed two pounds of 

 seedy)-om the same lot, has already lost, or near- 

 ly so, his whole bed by this destructive worm. 



Regarding the various methods adopted in 

 England for the destruction of this pest which I 

 forwarded to you some days since. I would par- 

 ticularly recommend the trcncliing or deep ploio- 

 ing of the land in the faF., or just before winter, 

 believing that the chrysalis of the insect, if 

 buried deep, will be unable to develop itself, par- 

 ticularly if thus buried below the' influence of the 

 sun and air of spring. In this matter, however, 

 I am instituting experiments by transplanting 

 these onions carefully, without disturbing them, 

 into boxes of vaiious depths, in order to ascer- 

 tain how deep they descend to undergo this 

 transformation. I imagine that this insect, like 

 the canker worm, has its period of growth, and 

 also its desent into the ground. I have, upon a 

 small bed, applied tobacco water without effect, 

 and more recently tar-water and soot ; this latter 

 has a better effect. As regards guano, there have 

 been various opinions, and it has occurred to me 

 that these conflicting accounts have been in con- 

 sequence of this insect appearing on one part, (it 

 may be the corner of his plat,) and then applying 

 guano over the whole bed, and this worm not ex- 

 tending itself that season over the whole bed, he 

 assumes that he stopped his farther progress. 



Blood is the mighty river of life, the mysteri- 

 ous centre of chemical and vital actions as won- 

 derful as they are indispensable. It is a torrent 

 impetuously rushing through every part of the 

 body, carrying by an elaborate net work of ves- 

 sels, which, in the course of the twelve months, 

 convey to the various tissues not less than three 

 thousand pounds weight of nutritive material, and 

 convey from the various tissues three thousand 

 pounds weight of waste. At every moment of 

 our lives there is nearly ten pounds of this fluid 

 rushing in one continuous, throbbing stream, 

 from the heart through the great arteries, which 

 branch and branch like a tree, the vessels becom- 

 ing smaller and smaller as they subdivide, till 

 they are invisible to the naked eye, and then they 

 are called capillaries, hair-like vessels — although 

 they are no more to be compared to hairs than 

 hairs are with cables. 



These vessels form a net work finer than the 

 finest lace, so fine, indeed, that if we pierce the 

 surface at almost any part with the point of a nee- 

 dle, w-e open one of them, and let out its blood. 

 In these vessels the blood yields some of its nu- 

 trient materials, and receives in exchange some 

 of the wasted products of tissue ; thus modified, 

 the stream continues its rapid course back to the 

 heart, through a system of veins, which com- 

 mence in the myriad of capillaries which form the 

 termination of the arteries. The veins, instead 

 of subdividing like the arteries, become gradual- 

 ly less and less numerous, their twigs entering 

 branches, and their branches trunks, till they 

 reach the heart. No sooner has the blood poured 

 into the heart from the veins, than it rushes 

 through the lungs, and from them back again to 

 the heart and arteries, thus completing the circle 

 or circulation. 



This wonderful stream, constantly circulating, 

 occupies the very centre of the vital organism, 

 midway between the functions of nutrition and 

 excretion, feeding and stimulating the organs in- 

 to activity, and removing from them all their 

 useless material. In its torrent, upwards of for- 

 ty different substances are hurried along ; it 

 carries gases, it carries salt — it even carries met- 

 als and soaps! Millions of organized cells float 

 in its liquid ; and of these cells, which by some 

 are considered organized entities, twenty mil- 

 lions are said to die at every pulse of the heart, 

 to be replaced by other millions. The iron which 

 it washes onward can be separated. Professor 

 Berard used to exhibit a lump of it in his lecture 

 room — nay, one ingenious Frenchman has sug- 

 gested that coins should be struck from the met- 

 al extracted from the blood of great men. 



