210 



N E W ENGLAND FAR M E R, 



JAN 10, 18 '8. 



E^'gs, in gcneidl, nre es-lecticed Cur llitir fVesli 

 ncsiJ, and tlie iiliSKiice ol'ill smell, a cinalily, which 

 without artifuMal nieaiis, it is iiii|)ossilile liiiif,' to 

 |)ifSKrve. 'i liey are proiio to absorb oiior.-^ ;;ii<i 

 flavors, ami thi!reror(^ must be carorully protrctcil. 

 A newly laid egg, IcCt in mahogany shavings, will 

 shortly acquire a flavor that will prove quite, dis- 

 agreeable to the taste ; and it is well known that 

 musty strnsv speedily imparts a very nupleas.^nt 

 flavor. 



Eggs may be preserved by greasing the sliells, 

 or by immersion in a thin mixture of linie and 

 water, the whole being contained in a glass vessel 

 well rorked and eeuiented. Uy this process they 

 have been kept perfectly fresh tor six years. Let 

 newly laid eggs be put into jars also, and packed 

 with raspings of bread, being corked and luted, 

 and exposed in a water br)th to the teuqierattirc 

 of 200° F., and in six months they will be as 

 fresh as ever. Eggs may also be |)reserved by 

 I)acking them into pots and covering them with 

 (nelted butter or lard. In this state they will 

 keep a long time, but the method is expensive. 

 Some eggs preserve by packing them in salt. — 

 'J'hese modes probably act by excluding the air, 

 an agent which gretKly promotes putrefaclion. 

 However close the she I of an egg may appear, 

 it is, in reality, very | oious ; for if an egg be laiil 

 on the naked fire, and atteutivcdy watched, the al- 

 bumen may be seen forcing its way through the 

 pores before the shell bin-sls. At Iferculureum, 

 eggs shells were foumi perfectly unbroken, yet 

 empty, which proves that the contents must have 

 evaporated through the iiores.* It has also been 

 proved by experiment that eggs sensibly grow 

 lighter by being kept. In Scotland it is conmion 

 to preserve eggs by dipiiing them into boiling wa- 

 ter, in order to destroy, as is said, the vital prin- 

 ciple ; but, more; probably, to coagulate a stratum 

 of albumen next the shell, and thus to obstruct 

 the entrance of air through the pores. 



(From the Albany Cultiv:\lor.) 



T H E G II A I N WORM. 

 J. BoEL Esq. — Sir: The first that 1 knew of 

 this insect doing any considerable damage was in 

 1833, and the extent of damage that year I cannot 

 ascertain. I had a field of al)Out five acris of 

 summer fallow wheat that was materially injured ; 

 and there were other fields in the vicinity whicli 

 were said to be injured likewise. The insect was 

 called the weavel. Since that year i have not 

 seen nor heard of its ravages till this year. I hiive 

 heard of its ravages in the southern jiart of this 

 county, to what extent I know not. I iliil not 

 <liscover the worm in my wheat inilil harvest, 

 when I foun<l the grain light, and on the sugges- 

 tion of a man in the field, I looked and lound the 

 cause. Many heads were wholly destroyed, and 

 the worm had left: while other ears contained 

 worms, some more and some less; and on thresh- 

 ing some of the wheat soon after housing, then; 

 were worms among the wheat, until distuibcil by 

 the flail, continuing their depredations; but they 

 soon ilisai)peared. As to the character of the 

 worm, in its several transmigrations, it appears 

 ilifl^jrent from most insects that inhabit the air. — 

 Those worms that feed on vegetables and people 

 the air in their perfect or insect state, deposite 

 their eggs late in summer or autnmo, and they 

 appear in the worm stale in the spring, and com- 

 mence their tiepredations early in the spring or 

 Bummer: but this worm does not appear until the 



whe.it begins to form in the ear; the fly is sup- 

 posed to make its appearance about the last of 

 June. From these facts I should be Jed io be- 

 lieve that it lies in its chry.salis state during the 

 winter, and apjiears the fly in June or later, ac- 

 cording to the temperature of the air. The chry- 

 salis probably is formed in grass or other vcgeta- 

 l>le matter near th(! groimd, and an exposure to 

 light and lu.'at is necessary to bring forth the in- 

 sect ; perhaps ploughing in tlie stubble may be a 

 irevenlivc, by burjiug the chrysalis in the ground 

 aiid excluding it fron: light and heat; this was my 

 management in 1833, the srubhle was ploughed in 

 and sown to winter wheat ; the worm did not ap- 

 pear liext season. As to this being a new species 

 ol insect I must differ frojn others, as I suppose 1 

 have seen it in small numbers at certain periods 

 lor more than thirty years, and I am led to believe 

 that it is the same which is frequently seen in the 

 pea pods preying upon tlie tender pea. I do not 

 recollect ever seeing it in barley or oats, but think 

 I have seen it in rye. As to the destruction of 

 the worm entirely, 1 suppose it is as itnpossible as 

 it would b(! to subvert those laws of iiaturt?, which 

 lirought it into, and keeps it in existence ; for 

 when God cursed the ground for iiian's sake, he 

 not only proilui;ed brieis and thorns, Imt put in 

 requisition the insect tribes, that he who cultivates 

 the ground should not oidy have scope lor bodily 

 exertion, but that the energies of his mind might 

 also be put in requisition to obtain his daily bread. 

 Having made these observalions and already sug- 

 gested lliB propriety of ploughing as a preventive, 

 1 should like to be informed whether the worm 

 has coiumilted equal ravages on wheat sown on 

 stubble grounds as en summer fallows : this may 

 be thought needless, as the worm is said to prey 

 upon spring wheat ; but I think it is probable if 

 the worm lies in chrysalis during the winter, that 

 it comes forth early in the sjuiiig, or it may be 

 assumes the bug form before it appears in a flying 

 insect, like the dragon fly, and the locust. If this 

 is the case probably spring ploughing would not 

 be early enough to prevent its ;ippeafance. As 

 to early sowing of winter wheat, and late sowing 

 of spring wheat, perhaps it is worthy of an exper- 

 iment; but it must be as a matter of considera- 

 tion, that insects generally are produced only by 

 a certain degree of heat, and that they vary in 

 coming forth ten or twelve days, in the same teio- 

 eveii the same sjiecics. 



peraturc and even the same sjiecics. '! his is 

 known to be the case with the siikwoiui. -'^mi 

 there is another consideratioii ; harvest does not 

 come to maturity at the expiration of a certain 

 number of days every year, but may vary filteeii 

 or twenty days as it did this year, 'i'herefore I 

 would say, with the inspired penman, " in the 

 morning sow thy seed, and in the evening with- 

 hold not thy band, for who knoweth which will 

 pros|)er, either this or that, or whether tliey both 

 will be alike good ;" that is give all diligence to 

 be prepared to sow at the proper season, if the 

 weather and other circumstances permit, but re- 

 member the old ad;,ge " better late than never." 

 One observation more ; insects generally are pe- 

 riodical in their appearance and depredations ; nut 

 that they fulfil a certain number of years exactly, 

 or that they appear but one year at a time ; some- 

 times they continue several years in succession, 

 anil then disappear for a season ; at other times 

 they will appear and bear destruction with them 

 for or.e season, and not be seen again for a num- 

 ber of years, as was the c«se with the I'almer 



woruis, (so called,) that appeared in this vicinity, 

 in 1831. With these facts before us, let us use 

 every exertion to find a relief Irojii the ravages ol 

 those insects we cp.nnot destroy ; relying <n tbt 

 blessing of a bountiful Providence. Industry and 

 perseverance will do much, so nuicli indeed, thai 

 "seed time and harvest will not fail" ; and the pool 

 of our lanil will be satisfied with bread. 



Yours respectfully, ASA CARTER. 



Champion, Jefferson county, fSept. 28, 1837. 



CFrom the Gi-nesee Farmer.) 



L J M E. 



There is no fact connected with ngrickiltun 

 more incontrovcrtibly jiroved, than that the pres 

 ence of lime in the soil is indispensable to th 

 production of wheat. Dr Mitchell, one of th 

 ablest observers and writers this country has ye 

 seen, apoears to have been one of the first to ca 

 the atteiition of farmers to this fact, and atteinj 

 an explanation of tlie reasons which led to such 

 result. In the mean time, those self taught phi 

 osophers, the Germans of Pennsylvania, had b 

 experience discovered its value and adopted i 

 use, in preparing their soils for the [iroduction < 

 this staple crop, and were thus enabled to kec 

 up the foriility of their farms and their productivi 

 ness for wheat ; while the Dutch and English fa 

 mers in the once rich vallies of New York, ai ' 

 on the banks of the Mohawk and Schoharie, lour I 

 their farms giowii>g worthless for wheat, and hai j 

 long been compelled nearly to ahandon its cult 

 vation. In New England thercsuit was the sam | 

 only the exhaustion was sooner performed, as tl 

 stock of calcareous matter in the earth being mui ' 

 smaller, and the effect of the alkaline siibstanC' ' 

 produced in clearing the land on tlie animal ma' 

 ter existin'g in the soil, was more quickly dissip I 

 ted. Art is beginning to restore to the earth tl ' 

 time whicli in some (daces was deficient by ii 

 tiire, or had been exhausted by injudicious fart 

 ing,and fertility and the capability of raising wlie ' 

 is returning to those sections, where for years tl ' 

 power has been unknown. 



The method in which lime performs the effet ■ 

 which it is undeniable may be attributed to j 

 docs not yet appear to be fully understood. We 

 not its ei^ciency, as in the case of gypsum, ovvi)* 

 to some chemical rather than mechanical c^.iise, ' 

 would liardiy seem possible that so small a .pia' 

 tity as is sometimes used, would produce sn ii ' 

 mediate a result, or where larger quant tics ;i ! 

 applied, that the benefits should be so permanei' 

 It is most probable however that its action is pri;| 

 cipally cmifined to preparing the animal matt 

 existing in the soil, or furnished it by mamin' 

 for conversion into gluten, a substance Hhi( li e 

 ists more abundaiilly in wheat than any other vc 

 etalile and which appears to have some relatiit 

 to tht'g'''"''""' "f t'"^ animal kingdom. f 



Boul. ion La Grange says that, "gelatine oxf 

 ganized becomes insoluble, and vegetable extrjf 

 we know becomes so from the same cause ; ao| 

 lime has the jiroperty of attracting oxygen, arP 

 consequently of restoring the pi-eperty ol solub" 

 itv to those substances that have been deprived'' 

 it' from a combination witli oxygen. Hence tij' 

 use of lime on peat or muck lands, and on J' 

 soils containing f ii excess of vegetable insuluM 

 matter." ' When lime is apjilied upon land " 

 which any quantity of animal matter is presell' 

 it occasions the evolution of a quantity of anim 

 nia which may perhaps be imbibed by the leav 



