1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



311 



eight- tenths of an inch. The ravages of some 

 of these little creatures are too well known to 

 need a particular description. Among them 

 may be mentioned the clothes-moth {Tinea 

 vestianell/i) , the tapestry or carpet-moth (T. 

 tapetzella), the fur-moth (T. pellionella) , the 

 hair-moth {T. Crinella), and the grain-moth 

 (7". graiiella), with some others belonging to 

 a group, which may be called Tineans (Tine- 



The Tineans, in the winged state, have 

 four short and slender feelers, a thick tuft on 

 the forehead, and very narrow wings, which 

 are deeply fringed. They lay their eggs 

 mostly in the spring, in May and June, and 

 die iaunediately afterwards. The eggs are 

 hatched in fifteen days, and the little whitish 

 caterpillars or moth-worms proceeding there- 

 from immediately begin to gnaw the substances 

 within their reach, and cover themselves with 

 the fragments, shaping them into little hollow 

 rolls and lining them with silk. They pass 

 the summer within these rolls, some carrying 

 them about on their backs as they move along, 

 and others fastening them to the substance 

 they are eating ; and they enlarge them from 

 time to time by adding portions to the two 

 open extremities, and by gores set into the 

 sides, which they slit open for this purpose. 

 Concealed within their movable cases, or in 

 their lint-covered burrows, they carry on the 

 work of destruction through the summer ; but 

 in the autumn they leave off eating, make fast 

 their habitations, and remain at rest and seem- 

 ingly torpid through the winter. Early in the 

 spring they change to chrysalids within their 

 cases, and in about twenty days afterwards 

 are transformed to winged moths, and come 

 forth, and fly about in the evening, till they 

 have paired and are ready to lay their eggs. 

 They then contrive to slip through cracks into 

 dark closets, chests and drawers, under the 

 edges of carpets, in the folds of curtains and 

 of garments hanging up, and into various 

 other places, where they immediately lay the 

 foundation for a new colony of destructive 

 moth- worms. 



Early in June the prudent housekeeper will 

 take care to beat up their quarters and put 

 them to flight, or to disturb them so as to de- 

 feat their designs and destroy their eggs and 

 young. With this view wardrobes, closets, 

 diawers, and chests will be laid open, and 

 empiied of their contents, and all woolen gar- 

 ments, and bedding, furs, feathers, carpets, 

 curtains, and the like, will be removed and 

 exposed to the air, and to the heat of the sun, 

 for several hours together, and will not be put 

 back in their places without a thorough brush- 

 ing, beating, or shaking. By these means, 

 the moths and their eggs will hi dislodged and 

 destroyed. In old houses that are much in- 

 fested by moths, the cracks in the floors, in 

 the wainscot, around the walls and shelves of 

 closets, and even in the furniture used for 

 holding clothes, should be brushed over with 



spirits of turpentine. Powdered black pepper, 

 strewed under the edges of carpets, is said to 

 repel moths. Sheets of paper, sprinkled with 

 spirits of turpentine, camphor in coarse pow- 

 der, leaves of tobacco, or shavings of Russia 

 leather, should be placed among the clothes, 

 when they are laid aside for the summer. 

 Furs, plumes, and other small articles, not in 

 constant use, are best preserved by being put, 

 with a few tobacco leaves, or bits of camphor, 

 into bags made of thick brown paper, and 

 closely sewed or pasted up at the end. Chests 

 of camphor-wood, red cedar, or of Spanish 

 cedar, are found to be the best for keeping all 

 articles from moths and other vermin. The 

 cloth linings of carriages can be secured for 

 ever from the attacks of moths by being 

 washed or sponged on both sides with a solu- 

 tion of the corrosive sublimate of mercury in 

 alcohol, made just strong enough not to leave 

 a white stain on a black feather. Moths can 

 be killed by fumigating the article containing 

 them with tobacco smoke or with sulphur, or 

 by shutting it in a tight vessel and then plung- 

 ing the latter into boiling water, or exposing 

 it to steam, for the space of fifteen minutes, or 

 by putting it into an oven heated to about one 

 hundred and fifty degrees of Fahrenheit's ther- 

 mometer. 



For the Kew England Farmer, 

 "STERILITY IS LAID." 



Mr. Editor : — Since the appearance of 

 the very encouraging pamphlet making pro- 

 clamation as above, 1 have intended to write 

 to you upon the subject. 



I read and examined the pamphlet with deep 

 and pleasant interest. It called up to memory 

 various experiments made and conclusions 

 arrived at, nearly or quite twenty years ago. 



I was an attentive and close reader of the 

 early volumes of Professor Mapes' '"Working 

 Farmer," in which appeared very nearly the 

 same theory. The Professor's preparation of 

 superphosphate of lime was said to contain all 

 the elements necessary to make any poor land 

 productive, if the physical condition of the 

 soil only received proper care. 



It appeared to me, without claiming high at- 

 tainments in the knovvlsidge of chemistry, &c., 

 that the theory put forth could not be trut<ted 

 to the extent of what it seemed to promise, 

 aside from other agencies and powers. Alti- 

 tude of a piece of land, its inclination towards 

 or from the sun, its contiguity to natural elec- 

 trical currents, its exposure to atmospheric 

 currents a'^d all similar influences and peculi- 

 arities have each a power upon 't as a produc- 

 tive agent, as also the physical condition of the 

 soil has ; but still another item is indispensa- 

 ble in the account, in known cases. Our 

 cereal annuals, without a supply of decom- 

 posed carbon in the soil for food, will fail to 

 mature grain. 



1 had taken a hint from the "Genesis" of 



