1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



527 



EXTRACTS AND BEPLIES. 



SEEDING LAND IN THE FALL. 



I should like to inquire through the Farmer, if 

 it is a good time to seed land to grass in the fall ? 

 I have about one acre, part of which is too wet to 

 seed in the spring. Would it be likely to winter- 

 kill to seed it in the fall ? Also, what would be 

 the best kind of seed to sow ? I have seen a mix- 

 ture of red-top, timothy and clover recommended 

 for such land, but never have known the red-top 

 sown in this vicinity. Corn large enough to boil ! 



Cabot, Vt., Sept. 2, 1869. S. B. Blougett, 



Eemarks. — It is good husbandry to seed land 

 to grass in the latter days of summer, or the early 

 days in autum. It is a little too late now. If the 

 grass does not root and get a fair hold of the soil, 

 it is quite likely to be started out by frost and be 

 winter killed ; yet we have known good farmers 

 to sow clover seed just before the ground froze up. 



A good plan would be to prepare the land this 

 fall by thorough ploughing, pulverizing and level- 

 ling, and sow eight quarts of timothy seed, one 

 bushel of red-top, and six to ten pounds of clover 

 seed, just as early in the spring as the surface can 

 be properly harrowed. If the land is moist and 

 rich, you will probably get a stout crop the first 

 season. Some, however, object to sowing clover 

 seed early in the spring, believing that the frost 

 kills the young plants, and prefer to delay till 

 danger of frost has passed. But by so doing we 

 are liable to injury from droughts, which often 

 succeed our spring rains. We solicit the opinion 

 of farmers as to the best time for sowing clover 

 seed. 



MUD-DAUBER "WASPS. — Pelop(Bus lunatus. 



I send you a specimen of "homes without 

 hands," which is quite unlike anything I havo 

 ever before seen. Two of these singular domicils 

 were located on the walls of the house this season, 

 and I supposed them to be the work of mud wasps. 

 One of the nests, however, fell a few days since, 

 and I was surprised to find it colonized by spiders. 

 A worm of a whitish color and not quite an inch 

 in length, was found among the debris, and like 

 the spiders, exhibited but little vitality. Wishing 

 to learn something of the habits of these little in- 

 sects, I send you the remaining house and its in- 

 mates, and perhaps the transportation may be to 

 them as great an event as the recent removal of 

 the Hotel Pelham, in your city, was to the inhabi- 

 tants thereof. Mattie. 



Marlboro', Mass., Sept., 1869. 



Remarks. — "And now we approach a great 

 mystery," says Dr. Walsh, in an article on wasps, 

 as he commences a description of this species. 

 He had been describing the various Digger Wasps 

 — see American Entomologist, Vol. I., page 122 — 

 which dig holes in the ground for their nests, and 

 then remarks that some naturalists, not being 

 aware of the habits of the Mud-daubers, have ad- 

 vanced the erroneous opinion that it is only among 

 the bees and true wasps that we find the habit of 

 constructing nests with materials brought from a 

 distance. This the mud-daubers do. Yet not- 

 withstanding this peculiarity he classes them with 

 the digger wasps, as the differences between the 



daubers and diggers are not regarded as sufficient to 

 justify distinct classification. Instead of exca- 

 vating the earth for its nest, the mud-dauber 

 gathers the materials for its construction from the 

 neighborhood of wells and other places where 

 water is habitually slopped upon clayey ground, 

 and plasters them on the interior of buildings or 

 other sheltered spots. These nests are composed 

 of one or more layers or tiers of clay tubes ar- 

 ranged side by side and end to end. Here are the 

 houses of the future oflFspring of the mother wasp, 

 which she is never to behold, but for which she 

 provides with a wonderful instinct. How she pro- 

 ceeds to carry out her purpose is told by Dr. 

 Walsh, who, in describing the general habits of 

 this class of wasps, says: — 



Flying forth among the trees and bushes, and 

 eagerly scanning the hidden recesses of the most 

 tangled herbage, the female wasp, — and we are al- 

 most ashamed to say that it is only the female 

 that works, the male being an idle gentleman who 

 occupies his time entirely in sipping honey and 

 gallanting the ladies, — soon discovers a specimen 

 of the particular kind or kinds of insect or spider, 

 which it is the habit of the species to which she 

 belongs to select. Seizing it and pricking it with 

 her sting just sufficiently to paralyze it forever, 

 but not so as to deprive it of life, she then flies off 

 with it in triumph to the already constructed nest, 

 and returns for additional specimens, till she has 

 accumulated a sufficient supply of meat to feed 

 one of her own larvae to m-aturity. She next de- 

 posits a single egg among the still living but par- 

 alyzed animals that she has collected, seals up the 

 mouth of her nest or cell, usually with earth or 

 tempered clay or fragments of wood, and is otF 

 once more to build and provision new nests and 

 repeat the same process over and over again, until 

 her stock of eggs is exhausted. The larvas that 

 afterwards hatch out from these eggs are in every 

 case soft, legless, whitish maggots, with a some- 

 what horny head and a strong pair of jaws, but 

 no other weapons whatever, whether oQensive or 

 defensive. Yet, strange to relate, they live at 

 their ease among the prey collected for them by 

 maternal forethought ; and this prey is often a lot 

 of bees that, if in full vigor would sting them to 

 death in a moment, or a mass of ravenous spiders 

 that, but for the fatal poison infused into their 

 vitals, would like no better sport than to gobble 

 them up at a single mouthful. 



"But," it will be asked, "why this unnecessary 

 cruelty ? Why not at once sting the poor bees, or 

 caterpillars, or spiders to death, and put them out 

 of their misery ?" The answer is, that the lar- 

 vtB of these wasps live several weeks before they 

 are full-fed and ready to form their cocoons ; that 

 during all this period they require fresh meat; 

 that the time of the year when these operations 

 take place is during the beats of the summer; and 

 that, throughout that season, insects or spiders 

 that were stung to death would putrify and be- 

 come unfit for fjod in a single week. There are 

 seldom any mistakes in Nature. The Power that 

 created the wasp knew what kind of food its laiva 

 required; and — whether by direct or indirect 

 means it matters not — He has so organized the 

 mother-insect, that she is enabled and impelled to 

 provide for her offspring the right kind of food, in 

 the right quantity, at the right time, and ift the 

 right place. With a vatt apparatus of steam-boil- 

 ers and hermetically sealed cans, man has at 

 length succeeded in preserving meat, fresh and 

 untainted, for an indefinite time. With nothing 

 but her good sharp sting and her little bag of poi- 



