1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



259 



For the New England Farmer. 



WORMS IN CORN-STALKS. 



This -worm is a great pest to the farmer, and, 

 although the complaints of its ravages are not so 

 long and loud as those made against the cut-worm, 

 yet it is none the less destructive to the interests 

 of the corn-grower. As no article in any of the 

 agricultural journals relating to its history has 

 met my eye, and finding but few people con- 

 versant Avith its habits, you will pardon me for 

 giving the results of my own observation. 



Its color, when matured to full size, which is 

 from one inch and one-eighth to one inch and 

 one-quarter in length, is a bright red and slate 

 color, interspersed with white. It deposits its 

 eggs both on the corn and on the dry stover, and 

 it is probable that but few kernels of corn ger- 

 minate but what have one or more of these enter 

 its germ. It is seldom that the stalk is wholly 

 destroyed, but it will have a yellow, sickly ap- 

 pearance for a long time after its appearance 

 above ground, until it shows tlie tassel, the top 

 of which is generally covered by the worm's 

 chips, besides the last or top leaves being per- 

 forated with numerous small holes. Some fields 

 are injured in the above manner more than fifty 

 per cent. 



The remedy for this devastator is very simple, 

 being merely to plant the corn near the surface 

 of the ground, and be sure and not hill up any 

 at the first hoeing. I have never seen corn 

 dropped in the l)ottom of the furrow, or covered 

 very deep, but what was more or less aflfected by 

 its operations ; and, by the way, I have never 

 seen any thing that would stop the ravages of the 

 cut-worm so effectually, as to pull the dirt en- 

 tirely away from its roots, as the worm cannot 

 or will not work much above ground. 



Any one who has made much observation on 



other. While residing in Massachusetts in 1831, 

 my peach trees were not injured by the extreme 

 cold in the least, but bore an abundant crop the 

 following year. . A few years later, I lost most .of 

 my peach trees, especially the smaller ones, by a 

 degree of cold much less intense. In the former 

 case, the cold increased gradually, and continued 

 intense for a long time ; in the latter case, th 

 change was sudden, and came on in a few hours, 

 after a month of spriyirj-Uke weather, during 

 which the buds of the trees had swollen, and the 

 bark had become loosened from the wood. My 

 orchard was situated in a warm valley. I lost 

 several young apple trees at the same time, and 

 from the same cause. Peach trees in colder situ- 

 ations were not killed. I have, since that time, 

 given considerable attention to the subject, and 

 have noticed that trees are injured much more by 

 the state in which the buds and bark are, when 

 the cold takes place,- than by the mere degree or 

 intensity of the cold. Trees may be destroyed in 

 New Jersey, when they are not injured in Massa- 

 chusetts, though the cold is much more intense, 

 in the latter place at the same time. 



Orleans. 

 Broxunington, Vt., March 26, 1855. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RAIN. 



To understand the philosophy of this beautiful 

 and often sublime phenomenon, so often witnessed 

 since the creation of the world, and so essential 

 to the very existence of plants and animals, a few 

 facts derived from observation and a long train 

 of experiments must be remembered : 



1. Were the atmosphere everywhere at all 

 times of a uniform temperature, we should never 

 have rain, or hail, or snow. The water absorbed 

 by it in evaporation from the sea and the earth's 



this subject, will remember that worms always surface, would descend in an imperceptible vapor, 



work the most destructively just after the corn I 



has been hoed. When corn has been favorably' 



work the most destructively just after the corn j or cease to be absorbed by the air when it was 



once fully saturated. 



started, it grows faster than the worm gams 

 strength, and will throw it out previous to the 

 appearance of the tassel, the worm being then 

 about one-half or three -fourths of an inch long. 

 I have counted, in once crossing a field at this 

 stage of the corn's growth, as many as thirty or 

 forty just coming into daylight. Perhaps Dr. 

 H.\RRi8 can favor us with some light on this sub- 

 ject. CORX-GROWER. 



Hanson, Feb. 7, 1855. 



For the New England Farmer. 



PEACH CROP AND COLD. 



Mr. Editor : — In the Farmer for March 24th is 



2. The absorbing power of the atmosphere, and 

 consequently its capacity to retain humidity, is 

 proportionally greater in warm than cold air. 



3. The air near the surface of the earth is 

 warmer than it is in the region of the clouds. 

 The higher we ascend from the earth the colder 

 do we find the atmosphere. Hence the perpetual 

 snow on very high moantains in the hottest 

 climate. 



Now, when, from continued evaporation, the 

 air is highly saturated with vapor, though it be 

 invisible and the sky cloudless, if its temperature 

 is suddenly reduced by cold currents descending 

 from above, or rushing from a higher to a lower 

 latitude, or, by the motion of saturated air, to a 



an article under the title, "The Peach Crop,"|';?<^l*^^.^f*\^"'^,«' i^^ capacity to retain moisture is 

 Rtniinw snmo fo^fo ,.,;fK ,.-.„o^ri +^ +!.„ !.,.„ ^«- ^k., ! dimuiished, clouds are formed, and the result la 



rain. Air condenses as it cools, and, like a 

 sponge filled with water and compressed, pours 



stating some foots with regard to the loss of the 

 peach crop in Connecticut, a few years ago, in 

 difi"erent localities, and under very different de- 

 grees of cold ; the writer concludes with two in- 

 quiries :—" Who will inform the public where 

 the exact frost line of tlie peach is!" Another 

 question for the curious is, "At what tempera- 

 ture tlie peach tree is killed by the frost?" 

 _ Permit me to say, that there is no "exact frost 



line of the poach." Peach trees, and other trees, [^" Tne name tulip is derived from the Turk- 

 may be killed by a degree of cold at one time, ^ish, and the flower is so called from its fivncied 

 which would not in the least injure them at an- 1 resemblance to a turban. 



out the water which its diminished capacity 

 cannot hold. How singular, yet how simple, the 

 philosophy of rain ! What but Omniscience 

 could have devised such an admirable arrange- 

 ment for watering the earth. — N. Y. Oliscrver. 



