368 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



This is by no means essential, but every cultiva- 

 tor should at least know enough to guard against 

 imposition and fraud, by the dealers in patent 

 manures, and nev7 tlieories of cultivation. 



Every educated person, of either sex, should 

 know enough of chemistry, to understind the 

 language of books and papers and the conversa- 

 tion of intelligent men upon this subject most 

 interesting to all, for it certainly is not respect- 

 able, to be ignorant of the common principles of 

 a science which engages the attention of so many 

 distinguished minds. And it may be added, as 

 to those whose business it is to cultivate the soil, 

 the more extensive their knowledge of the priiici- 

 ples of Imsbandry, the greater will be their in- 

 terest in their business, and the sooner will it be 

 raised from a position of mere physical toil, to 

 that of a rational and noble science. 



ly Bled with sweetened vinegar and water, and 

 hung up in the fruit trees. Multitudes will be 

 tempted to their final undoing by these bottled 

 sweets. These insects are legitimtttc game, and 

 fruit-growers will find much more satisfaction in 

 killing them than in shooting the birds, who are 

 their fellow-lielpers in moth hunting. w. c. 



— Am. Agricvhvrist. 



FATTING CATTLE. 



MOTH AND BEETLE HUNTING. 



With the first swelling of the buds upon your 

 fruit trees, these enemies of your garden pets 

 make their appearance, to follow up their work 

 of destruction, until the frosts of Autumn cut off 

 the leaves and end their laljors. The practised 

 fruit-grower is already upon their track. Here 

 among the dwarf pears you can read them with 

 thumb and finger, and crush a world of insect 

 life in a single moth. There is in the last 

 half of April, and early May, a beetle of blackish 

 color, with a square upon his back at the inser- 

 tion of his wings, made up of four little squares, 

 two of jet, and two of dull yellow, that calls for 

 your attention. You will find her at tlie end of 

 the blossom buds, doubtless laying her vampire 

 brood among the young fruit. iShe is about five- 

 eighths of an inch long, and will fall to the ground 

 or fly off unless you approach her cautiously. 

 Take a turn among all your young trees every 

 morning, and see that they are cleared of these 

 depredators. Occasionally you will find a cluster 

 of eggs glued to a limb that you overlooked in 

 the fall. See that they are removed and burned. 

 Do not think that the young dwarf pear, set out 

 last fall, will take care of themselves. The moths 

 and beetle have a lien upon them, and if you do 

 not improve the property you invested in them, 

 the natural proprietors will resume their inheri- 

 tance, and save you the trouble. Follow up your 

 attacks upon these insects with vigor, remember- 

 ing that every moth mother slain is a colony of 

 insects exterminated. 



Soon the large tribe of the Mdolonthians will 

 make their appearance, and they may be cauglit 

 in great multitudes. The May beetles can bo ex- 

 terminated by shaking them from the trees they 

 infest upon a cloth, either at evening or early in 

 the morning, wl)ile the dew is on, when they do 

 not fly much. Empty your cloth into the fire. 



Another method of destroying these insects in 

 the winged state is by drowning. This is best 

 adapted to those whose liabits are nocturnal. 

 We place a half hogshead, or large open vessel in 

 the fruit garden, lialf full of M'atrr. Place a 

 narrow strip of board across the top, and at niglit 

 put a lighted lanthorn upon it. The insects will 

 be attracted by the light, and in attempting to 

 alight, "blind as a beetle," they will meet a 

 watery grave. 



Another good trap for them is glass bottles part- 



In fatting animals, the less exercise permitted 

 the better. Exercise is doubtless necessary to 

 ensure the health of all animals ; but we must 

 recollect that flitting is, in itself, an abnormal 

 condition, that all animals, rapidly accumulating 

 fat, are more or less diseased. The celebrated 

 breeder, Bakevcell, understood this fact, and was 

 in the habit of turning his sheep into marshy 

 meadows for the purpose of getting tliem diseased. 

 In such a condition they matured earlier and laid 

 on fat with surprising rapidity. 



Salt is good for all animals, and probably is, 

 in some form or other, necessary to Jicallh. ; but 

 we know that salt is not good for fatting ani- 

 mals, and should never be given if the ol)ject be 

 the accumulation of fat. Experiment agrees 

 with theory on this point. We recollect when 

 conducting some extensive experiments on sheep, 

 a practical friend urged us to give them salt, as- 

 suring us that his sheep did much better with 

 than without salt. The sheep on which we were 

 experimenting were doing well at the time, 

 averaging about 2 lbs. increase each, per week. 

 To please our friend, we gave the sheep salt, of 

 which they partook freely, but in the fortnight 

 during which the}' were allowed salt, every sheep 

 lost weight. We would give them as much wa- 

 ter as they would drink ; if fed roots, they will 

 require, and drink less. 



In fatting animals, perhaps, the most impor- 

 tant point is to obtain such as are well calcula- 

 ted, from breed, disposition, and symmetry, to 

 mature early and fatten rapidly; then keep 

 them warm, (be careful tliey are not too warm 

 and that they do not prespire) quiet, and clean. 

 Feed they regularly and let their food be highly 

 nitrogenous, with sufficient available non-nitro- 

 genous matter united with the required bulk. — 

 Ohio Farmer. 



Moral Effect of Certain Pursuits. — !Mr. 

 Pierpont, in one of his lectures, mentioned a fact 

 in evidence of the moral advantages of the study 

 of natural science, which is worthy of notice. 

 He stated that althougli many poets and orators 

 and men devoted exclusively to literary pursuits 

 have been addicted to intemperance and other 

 solitary habits, yet he could not recollect a solita- 

 ry instance of a vicious, a dissipated or intemper- 

 ate man of science. This statement may be too 

 unqualified ; 1)ut there can be no doubt of the 

 gcnenil correctness of it. It is generally admit- 

 ted by those wiio have written upon the habits 

 of distinguished men, that those who teach mo- 

 rality are often ill-tempered and misanthropic, 

 while those who devote their time and energies 

 to the study of nature, are remarkable for a qui- 

 et, amiable and cheerful temper. The cause of 

 this difference of temper may be that moralists 

 are constantly finding something in the vices and 



