1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



383 



face the surrounding lands, and to afford a pleas- 

 ant retreat for an hour from dust and ftitigue. I 

 have seen larger and smaller patches of the same 

 description of land, and I longed to say to the 

 owners of them that they are thoughtlessly de- 

 priving themselves and their neighbors of one of 

 the richest enjoyments of life, and the country of 

 its least expensive and most desirable ornament. 



No one will require to be shown the compara- 

 tive clieapness or attractiveness of such a grove 

 over one where the trees are transplanted ; and 

 thanks to your paper, and such as yours, no one 

 will ask. Of what use is the fitting up of retreats 

 for poets or moon-struck gazers at bewitching 

 nature, to the hardy tillers of a soil which yields 

 a meagre return, when it receives every moment 

 of time and every effort of skill ? Objections of 

 this kind do not now require to be answered, if 

 ever made, and attention is directed, by all 

 classes, to that which beautifies and adorns, as 

 well as to that which plucks from nature the 

 means of subsistence. 



Yours truly, Oliver N. Bacox. 



Nalick, July 7, 1855. 



For the New England Farmer. 



"SEVENTEEN YEAR LOCUSTS." 



Mr. Editor : — In the Providence Journal, o^ iha 

 fore part of last month, is an article with the above 

 caption, in which the writer doubts that there 

 are any "seventeen year locusts." The Journal 

 says: "The lovers of the marvellous may not 

 thank us for destroying a venerable illusion, but 

 truth compels us to state that, according to the 

 best etymological authority, no such peculiar in- 

 sect as the "seventeen year locust" exists. Lo- 

 custs are found in more or less abundance every 

 year, in different parts of the country ; but the 

 idea that there is a variety or species, which ap- 

 pear at regular intervals of seventeen years, is 

 unsustained by factt." 



Now, Mr. Editor, will you allow me to state 

 what '■'■facts'''' in the case I happen to possess. I 

 was born on the 18th of January, 1790, and in 

 1802 there appeared, in a certain wood-lot, about 

 a mile and a half from where I then lived, and 

 do now, what were called the seventeen -year lo- 

 custs. I heard it talked about, a year or two 

 before they appeared, that tiie year 1802 was to 

 be the locust year. Well, June came, and also, 

 about the tenth of the month, the looked-for lo- 

 custs, in great numbers. In the midst of tlieir 

 greatest dispLiy and profusion, we could plainly 

 ear tliem sing, in a calm forenoon, although a 

 mile and a half distant, in a straight line. I 

 recollect going to see tliem, accompanied by my 

 father, and carrying a basket and bringing home 

 some two quarts of them ; most of them we let 

 go into the woods, near my father's house, and, 

 in just seventeen years after, some few appeared 

 in the said woods where we liad let them go, none 

 having been seen or heard there before, as I was 

 informed. 



In the woods first alluded to, where they ap- 

 peared in 1802, they also appeared in 181U, just 

 seventeen years after, but not quite so numerous 

 aa they were in the former year. They were, 

 however, pretty numerous, and we could iiear 

 them sing the like distance tliat we did before. 

 There were a very few the year before and the 



year after those dates, as though they made a 

 mistake of one year in their calculation, but not 

 one was seen in any other j'ear. 



In 1836, seventeen years after the last date, 

 they were also seen in the same place, but they 

 appeared less plenty, as though they were run 

 ning out and becoming extinct. The last year of 

 their appearing was in 1853, and, as I forgot to 

 pay any attention to it in that year, I do not 

 know whether they appeared or not. There 

 was a piece of wood land in Easton, near Colonel 

 Shepherd Leach's Iron Fo'undry, where they ap- 

 peared in the al)ove years. 



The fact tliat these locusts appear in one part 

 and another of the country, in years differing 

 from the above dates, is no argument that they 

 do appear oftener than seventeen years in those 

 various places, as all accounts agree that they ap- 

 pear every seventeen years in those various places. 

 It is my impression that tliis subject has received 

 ample investigation by a person qualified for the 

 task, and who, on the eve of publishing a book 

 uDon the subject, solicited information from all 

 parts of the country on the subject. I have not 

 seen the book, and have forgot the name of the 

 author or his place of residence, but am inclined 

 to think that he lived in Philadelj^hia. Can you 

 inform me about such a book? 



Most respectfully yours, Isaac Stearns. 



Mansfield, Mass., July 4. 



P. S. — Since writing the above, I have looked 

 into the "Treatise on Insects," by T. W. Harris, 

 M. D., published in 1842, by order of the Legis- 

 lature of Massachusetts, and there, on page 178, 

 find his description of this seventeen year locust, 

 Cicada Septemdecim, to which the reader is re- 

 ferred. They were first described as appearing 

 in Plymouth, in 1633. Tlie tenth time of their 

 appearing from that date, would bring it down 

 to the year 1803 ; but it appears that Mr. Har- 

 ris, in his book above alluded to, states that they 

 appeared in Plymouth, Sandwich and Falmouth, 

 in the year 1804, instead of 1803, if the exact pe- 

 riod of seventeen years was allotted them. Mr. 

 Harris says : "Circumstances may occasionally 

 retard or accelerate their progress to maturity ; 

 but the usual interval is certainly seventeen 

 years, according to the observations and testi- 

 mony of many persons of undoubted veracity." 



On i^age 181 of Mr. Harris' Treatise, it ap- 

 pears that they appeared in Sandwich in 1787, 

 1804, 1821, and, therefore, this present year, 

 1855, is locust year there. Have you, Mr. Edi- 

 tor, some correspondent in Sandwich who will 

 give an account of this matter? Also, whether 

 they did not appear in the year 1838 ? i. s. 



Remarks. — We have no knowledge of a work 

 being in preparation on the subject discussed 

 above. Will some of our Sandwich friends grat- 

 ify us by giving a little attention to this article ? 



1^ If all the nourishment lor plants came from 

 tlie soil, the soil of newly cleared land would be 

 no more fertile tiianold land — but drawing much 

 of tlieir nourisliment from tlie atniospliere, and 

 decompositicin taking place on the soil, tin; plant 

 not only returns all it gets from the soil, but also 

 the fertilizing ammonia and carbon it receives 

 from the atmosphere. 



