298 



Hessian Fly. — J2 Farmer in Distress. 



Vol. VI. 



grass to grow where only one had grown be- 

 fore — and in disseminating among those with 

 whom he lives, and moves, and acts, a know- 

 ledge of the continually increasing facilities 

 for satisfying the perpetual round of daily 

 wants, the substantial welfare of his fellows 

 was not less really promoted, than if his path 

 had been with the conqueror — or his name 

 blazoned to the world, as the inventor of a 

 new mode for the destruction of his species. 

 His, are humble duties, it is true — but their 

 immediate bearing is upon the every-day 

 comforts of every man. " Human science is 

 progressive in all its branches." And to throw 

 broadcast the "indications of existing know- 

 ledge," when upon that knowledge, or upon 

 the results of it, the general comforts of life 

 have their broad foundation, would seem par- 

 ticularly gratifying to one, who, while ho- 

 nestly endeavouring to promote his individual 

 interest, was also willing to be found useful 

 to others. 



The proprietor would feel no ordinary gra- 

 tification, if, previously to commencing the 

 7th volume, in tho 8th month next, he should 

 find his subscription list materially increased. 

 Should each subscriber think so well of the 

 Cabinet as to obtain another, the compliment 

 inferred from it would indeed be of a substan- 

 tial character; and would, on all hands, be 

 accepted as a decided manifestation of an in- 

 creasing and wholesome interest in the pro- 

 gress of agriculture. Josiah Tatum. 



Philad., 5th mo. 15, 1842. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Hessian Fly. 



Mr. Editor, — A writer in the Cabinet for 

 December last remarks, at that time there 

 were no Hessian flies in existence, although 

 the seed-wheat that had been sown was as 

 fully charged with their eggs as the firmest 

 friend of the Morris school could desire. It is 

 row the 9th day of May, and still the learned 

 advocates of that system are without a single 

 subject for anatomical purposes ! The pre- 

 sent spring has been healthy and favourable 

 to the growth of wheat, and therefore there 

 are no Hessian flies; what need is there of 

 farther testimony to prove that the fly is the 

 effect of disease and not the cause. As the 

 writer very judiciously observes, " Is it not 

 curious to observe that no complaint is now 

 made of the Hessian fly, although the crops 

 were sown as usual, at all times of the moon 

 and at all seasons, whether early, late, or 

 middling — before, as well as after the frosts 

 that fell out; and without the least regard to 

 all this, all is now as it should be !" What 

 then becomes of the proposal, "to discontinue 

 in toto, the cultivation of wheat throughout 

 the country for several years, to starve out 

 the fly !" So true is it that " man appoints. 



but God disappoints." To every one who 

 keeps potted plants in their windows, this 

 theory must be self-evident, for a cold wind 

 will fill them with animalculaB in compara- 

 tively a very few hours; but before that lime, 

 the perspiration of the juices by the pores of 

 the leaves — the real honey-dew, which is 

 generally mistaken for the excrements of 

 these minute parasites — will teach them that 

 the disease arises from impeded circulation, 

 which is followed, not preceded by, animal 

 existence. But the thing is too plain not to 

 be perceived with half an eye, while the sim- 

 plicity of the system is the perfection of na- 

 ture, who never works but by the plainest 

 and shortest rules, which " he that runs may 

 read." We have, then, only mistaken the 

 eJTect for the cause — a very common error 

 throughout the chapter of life. P. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



A Farmer in Distress* 



A Farmer in a neighbouring county, who 

 had been dozing for twenty or thirty years, 

 and had made no improvement by fertilizing 

 his fields, but had gone on the old-fashioned 

 plan of reducing the staple of bis soil, waked 

 up a few years since, and limed the whole of 

 his farm thoroughly, and that with magnesian 

 lime too. Now, what do you think has been 

 the consequence of this proceeding? A few 

 days since, with a sorrowful countenance he 

 informed the writer of this, that he had no 

 pasture for his cows, and should not have till 

 after harvest. The reason of so extraordinary 

 a circumstance was asked ; when he stated, 

 that the field which, according to his usual 

 rotation of crops would have been devoted to 

 pasture, was so thickly set with grass, of such 

 a luxuriant growth, that he had determined 

 to keep it for mowing, in addition to his other 

 mowing grounds. He, of course, has to feed 

 on hay, and soil his cattle till after harvest; 

 and this disaster has befallen him in conse- 

 quence of liming his land and sowing grass 

 seed much thicker than formerly ! The plain 

 fact is, that he hiis grown so much grass by 

 his improved system, that he has no pasture; 

 his fields are all mowing ground. 



If the writers on the deleterious effects of 

 magnesian lime would travel through Bucks, 

 Montgomery, Delaware, Chester, and Lan- 

 caster counties, they would witness efiects 

 of a similar kind with the above, on thousands 

 of acres of land ; land which, before the appli- 

 cation of lime, produced but very scanty pas- 

 turage, but now is first-rate mowing ground. 



A. 



A YOUNG beast may eat well when half fat, 

 but an old cow half fat is not eatable, for the 

 whole body of such an animal ought to be 

 filled with new juices. , 



