476 . 



XEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



•will be no need of such operations on them as 

 we now call repairing. 



With regard to bridges, a change just as im- 

 portant is imperative. We are constantly 

 constructing new, and repairing old ones, all 

 up and down the thousand streams that pene- 

 trate the valleys of New England. The prac- 

 tice fairly illustrates the fable of the rolling 

 stone of Sisyphus, which, when he had rolled 

 it to the top of the hill, turned, in spite of all 

 his power, and went down again ! So with 

 our wooden bridges. Gangs of men and 

 teams are ever about them, reconstructing or 

 repairing, and the people impose upon them- 

 selves heavy burdens in taxes, which might be 

 averted by an earnest and intelligent inquiry 

 which would certainly lead to more economical 

 action. 



It cannot be truly said that we have not yet 

 had sufficient experience to convince us that 

 wood, in damp places is liable to rot In a few 

 years ; but we may forget that timbers will in 

 time become too weak to support the weight 

 of heavily loaded teams, and that planks 

 will occasionally become loose, and let chil- 

 dren drop through into watery graves. Acci- 

 dents of this nature may not occur once in a 

 century. But It is an indisputable fact that 

 wooden bridges will get old and rickety, and 

 the weak parts are.-not always found till the 

 crash comes unexpectedly — and then any one 

 can see how unsafe It was, and wonder that it 

 held up so long. 



When we^ are fully awake to the fact that 

 wood is a perishable article, we shall be ready, 

 perhaps, to inquire if there is not some avail- 

 able material, which, by its durability, shall 

 be entitled to a preference in these situations ? 



There are, already, two stone bridges where 

 we reside. We have not learned how care- 

 fully they were built, and so cannot speak of 

 their promise of durability. But If the work 

 was well done, why should they not last a 

 thousand years ? And if a thousand, why not 

 ten thousand ? The current of our rivers is 

 not swift enough to wear away granite percep- 

 tibly, and probably a stone bridge would not 

 be carried away by one of our spring freshets. 



In Great Britain there are stone bridges that 

 were built more than a thousand years ago, 

 and still in good condition. There is a stone 

 bridge over the Ipswich river, In the ancient 

 town of Ipswich, in Essex county, that is nearly 



a hundred years old, we believe, that appears 

 as firm as though finished only yesterday. 

 Surely we have material and skill at least 

 equal to what England possessed ten centuries 

 ago, and could build bridges that woiald stand 

 as long. 



It is not our object at present to say more 

 than to suggest an inquiry into the compara- 

 tive cost of wooden and stone bridges. No 

 doubt stone would be much more expensive 

 than wood in the first place, but we believe 

 that for a period of even one hundred years, 

 the use of stone would be the most economical. 



THE WOODPECKEB. 



Some have supposed the rows of holes often 

 seen in fruit trees, extending nearly around the 

 trunk, were made by the bird for the purpose 

 of sucKng the sap of the tree, and hence the 

 name of "sap-sucker" has been given to the 

 "downy woodpecker." Others have supposed 

 that they were after the small grubs or larvae 

 of insects under the bark, while some have 

 thought they were mere decoys for the flies 

 often seen around these perforations. 



In an article headed "The Woodpecker 

 Question Settled," a correspondent of the 

 Utica Herald says the object In making these 

 holes is to get the small ants which are at- 

 tracted by the sap. This he determined by 

 carefully watching the operations of the wood- 

 peckers, and by shooting a few and examining 

 their crops, which he found filled to their ut- 

 most capacity with the smallest species of black 

 ants. 



If this conclusion Is correct, the foresight 

 and calculation displayed by the little bird in 

 setting and watching his traps may be called 

 Instinct, but can we adopt Sir W. Hamilton's 

 definition of that principle, and say that "in- 

 stinct Is an agent which performs blindly and 

 ignorantly a work of intelligence and knowl- 

 edge ?" 



WHAT IS FAKMUfQ TO BEP 

 We recently published some account of a 

 trial in Illinois of a machine with which four 

 men cut and boimd an acre of grain in 80, 30i, 

 34 and 38^ minutes, respectively. We now 

 find in the California Farmer an allusion to 

 the steam plough of Messrs, Coffin & Stand- 

 ish, of Martinez, which the editor of that 

 paper saw at work spading up a highway. 

 Though the road was as hard as the travel of 



