1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Ill 



Plus three round dozen I have seen, 

 And, gracious God ! what scenes between ! 

 The mists of grief my vision screen 



On looking back. 

 But for the thread of "gold and green" 



Along the track. 



Time drives along his dinted route 

 An omnibus, as vast as stout, 

 Which neither halts, nor puts about 



For grace or sin ; 

 But there's a constant getting out, 



And getting in. 



(Albeit, once in days of yore. 

 We're told a warrior, red with gore,* 

 Bade him pull up, and ope'd the door 



In furious war. 

 And helped some passers, score by score. 



To leave the car.) 



With our first breath we take the ride ; 

 Some, with an elephantine hide. 

 Bear the rough jolts from side to side, 



And laugh again ; 

 And some, the sensitive, must bide 



The shocks with pain. 



But this one here, and that one there. 

 Is hustled out, not aye ''with care ;" 

 His journey's done, he's paid his fare, — 



Not lucre stuff. 

 But life's terrific wear-and-tear, 



And that's enough. 

 Such are the views, my worthy friend. 

 The season's sage reflections lend 

 Of life's great highway, whereon tend 



Our pilgrim feet. 

 Let us go manly to the end, 



Whate'er we meet ! 



* Vide Joshua, 10th chapter. 

 GUI, Mass., Jan. 6, 18a7. 



For the New England Farmer. 



THE WHEAT-miDGE OE WEEVIL. 



The wheat-midge, (Cecidomyia tritlci,) is not the 

 insect universally known as the weevil, and does 

 not belong to the same genus. It belongs to the 

 order Diptera, Cuvier, and according to I)r. Har- 

 ris, is a small yellow two-winged fly, very much re- 

 sembling a mosquito in form, but much smaller in 

 size. It was first seen in this country some thirty 

 years ago, and was at the time very destructive to 

 the wheat crop, and has continued its depredations 

 more or less ever since. I observed the flies, which 

 were very numerous, on the third day of July last, 

 depositing their eggs in the open flowers of the 

 grain, or when the wheat kernel was just begin- 

 ning to form. Six days afterwards I observed the 

 first appearance of the larva?, which is a small or- 

 ange colored maggot about one-tenth of an inch 

 long when fully grown. In a few days after this, 

 the maggots were very numerous, and did consid- 

 erable injury to the crop. On the thirteenth of 

 July the flies had done their work and entirely dis- 

 appeared from the field. 



1 preserved a few specimens of both insects and 

 larvfe. The former are somewhat shrivelled, but re- 

 tain their form and color. The latter retain their 

 full size and color, and appear nearly as fresh as 

 when taken. A single specimen has undergone 

 the moulting process, and disappeared, leaving on- 

 ly a shell open at one end where the pupce left. 



This pupfe shell is of a light cream color, and semi- 

 transparent. The flies have long, pale yellow legs, 

 large and transparent wings, with large, prominent 

 black eyes — head small and bent downwards. Their 

 bodies are not larger than the maggot, and of the 

 same color. This is the only insect known to prey 

 upon the wheat crop in this region at the present 

 time. The Hessian fly (Cecidomyia destructor) was 

 formerly destructive to grain, but for aught I know 

 has entirely disappeared. D. Buckland. 



Brandon, Ft, Dec. 29, 1856. 



For the Neto England Farmer. 



CEMENT PIPES-AaUEBUCT. 



Mr. Editor : — A correspondent wishes to know 

 what material will make the best aqueduct? I 

 consider the cement pipe made by the Water Gas 

 Pipe Co., Jersey City, N. J., the best pipe, consid- 

 ering the cost. Block Tin Pipes, made by Le Roy 

 & Co., N. Y., is excellent but more expensive. 



I have the cement pipe, and see no reason why 

 it will not last for centuries. It is made by coat- 

 ing the inside of a pipe made of sheet iron or tin 

 with cement. This pipe is made in pieces of 

 from 6 to 10 feet in length, and are united when 

 the pipe is laid, and all is covered with cement 2 

 inches thick. If properly laid it is perfectly strong 

 and tight at the joints and will sustain a greal; 

 amount of pressure. I have a constant stream run- 

 ning into a large tub in three yards, also in my 

 horse-barn and at my kitchen door, also a pipe in 

 the boiler of the hog-pen. At the outlets a block 

 tin pipe should be inserted into the cement pipe at 

 the bottom of the ditch, and carried into the tub 

 about 4 inches from the top ; the end of the pipe 

 should then be enlarged and clinched around on 

 the tub ; close by this pipe and just below it, the 

 waste pipe, which should be block tin | of an inch, 

 should be inserted and attached in the same man- 

 ner as the other pipe ; this pipe should be carried 

 down to a well 6 feet from the surface, which should 

 be 3 feet deep and 2 feet wide, well walled and 

 covered with a flat stone, cemented around the top 

 with clay, to prevent the filling of it up with earth. 

 These two pipes should be protected from frost by 

 a large box filled with charcoal. 



The water should be discharged from the supply 

 pipe through a leaden faucet inserted into a cork. 

 This faucet should be about | of an inch in diam- 

 eter on the outside, closed at the outside end, with 

 a hole for the discharge of water on the underside 

 of the size required. At the boiler room in the 

 hog-pen there should be a stop and waste-cock, 

 inserted where the block tin pipe joins the cement 

 pipe in the bottom of the ditch, and a small well 

 should be walled around this and carried up to the 

 boiler room. A wrench with a rod long enough 

 to reach from the stop-cock in the bottom of the 

 ditch to the boiler room is attached to the stop- 

 cock, and brought up through the little well to the 

 boiler room. When the water is shut off, the 

 waste in the stop-cock carries off the water in the 

 tin pipe, and it is thus secure from frost. The 

 pipe should be carried high enough to discharge 

 directly into the boiler. 



In laying an aqueduct, care should be used in re- 

 gard to the following points : — 



1. Make the well at the spring large. 



2. Have the ditch at least 3 feet deep. 



