292 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



■which have proved worthless. We have one which 

 we know to be infallible — "protect the birds." 



The swallows are the natural enemies of the 

 swarming insects, living almost entirely upon taking 

 their food upon the wing. The common martin 

 devours great quantities of wasps, beetles and gold- 

 smiths. A single bird will devour five thousand 

 butterflies in a week. The moral of this is,' that the 

 husbandman should cultivate the society of swal- 

 lows and martins about his land and building. 



The sparrows and wrens feed upon the crawling 

 insects which lurk within the buds, foliage and 

 flowers of plants. The wrens are pugnacious, and a 

 little box in a cherry tree will soon be appropriated 

 by them, and they will drive other birds away that 

 feed upon the fruit, a hint that cherry growers 

 should remember this Spring, and act upon. 



The thrushes, blue-birds, jays and crows prey up- 

 on butterflies, grasshoppers, crickets, locusts, and 

 the larger beetles. A single family of jays will con- 

 sume 20,000 of these in a season of three months. 



The woodpeckers are armed with a stout, long 

 bill, to penetrate the wood of trees where the 

 borers deposit their larvae. They live almost en- 

 tirely upon these worms. 



For the insects that come abroad only during the 

 night, nature has provided a check in the nocturnal 

 barn owl, which take their food upon the wing. 



How wonderful is this provision of Providence 

 for restraint of depredators that live upon the la- 

 bors of man, and how careful we should be not to 

 dispute that beneficial law of compensation by which 

 all things are preserved in their just relation and 

 proportion. 



For the New England Farmer. 



"MERINO FEVER." 



Mr. Editor : — In obedience to your summons, 

 I -will tell what I know of the "Merino fever," that 

 raged in and about Salem, some fifty years since, 

 the efi^ects of which were grievously felt for a long 

 time by many of the distinguished gentlemen 

 named by your correspondent. Pickering Dodge, 

 Esq., (then an enterprising merchant of Salem) in- 

 troduced several hundred first class Merinos from 

 Spain. They were fed for a time at Gloucester, 

 and on other farms in the vicinity, and finally placed 

 in the country, under the care of one Thomas, who 

 figured largely in calculations, and the concern final- 

 ly tapered out, with very few droppings left, — not 

 enough to give green herbage, — where they had 

 been bedded. Perhaps the idea I would convey 

 will be best illustrated by an anecdote that was 

 currt-nt in those days. Several gentlemen who 

 had known Thomas, as "hail fellow well met," 

 called on him at his country residence, and were 

 hospitably entertained with old Madeira, and other 

 accompaniments ; and, finding the etceteras so com- 

 plete, they expressed their astonishment that he 

 could afford such an entertainment, after a voyage 

 so disastrous. "Ah," said Thomas, "you know 

 there is often 'a good deal saved from a wreck.' " 



Capt. J. Ingersol, who owned one of the best 

 farms in Danvers, removed to Windsor, Vt. — 

 where I once visited him — where he and his son 

 had much to do with sheep. Consul Jarvis (who 

 married a daughter of Sheriff" Bartlett,) figured 

 largely in these matters. Perhaps these scraps 

 may furnish a clue to the information desired. 



South Danvers, 1857. J. W. P . 



For the New England Farmer. 



ONIONS. 



Mr. Brown : — In your March number of the 

 Farmer, I notice a request of a subscriber for infor- 

 mation respecting the culture of onions — and an in- 

 vitation from yourself to any one who may possess 

 such information to impart it. I perceive, also, in 

 the same number, a communication from Hollis 

 Chaffin, of Providence, R. I., which purports to con- 

 tain the secret of the whole business, but which, I 

 am sorry to say, I have found to fail in my own case. 

 Having tried almost every experiment in the grow- 

 ing of this vegetable, I feel some confidence in ad- 

 dressing your correspondent on the subject, and as- 

 suring him of one successful — though it may not, for 

 large crops, prove a very profitable mode of raising 

 them. 



It was in 1848 the maggot first appeared among 

 my onions, almost entirely destroying the crop, 

 which led me the following year to test many of 

 the modes recommended by agricultural journals 

 for protecting the same. All these plans proved 

 abortive. The next year new experiments were 

 tried, among which was freeing the ground of in- 

 sects by great fermentation, but this also failed of 

 success. A small crop was raised the subsequent 

 year on rockweed, well decomposed, mixed with 

 soil from an upland pasture. At that time, as none 

 of my neighbors could succeed in the least, I im- 

 agined I had discovered the "secret," and presumed 

 that a saline manure was all that was required to 

 prevent injury from maggots, but in this I was mis- 

 taken, for the very next season the principal part 

 of the crop was destroyed by this pest. 



Speaking one day with a person who had witness- 

 ed a mode of raising onions pursued in Nantucket, 

 I was induced to try the following experiment, 

 which I found to succeed. I marked out my bed 

 the size I desired it, and threw out the soil to the 

 depth of eight or ten inches. I then filled in with 

 clam shells, which I then had levelled, and beat in- 

 to a solid bed with a heavy maul, then slightly 

 covered with rich soil, say less than one inch deep. 

 In this I planted the seed, and ever since have found 

 no difficulty in raising fine onions entirely free from 

 the maggot. 



The origin of the maggot I have spoken of be- 

 fore in another journal, but for the benefit of such 

 as are unacquainted therewith, I may repeat the 

 substance of what I then said. Almost invariably 

 where a plant droops, it will be found to contain 

 one or more maggots. Now by carefully removing 

 the earth around the plant, will be seen a small in- 

 sect, which will run from one lump of dirt to anoth- 

 er, making great exertions to secrete itself, which 

 if allowed to do, it will work its way deep into the 

 soil, but if not permitted to hide, will fly away. This 

 insect unquestionably deposits its egg in the envel- 

 ope of the stock, just under the surface of the 

 ground, and next to the bulb, where it soon starts 

 into life, and eating into the interior of the plant, 

 works its destruction. This pest will not assail the 

 plants where the fly cannot penetrate easily into 

 the earth. Old Orchard. 



Maine, April 13th, 1857. 



Ei^ Twenty-six persons left New Bedford on 

 Monday, for the West, for the purpose of making a 

 permanent residence. Eighteen of the emigrants 

 were from the town of Rochester. 



