122 



St. John's Wort. 



Vol. VIII. 



60° F., and an average quality of pure 

 Orange county milk during the months of 

 May, June, July, and August, of the same 

 temperature. By mixing the milk and wa- 

 ter in equal proportions, and of a tempera- 

 ture as above, the instrument will stand at 

 50°; when mixed in a proportion of one 

 fourth milk and three fourths water, it will 

 stand at 25°, which will indicate that the 

 mixture contains 25 per cent, of milk, and 

 75 per cent, of water, and so on with other 

 proportions. 



How to use the instrument. — Fill the tin 

 tube which accompanies the instrument, 

 with a portion of the milk to be tested, and 

 warm or cool it to a temperature of 60° F. 

 Suspend the lactometer in the milk, and 

 note the degree on the scale of the instru- 

 ment, which is nearest the surface ; and the 

 number corresponding thereto, will indicate 

 the per cent, of pure milk that the liquid 

 contains. 



This instrument was invented by Mr 

 Frye, at the special request of the board of 

 Agriculture of the American Institute, and 

 has received their strongest commendation. 



D. J. B. 



St. John's Wort. 



A WRITER in the Farmers' Cabinet, p. 83, 

 refers to the disappearance of this troublesome 

 weed, within a few years, from the clover 

 fields of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. If 

 it be a fact that the St. John's Wort has dis- 

 appeared faster than care and tillage would 

 explain, it is curious, and is to be accounted 

 for by attributing to the seasons an influence 

 deleterious to the plant. There are modi- 

 fications of temperature, moisture, and 

 drought, and other incidents of climate, 

 which we cannot trace, and yet which de- 

 termine the growth and maturation of many 

 plants. Seasons that do not diflfer sensibly 

 in any prominent features, exhibit a marked 

 difference of influence on the growth of cer- 

 tain kinds of vegetation. Our crops of grain, 

 vegetables, and fruit, are greatly controlled 

 by these hitherto unexplained, and perhaps 

 inexplicable causes. The flower garden 

 also shows it, in the remarkable luxuriance 

 of certain flowers, and the abortion of others, 

 which occur in one year, and the inversion 

 of this order in another year. The botanist 

 is accustomed to find, every year, certain 

 species of plants in comparative abundance, 

 which are hardly seen again for a long time. 

 Every season has its unseen adaptations to 

 particular forms of vegetation. Diseases 

 sometimes also invade certain families of 

 plants. Within a few years past, our fine 

 Buttonwood has been severely visited in the 



Atlantic States, by a disease perhaps pro- 

 duced by insects or animalcules, which 

 threatens its extermination, and from which 

 many of these majestic old trees will never 

 recover, even if the younger ones should 

 survive and again flourish. 



The Morelio cherry-tree has been almost 

 exterminated by an insect which burrows in 

 the small branches, and covers it with knotty 

 excrescences. The peach, as is well known, 

 is subject to a disease of the leaf, called the 

 yellows, which is in all probability occa- 

 sioned by a microscopic insect, and which 

 effectually prevents the cultivation of this 

 delicious fruit, in many districts of country 

 where it once flourished. The diseases of 

 plants are exhibited in a manner still more 

 striking, when they attack particular varie- 

 ties of a species, and not others. Our apples, 

 for instance, all belong to the same species, 

 and the varieties aie propagated bygraft;ing. 

 In parts of Delaware and Pennsylvania, the 

 Grey-house apple-trees have become subject 

 to a disease which renders them short-lived, 

 and will probably destroy them. The Grey- 

 house apples are only cultivated for cider, 

 and the loss of them is not worth deploring. 

 They have failed only since the advent of 

 the temperance reform. The Cart-house 

 apple has become knotty, and almost good 

 for nothing, for six or eight years, probably 

 owing to disease of the tree. Some old va- 

 rieties of apples have entirely run out from 

 a similar cause. The Virginia thorn, valu- 

 able in former years for hedging, has become 

 almost worthless in many sections of coun- 

 try, in consequence of a disease which af- 

 fects the leaf, as in the peach. Some of the 

 most beautiful hedges in the neighbourhood 

 of Wilmington, are completely destroyed by 

 them. The quince-tree is also nearly killed 

 out. The gooseberry has greatly degene- 

 rated. The native Flowering Locust can- 

 not be raised in some places where it once 

 thrived, in consequence of a worm that de- 

 vours the wood at the axils of the branches, 

 so that the wind breaks off' the lin)bs. The 

 Athenian Poplar is subject to a similar evil. 

 The Lombardy Poplar is decaying. The 

 Linden trees in the streets of Philadelphia, 

 are also becoming short lived. 



There might be much more written on 

 this subject, which, we hope, will claim the 

 notice of scientific observers. — Temperance 

 Standard. 



Dutch wives generally assist their hus- 

 bands in their business, often taking the 

 most active share in it ; and it is a common 

 remark in Holland, that where the women 

 have the direction of the purse and trade, 

 the husbands seldom become bankrupts. 



