AND IIOUTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



379 



food, from c.-uly spiiu!,' until tlie middle of June, 

 consists of insects. Mr IJradley, in his General 

 Treatise on Husbandry !ind Gardening, states, that 

 a jwir of S|)arrows, during the time they have 

 their young ones to feed, destroy, every week, 

 ahout 3,360 caterpillars. 



Toads, also, feed exclusively on insects ; I have, 

 therefore, for fifteen years treated them kindly, and 

 never allowed one to be killed in my garden ; and 

 when the canker worms were at work, they placed 

 themselves under the trees to catch all that fell, 

 while the sparrows, robins, Port Royals, yellow, 

 blue, cat, and banging bird*, and numerous others, 

 were waging war upon those which were on the 

 leaves. We should be willing to re[)ay th« birds 

 for their distinguished services and cheering songs, 

 with the few berries and cherries they may be dis- 

 posed to take, for they are richly entitled to a lib- 

 ei-al share. 



I present for inspection some of the canker 

 worm eggs, which were laid last autumn and this 

 spring. 



^"'"/^Jlrisao. 1 H. A. S. DEARBORN. 



will fade at lh>t, but in a short time they will re- 

 sume their natural tint, and remain permanently 

 fi.\ed. 



FOn THE NKW ENGI.ANl' 



ON PRESERVING SPECIMENS FOR NATURAL HISTORY- 



Mr Editor — I noticed an article in a late num- 

 ber of the New England Farmer, on preserving 

 Birds. I have tried the following mode, and think 

 it preferable. 



METHOD OF preserving BIRDS, BEASTS, FISHES, &C, 



Beasts. — Large beasts should he carefully skin- 

 ned, with the horns, skulls, jaws, tails, and feet, 

 left entire ; the skins may then be cither put into 

 a vcs.sel of spirit, or else rubbed well on the insi le 

 will) the mixture of salt, pepper, and alluiB, here- 

 after mentioned, and hung to dry. Small beasts 

 may be put into a cask of rum, or any other spirit. 

 Birds. — Large birds may be treated as large 

 beasts, but must not be put in spirils. Small birds 

 ■nay be preserved in the following manner : — Take 

 nit the entrails, open a passage to the brains, 

 which should be scooped out through the mouth ; 

 introduce into the cavities of the skull and the 

 vvliole body, some of the mixture of salt, allum, 

 and pepper, putting some through the gullet and 

 w hole length of the neck ; then hang the birds in 

 ii cool airy place, first by the feet, that the body 

 :ii;iy be impregnated by the salt, and afterwards by 

 I thread through the under mandible of the bill, 

 rill it appears to be sweet, then hang it in the sun, 

 jr over a fire ; aftn- it is well dried, clean out 

 A hat remains loose of the mixtm-e, and fill the 

 avity of the body with wool, oakum, or any soft 

 -iihslance, and pack it smooth in paper. 



Fishes, Sfc. — Large fishes should be opened in 

 Jic belly, the entrails taken out, and the inside 

 .veil rubbed with pepper, and stuffed with oakum. 

 Small fishes, reptiles, and insects, should be put in 

 spirits. Butterflies, moths, and any insects of fijie 

 colors, should be pinned down in a box, or on a 

 board, with the wings expanded. 



The following mixture is proper for the preser- 

 vation of birds and beasts : — One pound of salt, 

 four ounces of allum, and two ounces of pepper, 

 powdered together. 



TO PRESERVE THE NATURAL COLOR IN THE PETALS 

 OF DRIED FLOWERS. 



Nothing more is necessary than to immerse the 

 petals for some minutes in alcohol. The colors 



MILDEW ON GOOSEBERRIES. 



Ma Editor — At much expense and trouble, I 

 have procured from Mr Russell's Seed Store, and 

 also imported from Scotland, Lancashire, and Hol- 

 land, a beautiful assortment of immensely large 

 Gooseberries. The bushes are nov/ loaded with 

 large fruit, but to my great mortification they are 

 <-overed with what 1 suppose to be mildeto, and 

 look as if they had been dipped in molted lead, or 

 rather they are the color of old sheet lead. Per- 

 haps some of the agricultural or more properly 

 Horticultural Gentlemen, with whom you have 

 much intercourse, could inform you of a remedy 

 against this evil, but if not, I wish you would state 

 the case in the New England Farmer Newspaper, 

 which appears to be the channel of asking and 

 receiving such information. I should, perhap.», 

 state that my Garden was originally a sand bank, 

 but I have put much clay and compost to it ; still 

 it may yet partake too much of sand for the Goose- 

 berry. We often have heavy fogs here, from our 

 river, in the si)ring, and perhaps this fresh water 

 fog may be one, if not the sole cause of my mis- 

 fortune. We have sea fog, also, but that 1 know 

 does not hurt fruit of any kind, for at Newfound- 

 land, the head quarters of salt water fog, and 

 where I resided twelve years, I had Scotch Goose- 

 berries nearly as large as English Walnuts. 



The Grapes you sent me are all doing well, and 

 are called three years old ; in that case should the 

 wood they make this year be pruned next fall as 

 three years old wood, or should it be treated as one 

 year old wood in pruning, according to Wilson's 

 plan ; who, I think, gives the simplest and clear- 

 est mode of treating the Vine, I have yet had, and 

 I have five authors on the subject. 



Your Friend and humble Sen'ant, 



JOHN HOUSTON. 



Exeter, A*. H. June 16, 1830. 



Remarks by the Editor. — We are assured by hor- 

 ticulturists iu this vicinity, that the remedy for 

 mildew in grapes, given page 358, of our current 

 volume, will be effectual for mildew in gooseber- 

 ries. It is recommended, however, by a friend in 

 Charlestown,who has a practical knowledge of the 

 effects of applications of this kind, that the solu- 

 tion be not too strong, lest it injure the foliage of 

 the shrub. We wish that lime water and sulphur 

 may be tried, but think some care should be used 

 not to make the liquid too strong. The proper 

 degree of strength could be ascertained, by first 

 trying the ex]M;riment on a single branch. 



From tlie St John, N. B. City Gazette. 



IMPORTATION OF PIGS. 



The New Brunswick Agricultural and Emigrant 

 Society, have imported in the Bethiah, from J. B. 

 Russell's Seed Store, Boston, 24 pigs, of the 

 breed called JVewbnry ffhiles. Twelve of which 

 have been sent to Fredericton, where they will be 

 sold, the remaining twelve, will be sold at auction 

 in this city on Tuesday next, at 12 o'clock. 



The object of the Society in making this impor- 

 tation, is, to introduce the before named valuable 

 breed of pigs, and to improve that species of stock, 

 throughout the Province ; the sale of those ani- 

 mals should therefore be considered as an object 

 of public importance, and is deserving the atten- 



tion of such persons, as intend raising pork for the 

 market, or for their own use. 



These pigs have been selected with care, under 

 the superintendence of the Secretary of the Mas- 

 sachusetts Agricultural Society, and another gen- 

 tleman,* a most intelligent and succe.ssful breeder, 

 and noted for his superior skill and judgment, in 

 that sjiecies of stock. The following is a descrip- 

 tion of the points upon which the pigs were se- 

 lected, viz : — small short heads, full eyes, ears jjoin- 

 ted, not too long and falling towards the nose, long 

 bodies, barrels round, straight barks, wide across the 

 shoidders and hips, straight limbs, and small tails. 



General Coffin, also, has imported in the Be- 

 thiah, a fine male pig of the sariie breed, (Newbu- 

 ry Whites,) and a bull fourteen months old, of the 

 native New England Breed, improved. The color 

 of the latter is a deep red, and be is described as 

 being a beautiful animal with excellent points. 



[*Col. Jaques.] 



ff'ool. — We have heard of the sale at the Fac- 

 tories of several lots of wool, from Worthington, 

 Chester, Middlefield, Westhampton, &c. The 

 prices obtained, as reported to us, were for full 

 blooded merino, 47 to 50 cents (some was sold at 

 Oxford for 51 cts. ;) full blood and grade together, 

 40 to 44 cents; grade 37 to 40 cents; inferior 

 grade 34 cents. These prices are from 6 to 10 

 cents per pound higher than those of last year. — 

 Hampshire Gazette. 



A prof table coic. — H. G. Newcomb, Esq. of this 

 village, has a cow which he has owned nine years, 

 she is now eleven or twelve years old — is of a 

 bright red color, above the common size, well 

 shaped, small head, short horns, neck and legs — 

 always healthy, hearty and in good flesh ; is gen- 

 tle, easy to milk, gives a large quantity and of 

 the best quality, — has usually been kept on hay 

 seven months in a year. 



From the 27th of March last to the 25th of 

 May, was made from her milk, 100 lbs. of butter 

 of the best quality for table use ; during the same 

 time, 160 quarts were disposed of, for family use, 

 from which no cream was taken. Her feed was 

 the best of hay (excepting the last week, when 

 she was in the pasture) together with a small 

 quantity, daily, of Indian meal and rye bran, less 

 than four bushels in all — a few boiled ];otatoes, 

 and slops from the house, which she always drank 

 with a good relish. She was milked three times 

 a day, except the last week. Butter churned 

 twice a week and tlie butter milk well worked 

 out before weighed. 



Her milk the last fourteen days, produced 29 

 lbs. and 3 oz. of butter. — Greenfield Gaz. 



Effects of frost in ripening Grain,Sfc. — It is be- 

 lieved in Scotland that even the frosty nights of 

 autumn contribute to ripen the late crops in that 

 inclement climate, which some have ascribed to 

 the moonlight, but what I have indeed suspected, 

 that the frost may in some measure effect, by con- 

 verting the mucilage of the grain sooner into starch. 

 This I was induced to imagine by having observed 

 that book-binders' paste, made by boiling wheat 

 flour in water, lost its adhesion after having been 

 frozen ; and also from a culinary observation, that 

 when ice or snow is mixed with flour instead of 

 water in making pancakes that it much improves 

 them, the truth of which I have heard boldly as- 

 serted, but never witnessed the experiment. — Dar- 

 wi;i's Phytologia. 



