No, 6. 



Birds and Insects. 



187 



not concave. We are careful not to hoe 

 while the plants are very younn^, (or if a 

 storm should occur shortly after the operation 

 has been performed, the hills soak in ton 

 much water, which is injurious. Ten or 

 twelve days after the first hoeing, the plants 

 (if pood,) are thimied to si.\ or eijjht in a hill, 

 leaving: the lar<rest ones, and if po.ssi hie three 

 or four inches apart. About eighteen days 

 after the first hoeinn", or about the time 

 when simple blossoms open, we run a one- 

 liorsc plough twice through a row each way, 

 (if the ground is hard, three times,) throwing 

 the furrow from the hills, and then commence 

 the second hoeing, which is performed in the 

 same manner as the first, care being taken 

 not to earth up higher than the seed leaves, 

 and to scrape out the crust between the 

 plants, if the ground is hard or covered with 

 weeds: they are, also, if the plants are fair, 

 thinned down to five in a hill. 



When the vines e.\tend so that single ones 

 meet each other between the hills, to prevent 

 injury, they are carefully laid aside by hand, 

 or with a short stick, and the cultivator for 

 the last time is run once through a row each 

 way. They then receive the third and last 

 hoeing, the ground being loosened and drawn 

 up around the hills with the hoe, and broken 

 between the plants with the fingers. It is 

 customary to leave five plants in a hill, 

 standing from four to five inches apart, but 

 some reduce them to four: have tried no ex- 

 periment to test wiiich is the best. 



Cucumber vines will yield fruit about eight 

 weeks, and the fields are picked over at least 

 every second and sometimes every day. In 

 picking, a light stick with a cross-piece 

 framed to it so as to resemble the letter T, is 

 made use of to push the leaves aside and more 

 readily discover the fruit. 



The insects which trouble and destroy the 

 plants, are the black worm and striped bugs : 

 the first is apt to be numerous in ground 

 which was occupied the preceding year with 

 red clover ; they cut off the plants at or 

 above the surface in the night, and are gene- 

 rally hunted out early in the morning, when 

 their burrowing is fresh, and they lay near 

 the surface, until the ground is cleared of 

 them : the striped hug or yellow fly cats the 

 plants in the day time, and is sometimes very 

 destructive on land where a crust is formed 

 on the surface, which being raised up by the 

 young plants, affl)rds them a harbor. The 

 best remedy is, with the fingers to catch and 

 destroy them in the niornin<_r, when the dew 

 is on thorn and they are chilled, which pre- 

 vents their flying and escaping as freely as 

 when the sun has warmed them. Sandy 

 land, having no crust to shelter these pests, 

 is generally exempt from their depredations. 



We are acquainted with the system of ro- 



tation of crops, and it has been practised 

 among our iiirmers fi)r years, hut cucumbers 

 as well as some other vegetables, do not seem 

 to require it. I have a piece of about half an 

 acre, on which I have cultivated them for the 

 last ten successive years, ploughing in thw 

 usual quantity of street manure every second 

 year, and they have flourished as well as on 

 the adjoining groimd, which has been simi- 

 larly manured, and on which the crops have 

 been changed. 



The following is the quantity planted, pro- 

 duce, and amount of sales, for the last four 

 years, viz : 



During each of these years, large quanti- 

 ties of cuUings, and, when unsaleable, good 

 ones, were fed to the hogs and cattle, of 

 vi^hich no account was kept. — Cultivator. 



Narrows, L. I., October 26, 1839. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Birds aiid Inse<;ts. 



All species of birds that feed on grubs, 

 slugs, insects and worms, should be fostered 

 and protected as the best friends of the farmer 

 and the gardener; and children should be 

 early instructed in a knowledge of the bene- 

 fits derived from them in the protection of 

 grain, fruit and vegetables. They should be 

 taught to consider the persecution or de- 

 struction of them as injurious and disreputa- 

 ble, and only practised by the ignorant, the 

 cruel, and the vicious portion of our species. 



The instructive and interesting work of 

 Kirby and Spence on Entomology, is full of 

 valuable information on this subject, a small 

 portion of-which I extract for the use of your 

 young readers. 



"The wry-neck and the woodpecker, the 

 nuthatch and tree-creeper, (or sap sucker as 

 it is sometimes called,) live entirely upon in- 

 sects which they pick out of decayed trees, 

 and out of the bark of living ones. The 

 former also frequents grass-plats and ant 

 hills, into which it darts its long flexible 

 tongue, and so draws out its prey. The 

 woodpecker also draws insects out of their 

 holes by means of the same organ, which for 

 this purpose is bony at the end and barbed, 

 and furnished with a curious apparatus of 

 muscles to enable them to throw it forward 

 wiih great force. The same species spit the 

 insects on their tongue, and thus bring them 

 into their mouth. 



Many of the long-billed birds eat the larvaa 

 of insects as well as worms ; and they form 

 also no inconsiderable part of the food of our 

 domestic poultry, especially turkeys, which 



