20 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



August 6, 1830. 



INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



It can never be too strongly imjiressed upon a muid 

 anxious for the acquisition of knowledge, that the 

 commonest things by which we are surrounded are 

 deserving of minute and careful attention. The 

 most profound investigations of Philosophy are ne- 

 cessarily connected with the ordinary circumstances 

 of our being, and of the world in which our every-day 

 life is spent. 



This is peculiarly applicable to the economy ot 

 insects. They constitute a very large and interest- 

 ing part of the animal kingdom. They are every- 

 where about us. The spider weaves his curious web 

 in our houses; the caterpillar constructs his silken 

 cell in our gardens ; the wasp that hovers over our 

 food has a nest not far removed from us, which she 

 has assisted to build with the nicest art; the beetle 

 that crawls across our path is also an ingenious me- 

 chanic, and has some curious instincts to exhibit to 

 those who will feel an interest in watching his move- 

 ments ; and tlie moth that cats into our cloths has 

 something to plead for our pity, for he came, like us, 

 naked into the world, and he has destroyed our gar- 

 ments, not in malice or wantonness, but that he may 

 clothe himself with the same wool which wc have 



with our own eyes. Want of leisure, and probably | tries sweep away whole villages, with as much cer- 

 want of knowledge, have prevented us from follow- tainty as a fire or an inundation ; and ships even have 

 ing up the curiosity which for a moment was e.xcited. been destroyed by these indefatigable republics 



And yet some such accident has made men Natural 

 ists, in the highest meaning of the term. Bonnet, 

 evidently speaking of himself, says, ' 1 knew a Nat- 

 uralist, who, when he was seventeen years of age, 

 having heard of the operations of the ant-lion, began 

 by doubting them. He had no rest till he had ex- 

 amined into them ; and he verified them, he admired 

 them, he discovered new facts, and soon became the 

 disciple and the friend of the Pliny of France'* 

 (Reaumur.) 



An accurate knowledge of the properties of in- 

 sects is of great importance to man, merely with 

 relation to his own comfort and security. The injur- 

 ies which they inflict upon us are extensive and 

 complicated ; and the remedies which we attempt, 

 by the destruction of those creatures, both insects, 

 birds, and quadrupeds, who keep the ravagers in 

 check, are generally aggravations of the evil, be- 

 cause they are directed by an ignorance of the econ- 

 omy of nature. I'he little knowledge which we 

 have of the modes by which insects may be impeded 

 in their destruction of much that is valuable to us, 

 las probably proceeded from our contempt of theii 



Our own docks and embankments have been threat- 

 ened by such minute ravagers. 



[To be concluded next week.] 



stripped from the sheep. An observation of the hab- i . ,.-.., „„ 



its of these little creatures is full of valuable lessons, ' individual insigmficance. The security ot property 

 which the abundance of the examples has no ten- 1 has "ased to be endangered by quadrupeds of prey, 

 dency to diminish. The more such observations are and yet our gardens are ravaged by aphides and cat 

 multiplied, the more are we led forward to the | crpiHars. It is somewhat starthng to affirm that the 



.iplii 

 freshest and the most delightful parts of knowledge ; 

 the more do we learn to estimate rightly the extra- 

 ordinary provisions and most abundant resources of 

 a creative Providence ; and the better do we appre- 

 ciate our own relations with all the infinite varie- 

 ties of Nature, and our dependence, in common with 

 theephemeron that flutters its little hour in the sum- 

 mer sun, upon that Being in whose scheme of exist- 

 ence the humblest as weU as the highest creature 

 has its destined purposes. 'If you speak of a stone,' 

 says St Basil, one of the Fathers of the Church, ' if 

 you speak of a fly, a gnat, or a bee, your conversa- 

 tion will be a sort of demonstration of His power 

 whose hand formed them ; for the wisdom of the 

 workman is commonly perceived in that which is of 

 little size. He who has stretched out the heavens, 

 and dug up the bottom of the sea, is also He who has 

 pierced a passage through the sting of the bee for 

 the ejection of its poison.' 



As a proof of the extraordinary number of insects 

 within a limited field of observation, Mr Stephens 

 informs us, that in the short space of forty days, be- 

 tween the middle of June and the beginning of Au- 

 gust, he found, in the vicinity of Ripley, specimens 

 of above two thousand four hundred species of in- 

 sects, exclusive of caterpillars and grubs, — a number 

 amounting to nearly a fourth of the insects ascertain- 

 ed to be indigenous. He further tells us, that 

 among these specimens, although the ground had, 

 in former seasons, been frequently explored, there 

 were about one hundred species altogether new, 

 and not before in any collection which he had in- 

 spected, including several new genera; while many 

 insects reputed scarce were in considerable plenty. * 

 There is, perhaps, no situation in which the lover 

 of nature and the observer of animal life may not 

 find opportunities for increasing his store of facts. 

 It is told of a state prisoner under a cruel and rig- 

 orous despotism, that when he was e.xcluded from all 

 commerce with mankind, and was shut out from 

 books, he took an interest and found consolation in 

 the visits of a spider; and there is no improbability 

 in the story. The operations of that persecuted crea- 

 ture are among the most extraordinary exhibitions of 

 mechanical ingenuity ; and a dady watching of the 

 workings of its instinct would beget admiration in a 

 lightly constituted mind. The poor prisoner had 

 abundant leisure for the speculations in which the 

 spider's web would enchain his understanding. We 

 have all of us at one period or other of our lives, 

 been struck with some singular evidence of contri- 

 vance in the economy of insects, which we have seen 



* Stephen's Illustrations, vol. i., p. 72, note. 



condition of the human race is seriously injured by 

 these petty annoyances ; but it is perfectly true that 

 the art and industry of man have not yet been able to 

 overcome the collective force, the individual perse- 

 verance, and the complicated machinery of destruc- 

 tion which insects employ. A small ant, according 

 to a most careful and philosophical observer, opposes 

 almost invincible obstacles to the progress of civiliza- 

 tion in many parts of the equinoctial zone. These 

 animals devour paper and parchment ; they destroy 

 every book and manuscript. Many provinces of 

 Spanish America cannot, in consequence, show a 

 written document of a hundred years existence. 

 ' What developement,' he adds, ' can the civilization 

 of a people assume, if there be nothing to connect 

 the present with the past — if the depositories of hu- 

 man knowledge must be constantly renewed — if the 

 monuments of geuius and wisdom cannot be trans- 

 mitted to posterity ? ' f Again, there are beetles 



TOMATOES. 



Some late paper contains a paragraph in praise of 

 the tomato, one of the very best plants for the table, 

 and in daily use, when in season, over all parts of the 

 country, but New England. It has not won its way 

 to public favor according to its merits, though this 

 may be said of a great many men and things. It 

 takes a long time for the public to discovei a good 

 thing, and appropriate it. The tomato is easily raised, 

 and may be had from the vine for more than a quarter 

 of a year. Tlie fruit is so rich in appearance that it 

 should be cultivated if only for ornament. — Tribune, 



ICE HOUSES. 



Ill the city, people must purchase their ice, but 

 there is little excuse for a good farmer who has no 

 ice house. The Dutch in Pennsylvania, living in a 

 limestone district, where the springs gush from the 

 surface, have generally a little dairy house erected 

 over one of these, well knowing the advantage of 

 keeping milk cool in summer. Two men may con- 

 struct an ice house in two days in autumn ; for it is 

 nothing but a cellar and a garret, or a roof built over 

 a cellar; and the roof even may be substituted by a 

 quantity of hay thrown upon bars. 



The saving in a year v/ill exceed the expense, 

 and the amount of comforts would be cheaply pur- 

 chased at a higher rate. Fresh provisions may be 

 preserved in ice a long time, and taken out in a better 

 state to be eaten, than when put in. Butter in such 

 weather as we have lately had, unless kept with ice, 

 must be eaten with a spoon instead of a knife, and 

 how mucli better is fruit when it is cold .' 



Many men, would expend ten dollars in buying a 

 secret to preserve provisions fresh in hot weather, 

 and believe in it because they comprehend it not — 

 who yet neglect the safe, obvious, and cheap resource 

 of ice houses — Ibid. 



Potato Cheese. — In Thuringia and part of Sax- 

 ony, a kind of potato cheese is made which is very 

 much sought after. The following is the recipe: 

 which deposit their larvte in trees, in sucli formidable I select good white potatos, boil them, and when cold, 

 numbers, that whole forests perish, beyond the power ! peel and reduce them to a pulp with a rasp or mor- 

 of remedy. The pines of the Hartz have thus been ' tar ; to five pounds of this pulp which must be very 

 destroyed to an enormous extent; and in North Amer- 1 uniform and homogeneous, add a pint of sour milk 

 ica, at one place in South Carolina, at least ninety jand the requisite portion of salt; — knead the whole 

 trees in every hundred, upon a tract of two thousand well, cover it, and let it remain three or four days, 

 acres, were swept away by a small, black, winged , according to the season; — then knead it afresh, and 

 bug. And yet, according to Wilson, the historian of I place the cheeses in small baskets, when they will 

 American birds, the people of the United States 1 part with their superfluous moisture ; — dry them in 

 were in the habit of destroying the red-headed ! the shade, and place them in layers in large pots or 



woodpecker, the great enemy of these insects, be 

 cause he occasionally spoilt an apple. The same 

 delightful writer, and true naturalist, speaking of 

 the labors of the ivory-billed wood-pecker, says, 

 ' would it be believed that the larva; of an insect, or 

 fly, no larger than a grain of rice, should silently, 

 and in one season, destroy some thousand acres of 

 pine trees, many of them from two to three feet in 

 diameter, and a hundred and fifty feet high ? in some 

 places the whole woods, as far as you can see around 

 you. are dead, stripped of the bark, their wintry-look- 

 ing arms and bare trunks bleaching in the sun, and 

 tumbling in ruins before every blast.' The subter- 

 raneous larva of a species of beetle has often caused 

 a complete failure of the seed corn, as in the district 

 of Halle in 1812. The corn-weevil, which extracts 



kegs, where they may remain a fortnight. The 

 older they are the finer they become. 



This cheese has the advantage of never engender- 

 ing worms and of being preserved fresh for many 

 years, provided it is kept in a dry place, and in well 

 closed vess els. — Bull. Univ. 



Flesh of young Calves. — By a municipal law in 

 Pari.s, it is forbidden to expose for sale the moat of 

 calves less than six weeks old. The great profit 

 arising from the sale of milk furnishes an induce- 

 ment to the violation of this law. Many thousands 

 of cows are kepi and fed in cellars, within the walls 

 of Paris for the sale of the milk, and unless a cow 

 yields a calf about once a year, she is less profitable. 



The prohibition of the sale of very young calves, 



the flour from grain, leaving the husk behind, will I is deemed of great importance to public health. At 

 destroy tlie contents of the largest storehouses in a ! less than a month old, the flesh ot the call is not 

 very short period. The wire-worm, and the turnip- even gelatine, but a viscid and glutinous juice, con- 

 fly, are dreaded by every farmer. Theravagesofthe taining very little fibrine, (which is an animal sub- 

 locust arc too well known not to be at once recollect- stance essentially nutritious,) still less ozmazome, a 

 ed, as an example of the formidable collective power ! principle exciting to the digestive organs. Hence 

 of the insect race. The white ants of tropical coun- ! there are few stomachs capable of supporting sucU 



— Conte-mplationdela-Nature:7artir^hr42: food; and were it digestible it would strengthen 



t Humboldt, Voyage, lib. vii., ch. 20. 1 and nourish the body very badly. 



