368 



Locust years. — Urine of animals. — A Gem. Vol. VII. 



JLocust Years. 



Some discussion in regard to the exact 

 year in which the seventeen year locusts 

 make their appearance, is now going- on in 

 the various newspapers. A correspondent 

 of a Hartford paper, says that he well re- 

 members three locust years — 179:2, 1809 and 

 LS26, and states that he has learned from 

 his father, that 1758 and 1775 were locust 

 years also. There being 17 years between 

 all these dates, he concludes that 1843, 

 which completes another like period, will 

 bring a return of the insect named. In op- 

 position to this, a gentleman of Philadelphia 

 states, that he well remembers the locust 

 year in 1783, when, at the age often years, 

 he was taken by his father to " Lebanon 

 Garden," situated at the corner of Tenth 

 and South streets, and then some distance 

 from the city, where were thousands of lo- 

 custs and hundreds of people assembled to 

 see them. He also remembers their appear- 

 ance in 1800, 1817, and 1834, and has memo- 

 randums of all these periods. According to 

 this authority, the locusts will not again ap- 

 pear until 1851. Our own recollection is 

 distinct in regard to 1817, as also in regard 

 to 1834. In 1817, we remember that they 

 were so numerous, and the noise of their 

 sirlging so loud, that two persons walking 

 together in the woods and conversing, could 

 not hear each other speak, unless their 

 voices were raised to a very high pitch. 



Here are positive discrepancies between 

 two statements, both of which bear authen- 

 ticity upon their faces. How are they to be 

 reconciled \ Gideon B. Smith, of Baltimore, 

 (good authority by the way,) in a communi- 

 cation to the Baltimore Clipper, has put this 

 matter in a more " understandable" light. 

 He states, from actual observation, that lo- 

 custs appear every seventeen years, in cer- 

 tain districts of country, and in like periods 

 do not occur in corresponding years. But 

 his communication to the Clipper, will be 

 best understood, if given as we find it in 

 that paper. — Phil. Saturday Courier. 



THE SEVENTEEN YEAR LOCUSTS. 



Messrs. Editors, — Your account of the 

 seventeen year locusts, copied from the 

 Richmond Whig, sent me into my note 

 book, in which 1 find that this interesting 

 insect will appear during this month, in 

 Middlesex county, and the adjacent parts of 

 New Jersey, at Poughkeepsie, and adjacent 

 parts of New York and Massachusetts, and 

 in Fauquier county, and adjacent parts 

 south, in Virginia. I am under the impres- 

 .-iori, that the editor of the Richmond Whig 

 will be disappointed in their appearing in 



the neighbourhood of Richmond this year. 

 He shall be gratified however, in May, 

 1846, when the locust is to appear in Prince 

 George's county, and adjacent parts, em- 

 bracing, I expect, Henrico county, and of 

 course, Richmond city. If the locust does 

 not appear in the city of Richmond this 

 year, it will add another district to the list, 

 and I shall be much gratified if editors or 

 postmasters, in the place indicated, or in any 

 other place where they may appear this 

 year, will send me information of the fact. 

 I have now authentic proof of the existence 

 of sixteen districts, in which these locusts 

 appear respectively, every seventeen years, 

 and perfectly distinct, and disconnected from 

 each other. Gideon B. Smith. 



Urine of Animals. — "The quantity of 

 liquid manure produced by one cow annu- 

 ally, is equal to the fertilizing of one acre and 

 a quarter of land — a space by^far greater 

 than is sufficient for her support, on the soil- 

 ing system — producing effects as durable as 

 do the solid evacuations. A cord of loamy 

 earth saturated with this urine, is equal to a 

 cord of the best rotted dung. If the liquid, 

 and the solid evacuations, including the lit- 

 ter, are kept separate, and then, soaking up 

 the liquid with loamy earth, it has been 

 found they will manure land in proportion, 

 by bulk of seven liquid to six solid, while 

 their actual value is as two to one. It has 

 been calculated that 100 pounds of the 

 urine of cows afford 35 pounds of the most 

 powerful salts ever used by farmers. The 

 simple statement then in figures, of differ- 

 ence in value of the solid and liquid evacua- 

 tions of a cow, should impress upon all, the 

 importance of saving the last, even if it be 

 in preference to the first." 



A Gem. — Give us such boys as have been 

 blessed with the instructions of a pious mo- 

 ther. This qualification for which no sub- 

 stitute can be found on earth. Never would 

 we despair of the child who has been used 

 in his infancy, to hear the precepts of hea- 

 venly truth inculcated in the accents of ma- 

 ternal love. Truths thus distilled, live for- 

 ever in the memory. They are interwoven 

 with all the sensibilities of the soul. They 

 are the fortress of conscience, not impregna- 

 ble, it is true, but indestructible. They fur- 

 nish the mind with chords which, in later 

 life, seldom fail to vibrate to the touch of 

 faithful expostulation. They are as inex- 

 tinguishable sparks, which being seemingly 

 smothered under a heap of corruption, may 

 be fanned by the breath of friendly and spi- 

 ritual counsel, into the pure and genial flame 

 of piety. 





