FARMERS' REGISTER— DRY ROT— INSECTS. 



695 



That as they admit of greater breadth of tire Ihan 

 other carriages, and as the roads are not acted on 

 so injuriously as by the feet of horses in common 

 draught, such carriages will cause less \vea)» of 

 roads than coaches (Irawn by horses. 9. That 

 rates of toll have been imposed on steam-carriages 

 which would prohibit their being used on several 

 lines of road, were such charges permitted to re- 

 main unaltered. 



DRY KOT. 



By a Correspondent of the Uitited Service Journal. 



An officer of the navy, now dead, was infoi-med 

 by the Rev. G. Williams, of Rhicolas, in North 

 Wales, that it had been found from long experience, 

 that the water in the reservoirs for supplying the 

 precipitate pits at the co|)per-mine works at Par- 

 ry's mountain in Anglesea, has the property of 

 preserving timber from decay and dry-rot in a sur- 

 prising manner, by the sliort process of steeping it 

 therein a few weeks only, and that it has such a 

 powerful effect in hardening the v.ood, as to blunt 

 the sharpest tools. It, consecjuently, is found ne- 

 cessary to shape and fit the wood completely for 

 the use intended, before it is put into this water for 

 seasoning. 



The water at Parry's mine is impregnated w ith 

 copper, sulphuric and vitriolic acids. It is pre- 

 served in large reservoirs i()r supplying the preci- 

 pitate pits, which are filled with old iron that 

 attracts the copper from the water. 



It appears that the farmers, when they find their 

 timbei- for agricultural purposes too green for im- 

 mediate use, steep it for a few days in tlwj copper- 

 water, which has the power of extracting the sap, 

 and fitting it for use properly seasoned. 



I understand that a complete transmutation takes 

 place in the iron, it gradually becomes incrusted 

 with the copper, whilst at the same time the acids 

 act as a corrodent; so that a piece of iron thrown 

 in, after a certain time, comes out copper, but whe- 

 ther weight for weight, or size for size, I do not 

 recollect. 



The Admiralty, I believe, are in possession of 

 this information ; if, however, the present method 

 of immersing ships and timber in sea-water is suc- 

 cessful in curing or preventing the dry rot, we 

 certainly cannot obtain a more easv or cheap 

 method for gaining the desired end. The compo- 

 nent parts of sea-water, common salt, marine mag- 

 nesia, and salenite, are very dissimilar to those of 

 the mineral waters of Parry's mine, and it will be 

 curious if both, nevertheless, produce the same 

 effect upon wood. 



INSECTS. 



From Jesse's Gleanings in Natural Ilistoi-y. 

 "I will say a few words on winijed insects, wliich, in 

 " their origin and metamorphoses, offer the most extra- 

 " ordinary known miracles perliajis of terrestrial na- 

 " tures." SALjio.viA. 



A lover of natural history cannot I think be a 

 bad man, as the very study of it tends to promote 

 a calmness and serenity of mind favorable to the 

 reception of grateful and holy thoughts of the great 

 and good Parent of the Universe. He cannot lie a 

 cruel man, because he will be unwilling wantonly 

 to destroy even an insect, when he perceives how 

 exquisitely each of them is contrived, and how 



curiously it is made for the station it is destined to 

 fill in the animal world. Few things have atlbrded 

 me greater pleasure than watching the wonderful 

 instinct which induces insects to watch over and 

 protect their off'spring. An instanceof thisoccur- 

 red under my own observation in the case of a 

 sand-wasp. This animal was observed to fly 

 backwards and forwards very frequently from the 

 side of a window to a gravel walk near it. After 

 some time it was perceived that she collected the 

 finest particles of sand from the walk, with which, 

 under a projection of the w indow, she formed a 

 cell. When the cell was completed she flew to a 

 neighboring bush, from whence she selected a little 

 green caterpillar, which with some difficulty she 

 contrived to force into the cell. Having next de- 

 posited an egg on the caterpillar, she covered over 

 the lop of the cell with a sort of paste made of fine 

 sand, sloping it so that no rain could rest upon it. 

 In this manner, four different cells were completed. 

 After a lapse of some time the young Avasps eman- 

 cipated themselves and disappeared. There seems 

 no reason to doubt but that the caterpillars which 

 were so curiously introduced into the cells served 

 not only to i)rotect the young brood from too much 

 heat or cold, which they would have been subject 

 to, had they merely been depositetl at the bottom of 

 an empty cell, but also for food, fill they were ca- 

 pable of extricating themselves from their state of 

 confinement. 



Another insect also of the sphcx genus will dig 

 a hole in sandy ground, drag a large spider, or the 

 caterpillar of a p/ialccna, into it — lame it by biting 

 oft" its legs — and then lay an egg in each hole ; so 

 that the larvee may suck out the spinning-fluid of 

 the animal which the mother has buried, and in 

 that way prepare itself a habitation in which to 

 pass through its metamorphosis.* 



The following remarks on insects are selected 

 from Blumenbacii's Elements of Natural History, 

 and may interest those who have not had access to 

 his works. 



"It has been calculated that the abdomen of the 

 " female white ant, when about to lay her eggs, is 

 " two thousand tmies larger than previous to im- 

 " pregnation. She can lay eighty thousand eggs 

 " within twenty-four hours. Insects which under- 

 " go metamorphosis are called larvae, whilst in 

 " this state in which they escape from the egg. 

 " They are mostly very small on their first a])pear- 

 " ance, so that a lull -grown caterpillar of the wil- 

 " low-moth, for instance, is seventy-two thousand 

 " times heavier than when it issues from the egg. 

 " On the other hand, they grow with great rapidity, 

 " so that the maggot of the meat-fly, at the end of 

 "twenty-four hours, is one hundred and fifty-five 

 " times heavier than at its birth. 



" The carrion-beetle (vespillo) scents from a 

 " distance the bodies of small animals, as moles, 

 " frogs, &c. and buries them under ground for the 

 " purpose of depositing its eggs. Six of them will 

 " bury a mole a foot deep in less than four hours. 



" The eyes of insects are of two kinds : the first 

 " are large hemispheres, mostly composed of thou- 

 " sands of facets, but in some instances of nume- 

 " rous conical points, and covered on the inner 

 " surface with a layer sometimes glittering, some- 

 " times variegated. Those of the second kind are 

 "simple, small and vary as well in number as 



* Blumenbacli. 



