1850. 



THE GENESEE FARMER, 



209 



DESTRUCTION OF INSECTS.-MOLES 



Messks. Editors : — One of the greatest misfortunes 

 to which mankind are subject, is the aversion to 

 study and observation — an unwillingness to abandon 

 old notions, and to learn from the experience of others. 

 We cleave to our prejudice's even when our judgment 

 is convinced that we are wrong. It is true, a spirit 

 of inquiry is awakened in some quarters, wliich augurs 

 a better state of things ; but it is equally true that 

 the spirit of prejudice is dominant throughout the 

 land, and is likely to continue, since those who most 

 need light are least willing to receive it. 



I have been led to these refJections from reading, 

 in the Rural New-Yorker, an article Cf\ the subject 

 of " Birds, Insects, Sic," (to which I propose to re- 

 ply as soon as I shall have learned the fate of this,) 

 and in the last number of the Farmer a few lines on 

 the subject of " Destructive Insects." Tlic mole I 

 have always considered an inofTensive animal. I 

 know he is sometimes accused of doing mischief, but 

 I have no positive evidence of it, although I have 

 been acquainted with him more or less, even from my 

 boyhood. My father never encouraged the killing 

 of the little black coats, although they sometimes 

 "plowed Ijis meadows;" for he observed that the 

 meadows did not appear to be injured by the opera- 

 tion, but rather benefited. 



I have read two short articles on the habits of the 

 mole. The one was in an English publication, and 

 is now mislaid. 1 will, however, give you the sub- 

 stance of it as I now recollect it. The writer re- 

 marks, that having a small piece of ground very 

 much infested by moles, he was induced to investi- 

 gate their habits. In the course of the investigation, 

 while digging up the ground, he discovered their 

 store-house. It consisted of a smooth cavity in the 

 earth, filled mostly with cut-tvorms which had been 

 stunned, but not killed, by being slightly wounded in 

 the back of the neck. Whether this was their win- 

 ter's store, or a supply for their young family, I do 

 not now recollect. I only remember the fact. 



The other article is also from an English writer, 

 and being rather longer than I wish, I will abridge 

 it, retaining the author's statements and, as far as 

 possible, his language. "Some ten years ago," says 

 the v,/riter, "when I commenced cultivating the little 

 land I now hold, it was full of wire- worms. My 

 crops were greatly injured by them, and in some 

 places entirely ruined. To remedy the evil, I en- 

 couraged moles and partridges on my land. Instead 

 of killing the moles, I bought all I could and turned 

 them cut in my fields, which were soon, one after 

 another, full of mole-hills, to the great amusement 

 of my neighbors. My fields became like a honey- 

 comb, even among my standing and ripening crops. 

 The worms in my grounds are now all destroyed, 

 and the moles, having nothing to eat, are obliged to 

 emigrate toother lands, and thus get bowstringed by 

 savage men whom they come to serve. The wire- 

 worm is the chief food of the mole. If you doubt it, 

 open the stomach of one, and see. It is a vulgar 

 error to suppose that they root up young corn — they 

 do not trouble it till the worm has first attacked it, 

 and then are blamed for the crime of another. All 

 sursmer partridges live upon insects, wire-worms,Sic.; 

 and consider how many millions a covey of them will 

 destroy in a single summer." The inference from such 

 facts is, that in consequence of our prejudices we are 

 often unjust to animals, at our own cost. H. 



'^nsvotvs to 3nqmric0. 



SOIENTIFIO FARMING. 



Mkssrs. Editors : — While perusing an article in your inter- 

 esting nnt! useful paper, headed, " A few Fncts about Plants, 

 Soils, and Animals," nn idea occurred to my mind, by which 

 you Would confer nn incalculiible benefit on one of your 

 readers, if not on all, by presenting in the columns of your 

 paper, a tabic showing the food necessary to the production 

 of Ilie different groins, grasses, and vegetables, cullivnted hy 

 furmors generally in this latitude. By food I mean the dif- 

 ferent elementary bodies used by tbo Creator in feeding and 

 forming vegetable and animal substances. The lime bag 

 arrived when it is as much a sin and disgrace for a farmer to 

 grow poor, sickly, spindling crops, as it is to have Ilia oui- 

 nials in such n deplorable condition ; and, for one, I want to 

 know what to feed my crops as wxil as I know bow to feed 

 my horses, cows, and sheep. It is but lately that I became 

 a reader of your valuable sheet ; but I would not do viith- 

 out the monthly feast that I draw from its pages for ten 

 times its cost. If you consider this request (for I will pre- 

 sent it as one) worthy of your attention, you will satisfy the 

 desire of nn inquirer nfter scientific knowledge, by preparing 

 a utlile as above spoken of. Hekrv D. Hubbs. — Carlton, 

 Orl. Co., A". K, July, 1850. 



Thk varied and profound science of agriculture is 

 not to be coinmunicated, nor learned so readily, as 

 our esteemed correspondent appears to believe quite 

 practicable. If he is familiar with the principles of 

 chemistry in its application to tillage and farm econ- 

 omy, he possesses great advantages for making rapid 

 progress in the useful art of feeding cultivated plants. 

 Rut if the language of chemistry, geology, vegetable 

 and animal physiology, is to him an unknown tongue, 

 it will be difficult for us to make him understand the 

 science of rural economy by any short-hand tables 

 which can be published. We will, however, do our 

 best to facilitate his study of a noble profession, 

 which embraces the most sublime truths in the min- 

 eral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. These king- 

 doms, in the providence of God, meet, mingle, and 

 blend harmoniously together, on the surface of our 

 planet, and not elsewhere above or below its surface. 



The matter which forms all rocks, soils, mold, 

 plants, animals, air, and water, is ever governed by 

 immutable laws. As our knowledge of these wise 

 and never-changing laws extends, our control over 

 the material elements that surround us, and feed and 

 clothe our bodies, increases in a geometrical ratio. 



Has IIf.nbk D. fully considered the fact that the 

 same sunshine, atmosphere, frost, rain, dew, and 

 snow, fall upon an acre of land that yields but six 

 bushels of corn per acre, as fall upon one which pro- 

 duces a crop of sixty biishels ? This is a fact of 

 great significance in the science of agriculture. It 

 admonishes the husbandman not to depend too much 

 on the resources of air, water, solar heat, and light; 

 while he should carefully avoid the opposite extreme, 

 in studying the pasture of cultivated plants. The 

 economical improvement of this pasture will be pro- 

 moted by investigating the origin of a rich vegetable 

 mold, the consumption of which is the first labor of a 

 thoughtless farmer, A good mold is one that abounds 

 in the elements of wheat, oats, pea?, and beans. It 

 difl'crs from poor mold in containing more nitrogen, 

 potash, phosphorus, and sulphur, than the latter pos- 

 sesses. The cheap production of a deep, rich soil, on 

 a surface naturally sterile, is the point aimed at by 

 our correspondent, when he talks about "the food of 

 grain, grass, roots," &,c. He delights in seeing fat 

 crops and generous harvests ; and the growing of 

 such is the true road to agricultural independence. 



